Hollywood Comes to Twitter

Hollywood Comes to Twitter

Hollywood Comes to Twitter

Back in the "Golden Age" of Hollywood, promoting a motion picture was an exhausting task. Radio wasn't generally available until 1936, so each city had to be marketed individually. That meant countless newspaper and magazine ads, red carpet appearances at movie openings by the movie's stars, and whistle-stop promotional tours by the supporting actors. When radio arrived on the scene, movie marketing got easier for the studios: they simply bought air time on one of the three national networks.

"Buzz" about a movie was created primarily in local markets, where newspaper critics would review new studio offerings. It would take days, sometimes weeks, for a studio to assemble the box office totals for ticket sales, and it would be months before a movie could be considered a "hit" or a "flop".

The Twitter Effect

Recently, the gay-themed comedy "Bruno" starring actor Sacha Baron Cohen opened with an impressive first-day North American box office total: $14.4 million. A decade ago, an impressive start would take weeks to winds down, but "Bruno" fell 39% in just one day to $8.8 million.

Media pundits say that "Bruno" suffered from the Twitter Effect. The Twitter Effect occurs when audiences react quickly to a movie's opening, spreading their opinions wide and far through Twitter. In the case of "Bruno", audiences appeared to be scared away by raunchy sex scenes and nudity. The audience attitudes toward the movie can be summed up in a tweet by Cathy Zhang: "Some scenes in Bruno I'll never erase from my mind"

"Everything is Speeded Up"

The instant word-of-mouth buzz from social networking sites can create a hit movie overnight. Or, create a flop overnight. Adam Fogelson, Universal Studio's president of marketing and distribution, says: "Has everything speeded up? The answer is yes, depending on how big your opening day audience is, word-of-mouth starts playing a factor immediately". Paul Dergarabedian, president of tracking firm Hollywood.com Box Office, concurs with Fogelson: "If people don't like the movie now on Friday it can die by Saturday".

With feature motion pictures costing upwards of $500M to make, Hollywood studios clearly have a lot on the line with a new release. Clearly, they will be spending less money on red-carpet premiers and more on Twitter.

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