Forget the frights of Halloween. True terror for any movie studio is marketing a major theatrical release that’s anchored by little star power, a title easily confused with a rival’s similarly named release, and less-than-enthusiastic critics. Add to those bone-shivering facts a premiere set for the Halloween weekend (historically one of the worst dates for movie releases), and you’ve got a nightmare waiting to happen.
But Warner Brothers managed to shake off those obstacles for the launch of House On Haunted Hill, which last year became the biggest-ever Halloween release by raking in $15 million at the box office in its first weekend, surpassing the studio’s optimistic expectations by 59 percent. (The number two movie that weekend grossed a mere $6.5 million.)
Working with Los Angeles-based promo agency Simon Marketing, Warner Brothers hooked up with Blockbuster, Inc. for the chain’s first-ever in-store/in-theater promotion. The Are You Dying to Get Rich? effort made promotional history by being the first scratch-and-win game ever distributed at the box office. Gamecards containing key imagery from the film were distributed to every ticket buyer, and offered one chance to win $100,000, $20,000, and $10,000, 30 chances to win $1,000, and 300,000 opportunities to win Blockbuster rentals.
Blockbuster displayed House on Haunted Hill posters carrying the game message in all of its 4,000 U.S. stores. Warner Brothers bolstered awareness with movie trailers, tags on 15-second TV spots and all print ads, coverage on a dedicated Web site, and in-theater P-O-P. Joel Silver, the film’s producer, aided the cause by mentioning the game during personal appearances on such TV shows as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood. The entire effort was conducted on a budget of less than $500,000 that included the prize allocations.
Warner Bros. sweetened the pot for participating theaters by sharing the wealth, offering cash prizes and other merchandise to employees at the theaters that would ultimately give away the top three prizes. (Gamecards were available via mail, although requests were very low.)
In exit polls, 74 percent of ticket buyers said they were aware of the promotion and 35 percent said it tweaked their interest in seeing the movie. Online, 40 percent of visitors to the film’s promotional site said they came because of the game.
Blockbuster redeemed 12,564 rental prizes and gained more than 1,000 new members from the effort, which was the company’s first theatrical marketing partnership. “We managed to get synergy with exhibitors and the retailers to help our common goal,” says senior vp-product merchandising and promotion Curt Andrews. “The most impressive part of the campaign to us was the interaction it produced with the movie-goers.”
“The highlight of this campaign for us were the box-office results,” says Erin Corbett, Warner Brothers director of theatrical marketing. “Everyone thought the film would do well, but we were the biggest Halloween opening ever. Our own distribution department came over and said, `You guys really made the difference.'”
Teaming with Blockbuster provided necessary muscle. “We started talking to Blockbuster about a promotion without a theater component, and segued into this campaign,” says Corbett. “There’s not a lot of companies big enough to provide a million-dollar package.
“This is something that’s never really been done before, and it absolutely changed the box office,” continues Corbett. The promotion’s success will influence future Warner Bros. campaigns. “We will do a similar execution for the summer release of Battlefield Earth, although it will be different in theme and spirit,” says Corbett.
Hopefully, it will be similar in results.
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