![]() ![]() Maybe she goes to the movies one to two times a year and this is one of them. “Whether it’s Tyler Perry, ‘Sex and the City’ or ‘Passion of the Christ,’ there are certain movies that bring out those people who wouldn’t qualify for a tracking survey,” Bruzzese said. Those surveys typically target active moviegoers who in any given year see at least six movies. “Sparkle” could outpace those numbers at the box office, though, should the studio successfully attract the interest of the older black female demographic, which is not easily measured in pre-release surveys. Traditional tracking numbers indicate that the film is likely to perform in a similar range to “Burlesque,” the Sony Screen Gems film that opened to $12 million and grossed close to $40 million domestically. “Now there will be some spots that will celebrate what is: a great performance by Whitney in her last film,” he said. ![]() Recently Sony has ramped up Houston’s presence in its ads, releasing a new TV spot featuring Houston’s singing voice as the backdrop, with a voice-over saying, “Celebrate the legend.” Blake says it’s a natural evolution. Of course, you don’t want to have a campaign that says, ‘See the movie, Whitney would have wanted it that way.’”īruzzese pointed out that the marketing campaign for “Sparkle” mirrors other films of its kind, including 2006’s “Dreamgirls” and 2010’s “Burlesque.” The film’s trailer and television commercials have the traditional feel of a movie musical: a lot of drum beats, some flashy dance numbers and indications that the main conflict lies between the mother’s traditional philosophy and the girls’ desire to perform. “Whitney Houston did this movie, acted in this movie and obviously wanted the movie to do well. “There is a difference between exploiting a tragedy and marketing something that was someone’s livelihood,” Vincent Bruzzese, president of market research firm Ipsos OTX. (Pop star Aaliyah was initially cast in the lead before the 22-year-old was killed in a plane crash.) She and producer Debra Martin Chase acquired the remake rights 12 years ago - the duo had produced the 2001 Anne Hathaway-starrer “The Princess Diaries” together - and saw the project through many starts and stops. In the case of “Sparkle,” Houston not only appears on screen but was also instrumental behind the scenes. ![]() In October of 2009, Sony released the Michael Jackson concert film “This Is It” after the pop star died in the middle of rehearsals for a series of upcoming stadium performances, positioning the backstage documentary as a tribute to Jackson’s musical legacy. crafted a campaign for “The Dark Knight” that didn’t downplay the presence of Heath Ledger’s Joker but also didn’t over-hype the presence of the actor who had died of a drug overdose months earlier. It’s not the first time film marketers have had to walk the difficult line of selling a movie marred by tragedy. “Right after her passing, we wanted to err on the side of not emphasizing her too much.” But he acknowledged the delicacy of the situation. “There was never a discussion about moving it up,” said Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is distributing the project through its TriStar label. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |