News
Kudos Pile Up For 'Twilight' Marketing
By Robert Marich
Nov. 16, 2008 – Supernatural youth romance Twilight is a blockbuster in the business press already, generating a succession of articles in advance of its Nov. 21 theatrical premiere.
Business Week columnist Ronald Grover recounts the latest pieces of good news—audience tracking surveys project a $30 million opening three-day weekend. That’s great for a film that likely will have a long run if it does connect with the audience. Other young women/girls romance wonders include Ghost ($217.6 million in domestic box office in 1990), The Notebook ($81 million in 2004) and let’s not forget Titanic.
Grover estimates Summit Entertainment is spending $30 million for Twilight’s domestic theatrical marketing and made the film for $37 million. The marketing campaign is normal for a mainstream major studio release. However, the latter is half the average cost of making a major studio film, which is no surprise given Summit is an independent and Twilight sports a no-name cast.
The movie is based on the hit novel about a teenage girl whose love happens to be a vampire and the novel is famous for emphasis on romance with no sex.
Originally, Twilight was scheduled for a Dec. 12 release, but moved forward to Nov. 21 when Warner Bros. pushed back the next Harry Potter movie to 2009. Summit feels Twilight can gain traction prior to play through the peak Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Its main competition Nov. 21 is Disney animated feature Bolt, which plays to a different audience of children and families.
Grover writes in Business Week: “In April, (Summit) put trailers on MySpace that have been seen by some 4 million viewers, and sent its two stars, Kirsten Stewart and British heartthrob Robert Pattinson, on the talk-show circuit. Entertainment Weekly put the stars on its cover and is planning to do so again for its holiday movie issue. Even the soundtrack is selling well. Throw in some fairly aggressive use of MTV.com and the Twilight books’ 300-odd fan sites, and I'm gonna bet there isn't a 17-year-old girl in America who doesn't know this flick is coming.”
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Soundtrack album for Twilight