A look at cult classics: where good marketing should go

What makes a film a cult classic?

First and foremost, it takes a good  screenplay/story. Second, a passionate fan base. Third, next to no box office profit.

When an un-marketed film hits the theatres

This third point is bothersome. No profits means studios will refrain from making more films of that fashion, regardless of how good it is. They often don’t receive sequels,or in the rare case that they do, it only happens later on in life due to post- release sales and the high praise the fan base has given it. Basically, if it’s considered a cult classic, it didn’t make any money upon release, which is obviously bad.

 

But how does this happen? I mean if it’s a cult classic, that must mean it’s good. So why isn’t it making money in the box office? Simply put, bad ,or even no marketing,advertisement and public relations. Some cult classics have a valid excuse.They were an independent movie and didn’t have a big enough budget to afford a decent marketing campaign. A great example of this is the movie Clerks.

Poster for the movie “Clerks”

For those of you who don’t know, Clerks is an independent movie by Kevin Smith that was released in 1994. The budget for clerks while filming in 1993 was a only a little over $27,500. Considering that it had about $3 million in profits, it did pretty good for itself, but is not considered a “successful” movie. In this scenario, we can’t blame Kevin Smith for not paying for a lot of marketing or advertising for the movie, he couldn’t even afford to film the movie in colour ( yes, it’s a black and white film).

Anyone who has seen this movie can tell you that the dialogue is on point and it can relate to anyone who has ever had a “clerk” type job. It is loved by its fanbase for a reason. But, is not as well known as it should be. Had it had more funding for promotion, it could have easily become a world-renowned movie. If you have seen it, then you know it should have made much more money.

Some cult classics don’t have such a valid reason to have been unsuccessful in the box office. A prime example is The Shawshank Redemption.  That’s right, one of the highest rated movies of all time is, by definition, a cult classic.

Famous scene from ” The Shawshank Redemption”

 

With a budget of $25 million, it only made just over $725 thousand its opening weekend in 1994. But with outstanding reviews and its gained popularity through VHS and DVD sales, its gross income, as of 2012, is over $28 million. Hard to believe such a popular and beloved movie did so poorly in the box office, but it’s true.

This is why marketing,advertising and public relations is so important in the film industry. These amazing movies didn’t make a lot of money at first, and this is cause for concern for the film industry. Especially when poorly rated movies make a killing at the box office. The production companies are only after making money, and when good movies like these don’t make any, then there won’t be any more movies like them made again.

With proper marketing,advertising and public relations, these movies can be successful. Once that happens, we won’t only have poorly written action movies with big explosions and plot holes in theatres, but good stories with depth and meaning.

These cult classics were lucky they got the recognition they deserved, but imagine all the great movies that no one knows about because of a lack of good promotion. Maybe you’ll never see your  favourite movie  because you’ve never heard of it, and never will.

Alex Belanger

 

Cocktails and client meetings, or public relations?

Mad Mens infamous starting screen

For many years, advertising, and public relations, have gone hand in hand. Mad Men – the Emmy-winning cable TV series following a fictional advertising firm on New York’s Madison Avenue in the 1960s – premiered its final seven episodes on AMC in May 2015. Mad Men is also available for playback on Netflix.

That means it’s the last time we’ll ever get to talk about Mad Men and its impact on the advertising field. Now, I’m sure some of you read that last sentence and laughed to yourselves a little. You’re probably saying, “What could public relations professionals possibly learn from a show about a fictional philandering creative director?”

Well, a lot actually. Mad Men is known for its obsessive attention to detail and accuracy, but that attention does not stop at getting everything from the sets, to the costumes in line with the 1960s. That special attention to detail continues in a public relations career, where you must consistently be concise, not only with clients, but everyday tasks.

A successful public relations professional should have the ability to see things from their clients perspective, and also consumers perspectives. This unique skill is essential when making educated responses about your clients, and always keeping their best interest in mind. Without seeing things from altered perspectives, your work develops a skewed bias, which ultimately will hinder your success, as well as your clients. As a professional, you cannot make impulse decisions strictly based off of your own opinion. You must take all mitigating factors into consideration before acting on it.

This is where SCDP was located in Mad Men

Season 4, Episode 1, is titled “Public Relations”. This episode accurately depicts the importance of public relations, and when it is used effectively, how significant a clients outcome can change; especially brand equity within consumers. Don Draper uses public relations as a tool to help his advertising firm overcome a difficult merger. Without public relations, Don would not have been able to convince the public, nor his clients that their business was in a state of stability. Ultimately, without proper use of public relations, their advertising firm SCDP would have fallen under.

Whilst this show was based off the 1960’s it sets the tone for a public relations professional, and the direct correlations between that, and advertising extremely articulately. For those interested in a public relations field, the job duties entailed, and the ambiance that comes a long with it, Mad Men can definitely provide accurate insight. Between press releases, client lunches, and interviews with journalists, Mad Men finally brought the public relations recognition that was long overdue to television.

In the future, it will be interesting to see what shows incorporate public relations concepts, and which shows do public relations justice. With this career choice growing in demand each and every single day, public relations will soon be a force to be reckoned with. Would you jump in on the action?

Does a public relations career, have to be correlated with advertising?

A public relations career definitely does not have to be associated with advertising. You can join the public sector, crisis management, or many other branches of public relations including: account managers, strategists, and analysts. Finding a public relations career that best suits you is important to determining long term success, and complacency within your job. If you are not happy doing what you do, it will be evident by your co-workers, as well as your clients.

Written by: Nicholas Frape

 

 

 

Academy Awards Boost Film Numbers

The Academy Awards have been around for nearly one hundred years, making it the longest running awards show. Since the awards debut on television, it has transformed into a public relations tool for the industry. Many of the Oscar winning performances and best films over the years have been handed down mixed reviews from movie critics and moviegoers alike, yet somehow manage to take home achievements for cinematic excellence.

Let’s take this year’s Academy Award for best picture, “Spotlight”, for example. The film was nominated for a total of six Oscars at the 88^th Academy Awards in 2016, but only managed to take home two. The movie follows the Boston Globe’s special investigative team, spotlight, as it uncovers the Catholic Church’s cover up of a child molestation scandal that plagued Boston for decades.

Following the Oscars, the film saw a massive jump at the box office and nearly doubled the amount of screens it ran on. To be more precise, Spotlight saw a 140 per cent jump at the box office, taking in $1.77 million the weekend after receiving the best picture. Senior media analyst for comScore, Paul Dergarabedian, said “”I can guarantee that without the win, Spotlight would not have added 542 theaters in Week 18. Much less would it be prospering.”

This years telecast attracted 34.3 million viewers. Although an eight per cent decline from last year, potentially attributed to the #Oscarssowhite controversy, everybody that tuned in, tuned in to one of the longest running PR products in entertainment history. I, for one, was not one of the 34.3 million. It wasn’t for any particular reason, I wasn’t boycotting the Oscars by any means. Award shows have never really been at the top of my list. However, I recently have become aware of how much power the shows actually have. The day following the Oscars always revolves around who won what, what everyone was wearing, and how good the host was.

I can never answer any of these questions, although, I do try to catch some of the films that won big awards so that I can at least participate in conversations down the line, knowing full well that the movies that win big awards will see a spike in viewers everywhere. Which takes me back to Spotlight. Last week I got together for movie night with a friend of mine. While rhyming off the potential movie titles that we could watch, one in particular caught my attention. Spotlight. Although I had no idea what the movie was about, or who the cast was, I immediately decided on it saying, “That’s the one that won the Oscar isn’t it?”

The Academy Awards have earned themselves a high reputation in the film and entertainment industry and they have far-reaching effects within the industry and within our society as a whole. Whether it be people who watch so they can feel included in the conversations on the following day, or those who tune in to check out what their favourite stars are wearing. Everyone finishes the Academy Awards with a new desire to watch the films most talked about over the few hour span, which boosts the industry every year around the same time in the millions. As for myself, I don’t think I’ll be following the crowd just yet, but I will look out for next year’s best picture. If it’s anything like Spotlight, I’m sure to be pleasantly surprised.