1,167 Comments

1. This is too easy.

   1) Make great movies (not the mediocre and awful ones that currently saturate America’s theatres).

   2) Marketing? Even easier. Provide free advanced screenings for these great movies to your target demographic group in each city in which the movie is showing, and then wait for the power of Word of Mouth to work its magic.

   THE PROBLEM IS THE MOVIES! They suck. Give people something really worth going to, something worth telling their friends about after they see it, and that’s all the marketing you’ll ever need.

   So my novel concept can be summed up as follows: Invest your marketing dollars in making films worth seeing.

   When do I start?

   Comment by Karma614 — July 23, 2006 @ 10:41 pm

2. I wont comment for everyone else but I only go to a limited amount of movies at the theatre because of the price. Thats the only reason. I love movies. I watch a ridiculous amount and I buy a good amount of DVD’s also. Its not uncommon for my wife and I to go see a few movies in one evening. The only reason we dont do it more is the money. we are going to spend $20 just to get in the door for one movie and then even more for some drinks. If it didnt cost so damn much we would be going to see alot more. As it is we only go to see what we really cant wait to see.

   Comment by Justin — July 23, 2006 @ 10:42 pm

3. OK, how about movie credit points of some range to qualify for a free season pass or single tickets to the Mavs games or other sporting events or valuable discounts to local businesses in the neighborhood? Also, allowing local business to lease a section of the lobby area to sell their products with huge discounts to the movie watchers?

   Comment by Mitchell — July 23, 2006 @ 10:43 pm

4. Why are you so worried that people will have to pay $8-$12 to come and see your movies? What audience are you targeting anyway? From my viewpoint, you seem to produce movies aimed at a higher income, higher educated marketplace to begin with. The Smartest Guys In The Room, Goodnight Goodluck, Akeeleh and the Bee; These don’t seem like productions appealing to a mass audience. So why are you worried so much about the price? I think marketing is purely a function of paying attention to others and other marketing campaigns and people and seeing and observing intently what they appreciate and what they bite on. Myspace is a great nontraditional marketing thing, but it would be a waste of time even for someone making $10 an hour to put up a myspace page for Goodnight, Goodluck. However, taking that movie across University campuses and sponsoring post film discussions with cast members or experts might really make sense. Or let’s take another arty film that did pretty well that in an industry I’m familiar with, music…….Some Kind of Monster. By contracting with VH1 to show that documentary, I be they made as much money if not more than the theater. Why not take it a step further and do guerrilla marketing for it at music clubs and concerts. Take Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room. Why not advertise it by showing testimonials from actual employees affected by Enron and their emotional reactions to the movie and how that event impacted their lives? Why not advertise in The Wall Street Journal? Why not market through a socially conscious investment house, like Calvert mutual funds? They are huge, have alot of individual and institutional investors and that movie ties in with what they stand for.

   Please don’t take any of this as a disrespectful challenge of your business acumen. I have great respect for what you do and I don’t want a job. I just thought this posting was too sincere and too interesting not to respond to. I only stumbled across your blog because I read the Sports Economist some and find the business of sports fascinating. They have a link to this blog.
   I just think you ask the wrong question when it comes to getting people to pay money to see your movies. It’s now how, but who is going to come. There’s where you focus your energies. On the who. The how then should easily present itself to a creative marketing team.
   Unless of course your producing Spiderman 3. Then you just throw up a couple of tv commercials and posters and everyone shows up.

   Comment by Jayson Bales — July 23, 2006 @ 10:47 pm

5. Give people a 20% off voucher for buying the movie’s DVD when it comes out if they go see it at the theater. And, use some of my music in one of your movies…

   Comment by Thomas Parker — July 23, 2006 @ 10:48 pm

6. the system is broken. the system is outdated. people don’t want to go “to the movies”. they want the movies to come to them. develop a distribution system that sends the movies directly to the subscribership of your own movie audience. downloadable by advance code only, or to personal dvd players manufactured and marketed by mark cuban. it is the future. it needs to start somewhere. it should start with you. i have details…
   zy

   Comment by greg w deibert — July 23, 2006 @ 10:49 pm

7. The “simple” answer to your movie business challenge is this: take the focus off the movie, put it back on the “night out”. If I were to venture a guess, I’d say that the hardest people to attract to a movie theater are the older than high school dating crowd (including married people on date nights, etc). What attracts those people?

   I know what attracts me and my wife, and there’s a theater in the Chicago area that does it (http://www.atriptothemovies.com/). They don’t have the best projectors, the sound is pretty mediocre, and we’re still almost guaranteed to go there on any free night we have. What they *do* have is atmosphere, full food and drink service, and a policy to only allow people over the age of 18 into most shows. We’ll rarely go see a movie that they aren’t offering, and we’ll regularly go see movies we couldn’t give two shits about simply because that’s what they’re showing.

   Ripping off Hollywood Boulevard’s entire experience would be a good start, although I firmly believe what they’re doing is only the beginning. The product they offer is enough to get me (a self admitted dirty pirate) to evangelize it to all of my friends, drag my family there when they visit, etc.

   I could go into an entire dissertation on what should be done, but the first sentence pretty well covers it.

   I’d highly, highly recommend checking that place out next time you’re in the Chicago area to beat up on my poor Bulls.

   Comment by Kurt Mackey — July 23, 2006 @ 10:54 pm

8. It’s very simple - make better movies. Great movies sell themselves.

   Comment by Cranky Greg — July 23, 2006 @ 10:57 pm

9. Why not make the movies cheaper and then have the movies just sell by simple word of mouth advertising.
   “Napoleon Dynamite” was the example I was thinking about.

   Comment by Antonio Howell — July 23, 2006 @ 10:58 pm

10. Good luck getting people to theaters in this day and age where the younger generation has no respect for other people, and if you end up in a showing with the little brats it ruins the whole thing.

    As the other commentor mentioned you make films for a demographic that doesn’t go on myspace etc, so that’s kind of a waste of effort to push things in that direction, the older generations (which seems to be your demographic the movies made are aimed at) will need theaters that are basically audits only, how about a free baby sitting service?

    That kills 2 birds right there, no kids in the room, and no hassles for people looking for sitters, and it would be cheaper to pay for a few sitters for a room full of parents then you could even charge a premium for the service and make even more money out of it…

    Comment by Duane — July 23, 2006 @ 11:00 pm

11. Here’s the general problem with what I think you’re asking, though. All the advertising in the world won’t account for what’s fundamentally a “broken” product. As far as I’m concerned, the product needs to be changed in such a way as to make it more viable. This is technically “marketing”, but not quite in the way I think you’re asking.

    Comment by Kurt Mackey — July 23, 2006 @ 11:04 pm

12. You may wish to look at Arthur De Vany’s recent work on financing films - he’s also a serious athlete.

    http://www.arthurdevany.com

    Comment by Claiborne Booker — July 23, 2006 @ 11:05 pm

13. Offer food and drink with waiters(ushers) ,compimentary popcorn ,coffee and soft drinks for a reasonable proce in a cozy setting

    Comment by Matt — July 23, 2006 @ 11:14 pm

14. Mark,
    A SOLUTION TO THE MOVIE PROBLEM:
    How about if you owned the theater where the movie was showing. As well as being the producer of the movie. You could control the cost of the ticket better. You would be making a bigger percentage of each dollar so you could charge less to the public. That would attract people since they could still get entertainment and not have to pay as much.
    You could develop a movie club system where you get feedback from your community and tailor they movies to their taste.
    A type of movie to be shown in New York or Dallas would be different than Iowa or Idaho.
    If you built or bought these theaters around they country you could eventually have people seeing Mark Cuban Movies. It would be like a Sam’s Club idea. People paying less for good quality movies and you still make money.
    It would require some capital initially but in the long run it would pay off.

    Comment by Antonio Howell — July 23, 2006 @ 11:18 pm

15. People don’t go to the theater as much because of ticket cost, the price of concessions, etc. People still watch movies though.

    Who says that first-run movies have to be shown in theaters? Why can’t they be shown in businesses, in parks, downtown, anywhere where a mass of people can gather together to watch a movie.

    Charge the same $7 or whatever it would be at the gate or at the door. The thesis here is: Bring the movie to the mass of people instead of getting the mass of people to come to the theaters.

    For example, sell a showing of Superman Returns to a company for an employees-night-out package, where the workers bring their families out for a night of camaraderie.

    Market a showing of a movie to a major retailer, allowing them to play the movie in or outside their stores. They can turn around and market it however they’d like.

    All your efforts would be spent on marketing toward a handful of companies instead of to the masses. Let them worry about how to get these films to individuals.

    Ryan

    Comment by Ryan — July 23, 2006 @ 11:20 pm

16. Considering summer is the time period when most folks enjoy going out to the movies, it is also a time when most large sports venues are dark and have sporadic activity. For instance, the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Why not host a large movie night at an indoor sports arena on an off night? Volume will bring the costs down for folks to enter the door. Say 5 bucks. Bring on pre-movie entertainment appropriate to the movie, music, have giveways: movie soundtracks, movie passes, etc. Create a fun atmosphere where folks are sharing the experience of a great movie. Most importantly, if the movie is that good, you could potentially have thousands of folks who witnessed the movie first hand, and experienced all of the surrounding hype, they will spread the good news to others..The Mavs had a lot of success showing the away playoff games on the Jumbotron. Why did people leave the comforts of their own homes to head down to the arena to pay 5 bucks to attend?

    Comment by John Smith — July 23, 2006 @ 11:26 pm

17. Offer the first 10-15 minutes of the movie for free online or on TV. If the viewer likes what he sees, he’ll go to the theater to watch the rest. Maybe he’ll even drag his friends along. A nice solid chunk of story is more compelling than the random jumble of scenes in a trailer. It also gives the potential customer an accurate sampling of the movie’s plot, characters, dialogue, etc. This method takes advantage of a good movie’s inherent ability to capture someone’s interest and hook them in.

    Comment by Ed — July 23, 2006 @ 11:26 pm

18. Do you really want us to post the “secret sauce” that will get us a job from you here? Who should I email?

    Comment by Joey — July 23, 2006 @ 11:27 pm

19. Give the movie away…

    and have advertisers pay for the cost.

    people could go to the site and download their vouchers to watch the movie. On the voucher there will be the sponsored advertiser. word would spread so fast and people would come to watch just for the hell of it.. and think about the movie houses who are going to make a butt load of money because now the customer has more money to spend on junk food. it is a win win situation for everyone. and when people download vouchers you are also capturing important demgraphic information for advertisers. i think they do this with TV.

    Just give the movie away… and if it is really good then sell the dvd in 6 months at walmart and people will buy it.

    when do i start Mark…

    Comment by Michael Lopez — July 23, 2006 @ 11:35 pm

20. to Antonio Howell:

    Mark already owns a chain of movie theatres (called Landmark Theatres). He has not yet lowered prices for any of his films. Nor is he likely to.

    Comment by futureoffilm — July 23, 2006 @ 11:37 pm

21. Make the theatre know who I am and what I like. I have yet to see a theatre company make an interactive website where I can log in and see trailers, reviews (aggregated from other websites, don’t try to setup your own - no one will review) or see the movies I have seen in the past. Amazon-ify the movie experience. Then, when that movie finally hits dvd - the website can tell me about it and I get a discount on it (hello Wedding Crashers).

    I would also like to be able to invite my friends; punch in their email addresses and have it send an invitation to them to see it with me (maybe put in entry in my online calendar).

    The kiosks at Keystone Arts Cinema (Indianapolis) are a good start, I don’t have to deal with some highschool kid trying to figure out which buttons to press. What’s the percentage of movie goers who use the Ticket ATM vs use the people? There’s no intelligence behind those kiosks though, they don’t know which movies I have seen.

    The problem with movie theatres is their miniscule level of caring about me as a customer ends at the ticket booth. Is $9 a lot to see a movie? Hell yeah, especially if that movie sucked. Mitigate the suckedness by increasing the overall experience.

    I could write all the software for this, btw. I’m a pretty good software engineer and I’m one of your key demographics (i.e. I use MySpace daily, saw A Scanner Darkly, love the bar attached to the theatre). Hit me up. These are just some ideas I thought of the in the last 10 minutes (hence the spewedness of it). I would love to tell you more. This is my real email address.

    Comment by Josh J — July 23, 2006 @ 11:43 pm

22. As you know, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have support for network capabilities that can be used to authorize playback. This would typically be used to try and limit the damage from firmware fudges or crypto hacks, but it could be put to more creative uses.

    This Friday, Miami Vice will open nationwide in theaters. I should be able to walk in to Blockbuster on Friday and pick it up on high-def disc. Or I should be able to pick it up tomorrow. Or I should have already bought it.

    But the deal with new-release discs is that you have to network authorize them. So no matter when I got it, I can’t watch the movie until Friday. My wife and I invite another couple over to watch on Friday night and bam, great entertainment experience.

    The disc costs $40. Even after packaging, distribution, and the retailer’s cut, the studios are seeing a higher percentage of this than what they get from the theater chains. And I’m not blowing a lot of my entertainment money on parking, popcorn, and stuff the studios aren’t going to see anyway.

    How does this help cut costs? The discs can be sold days or weeks in advance of the release date. Marketing dollars are extremely inefficient right now because the bulk of it is spent trying to build an instant audience for your film in the Monday-Thursday period before it opens. If you have a larger window to market and sell ‘tickets’ to your film, then your MySpace pages and your viral e-mails with YouTube links, and your other less expensive promotional tools are going to be more effective.

    More importantly, you are going to significantly increase your ‘box office receipts’. I won’t go near a movie theater after having TV ads in an unbearably high volume blasted at me for 20 straight minutes before a screening of Syriana. But I would definitely buy these new-release discs to have movie parties, or just a date with the wife.

    Comment by Corby — July 23, 2006 @ 11:56 pm

23. Mark,
    I don’t know any significant CEO, who would pose a challenge like that. You rock!

    Your main problem today, as I see it, is that I can go to the same theatre every day of the year and they will have no clue I was there, what I saw, whom I saw it with and what I bought. If they had just a tiny bit of info on me they could build a database and predict that I will see anything business related, anything with Al Pacino, anything Italian, nothing scary or girly or blockbusterish etc. They will know that 95% of the time I go with my girlfriend, 80% if the times I go on Fridays and Saturdays, 95% of the time I buy a medium popcorn/coke combo, 75% of the time I go within two weeks of release but rarely on opening night.

    What ought to happen was that, without spamming me daily, every time there was say a movie with Al Pacino I would receive an email or message to my cell phone a few days before the weekend, including a few reviews, a trailer and perhaps a discount for a upsized combo. And since I sometimes go on weekdays they could try and entice me (as oppose to someone who only do Fridays) to go midweek (perhaps at a lower price) rather than on a full house Friday. Obviously, with a higher investment you can build more intelligence into the system, segmenting customers and predict their preferences and increase their satisfaction.

    So what is needed is something that identifies you every time you buy a ticket. A loyalty card may work but has its limitations. I would suggest payment via cell phones - that way you have instant contact info. And the customer could book right away when they are on the go. You could even allow customers to review by cell phone after the movie for a chance to win a prize and increase knowledge of their preferences.

    The studio needs to build the system and offer it for free to the theatres. The studio would get higher ticket sales revenue and have additional upside by being able to more effectively sell other products directly to the customer.

    I know little about the industry. Will I get a chance to learn?

    Michael M

    Comment by Michael M — July 23, 2006 @ 11:59 pm

24. Market the filmmaker(s) as you would a star athlete. Or better yet, a rock star.

    When Radiohead releases a new album, do you give me a long summary of the lyrical content of each song? No, you say, “Radiohead has released a new album.” And then I buy it. (Or insert whatever artist turns you on.)

    When I went to a movie last year and saw the teaser for Lady in the Water, I didn’t say to myself, “what will you give me to show up for it?” No way. I said: “A new Shyamalan movie? Here’s my $7.50.”

    Most ideas I hear about how to improve movie revenue come down to persuading people to do something they weren’t excited enough to do without some extra enticement (points, free food, fun atmosphere, etc.). But this isn’t what you need. You need people to be excited about seeing the movie.

    We’re all so relational now. We respond to personal connections, real or imagined. The movie business needs to concentrate on playing up the people who create the movies—the storytellers—and making us feel we know them and their work.

    One of the things that gave me confidence in Superman Returns was the fact that Bryan Singer was doing it. I already knew his work was solid, so I felt pretty good about going to see whatever he did next. How much better still would it have been if the studio had marketed him to me as a person, someone I could connect with, and whose vision and creativity resonated with me?

    Identify the people who are creatively driving movies these days, and market the hell out of them as people. Give the consumer someone he can put his moviegoing faith in.

    Comment by Ryan Stauffer — July 23, 2006 @ 11:59 pm

25. Have movies on opening weekend be an extremely cut rate (let’s say a ‘usual’ price is $12/ticket, this cut price will be $1/ticket), nearly anyone will pay a dollar for a new movie (and also attract people to new movies they may not have exactly wanted to see otherwise). Word of mouth will quickly spread of venues with low prices for the newest movies- if all seats are sold out, then please come back next week when the price is doubled to two dollars. The price could double weekly (on Friday of course) until the fifth week where tickets could be “full” price for the movie in question- the same price all other venues were charging all along.

    I don’t know if this helps, but hopefully it might (I’ve entered my email address in this form). It would create more goodwill and word of mouth, most likely, and maybe shift some eyeballs to more than just the “blockbuster” releases.

    Comment by Doug Stewart — July 23, 2006 @ 11:59 pm

26. First off I think its pretty cool your humble enough to ask the general public for ideas. On to the topic, here are some of my thoughts:

    1) I don’t think the affiliate marketing will take off. Affiliate marketing can bring a “dishonest” stigma to recommendations. Imagine if your viewing someones myspace profile and checking out their favorite movies. If you find out half their “favorite” movies are affiliates, then they will no longer be trusted for recommendations.

    2) Correct me if I am wrong but most movies now are promoted nationwide, without discrimination of the local demand. Since movies are distributed in large film reels, that are expensive, flexibility in showtimes/locations/entire cities and or regions is basically nonexistent. So if your promoting to regions or areas where the potential demand is low, then it seems like a waste of money. The way to change this is digital distribution, which I know is happening right now. By dramatically lowering the costs and increasing the speeds of distribution, showtimes are much more flexible. Entire regions where money would be wasted in promotion and distribution would be effectivly reduced, as well as costs, and those savings can be used to market in the areas with latent demand. Before a movie is even released, do market research and reduce eliminate the regions that aren’t cost productive.

    3) There is a very large spanish demographic in the US. Telemundo is extremely successful. Why not create spanish specific movies. Thats just a little footnote of a point.

    Good Luck Mark.

    Comment by Eric Allam — July 24, 2006 @ 12:09 am

27. If only the movie industry could take advantage of the x-number of product placements in any given movie. Producers and theaters should make this a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch your” kind of thing.
    I know we always see McDonalds promoting the latest Disney movie with their Happy meals, but think about all of the name brand items that can be found in any one film alone; producers should use every one of these brands to their advantage and advertise the movies through the different channels of advertising for each product that is placed in the film - be cautious though because too much promotion and the target audience’s mind will go numb to the film being advertised.

    Comment by Wendi — July 24, 2006 @ 12:15 am

28. An easy short term fix is to add value to the ticket and you don’t have to change the price. Offer it as a meal deal, popcorn and pop with a ticket stub. It isn’t just the $8 a ticket, it is $6 for a tub of popcorn and $5 for a coke which turns people off.

    Another thought is to turn theaters into a membership opportunity. You could charge a membership fee on a yearly basis and offer first run movies at a discount price. The benefit for the theaters is repeat business, rather than here and there. I went to 3 movies last year in the theater. I would be attracted to a membership plan where I paid $50 and had a year of $4.00 movie admissions. I would feel obligated to use my membership and the theater would have me there for 20 movies a year rather than 3.

    Cross promote with drop-in day cares and restaurants to make it a “Night Out” for couples and older family members who normally wait for DVD because of young children.

    Some of the marketing should be left to the theaters. Not too often where you have a business when your distributor does almost all the advertising for the product. Some of the responsibility lies with the theaters to get people in the door. There needs to be training of theater management to promote.

    Lastly, continue to add technology to make the theater going experience exponentially greater than waiting for the DVD. I have a big screen, great sound, and a very confortable couch. Many times there is the feeling I am not missing much waiting to watch a movie at home. I can rent for $1.99, have a microwave popcorn for $.25, and a coke for $.50 with no need to put on my shoes and I can pause the flick for a bathroom break. There has yet to be any draw to the theater for a mind blowing experience which can only be produced there.

    Comment by Tim D. — July 24, 2006 @ 12:22 am

29. There are small movie marketing insights, and then there are the truly BIG PICTURE ideas…

    There are a litany of quick-fix, buzz generating gimmicks, and then there is the one single strategy capable of REVOLUTIONIZING an entire industry…

    Your resume includes having done exactly that in at least three major industries/business sectors that I know of? Question is, are you ready to take on another?

    I have this feeling you are.

    Mark, you issued this incredible challenge tonight, and my Answer to you (via email, ASAP)just might much send an even larger challenge right back at you with the most important question of all: HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?

    We’ll see. I’ll get my thoughts together for ya, and will be in touch soon.

    Gotta love the HYPE, though! Right?
    Stay tuned,
    DS

    Comment by DStarz — July 24, 2006 @ 12:25 am

30. Here’s what I do at a high level. I’ll try and keep it short on your blog.

    1) Build a brand new community site or purchase HSX and upgrade it. This new site will allow people to comment on movies, post ratings, rank their favorite movies and post a profile. You can even give them their own page to link to some crappy myspace page. (SOCIAL)

    2) As part of the site, give them sneak previews, movie trinkets, behind the scenes, etc to generate buzz and word of mouth. Hopefully, they’ll send to friends and family to view the stuff and build their community. (VIRAL)

    3)Use their profile, movie ratings, dislikes, demos, friends etc to data mine and predict which movies they’ll like. Basically pull an Amazon on them for predicting movies (SEGMENTATION)

    4) Create a new movie ranking system that is based on a simple 1-10 rating, number of comments, posts, and community size - could use the old HSX price if you bought it back in step 1. This brings in an eBay feel to it and allows people to drill down. This creates more buzz and confidence for people to purchase the upcoming movie (PEOPLE LIKE ME, LIKE THIS MOVIE)

    Then you market to the people using ads, emails, promotions etc but now you can use the built in predictive model and rating system to improve your ROI.

    PardonMyFrench,

    Eric

    Comment by eric frenchman — July 24, 2006 @ 12:26 am

31. Growing up in Pittsburgh, my fondest movie memories occurred at drive in movie theaters. Of course, with land values so high nowadays, drive in theaters have vanished. I can’t help but notice huge parking lots at darkened stores everywhere–all that empty space when Walmart, Target, Tom Thumb are closed. If the locations are near nightclubs or heavily trafficked night spots, they are charging 5 bucks for folks to park there. Why not create a Drive In movie night at some of these huge parking lots? Portable screens, close circuit radio broadcasts for audio, have a sponsorship area for food, beverages, and booze. You can affiliate with a large nationwide sponsor..Target Presents…Independent Film Drive In Movie Night at select Target stores across the country..

    Comment by John Smith — July 24, 2006 @ 12:33 am

32. I’m single, so spending $10 for a movie and another $10 on food doesn’t bother me, I don’t care. I will go to the movies regardless.

    So while thousands of eager job seekers will be trying to dazzle the “mark-ster” with new fangled marketing gimmicks, revenue sharing, co-branded ad ideas, web things “oh-so-done” to many times, I harken back to a little flick I once saw called “Mr. Mom”.

    Parents “Mothers and Fathers” but moms specifically don’t care how cool or awesome a movie is. Sure, they want their kids to see good movies, but what really matters to them is the bottom line; that’s dollars and cents to us simple folk.

    If the goal is specifically to get more “families” out to the cinema, then make it monetarily benefical for them to do so.

    Movies are movies, and tuna is tuna (”schooner Tuna” to explain my “Mr. Mom reference above).

    To get to the point, a lot of companies make movies, and a lot of companies make Tuna, so if you wanna sell more tuna, lower the price of tuna, but for movies offer a special admission rate for families. Shit, there exists special pricing for everything else in the world based on demographics and other specialized affiliations.

    If both mom and dad go to the show with one child anywhere under the age of 18, the kid gets in free.

    If a family of 5 or more go to the show they get in for $35 total spend.

    Basically, the more volume you move, the cheaper the price. If you’re single, whatever. If you’re a family, no gimmicks, its cheaper because you are a family, not overly expensive because you are one.

    If the average family of 5 get out to the movies 2 more times a year, the money will more than be made up all things considered; admission, eating, merchandise, etc.

    Comment by Brandon Piddington — July 24, 2006 @ 12:35 am

33. When I watch a movie at my house, I can control everything. If I go out to see a movie I am never comfortable, I always hear all the teen’s talking and the volume is never set right. If you want my money then make it worth my time to go there.

    Comment by Rick — July 24, 2006 @ 12:36 am

34. Making the “experience” better is great, but wont solve the problem of getting people to see crappy movies. As a theater owner, you can market all you want but you still have no control over what films the studios make. And unless you live in a college town or a city, showing independent movies over Hollywood fare is very simply unlikely to make you any money.

    If you are looking just for revenue, why not have a subscription membership for a theater chain? Pay a monthly fee for a certain number/unlimited movies… exactly like netflix. A theater owner will certainly make much moolah on this since if the cost of the movie is just automatically charged each month from your credit card, you are much more likely to make purchases on concessions at the theater. People will be more likely to risk going to more independent fare, making them more viable and more likely to see a crappy movie… which is still good for the industry.

    This would clearly require creative contracts with the distributers and that would be the main problem. I still think theater owners could somehow manage this, but I’ve never heard of such a system. In such a system, this will certainly mean less money for the blockbusters even if more people actually see the movies.

    A related question is why does the industry focus so much on the money on Monday morning? I know there is obviously a strong correlation between eyeballs and dollars, but its seems very strange that movies are measured by box office reciepts instead of actual numbers like every other form of entertainment. As a theater owner looking to screen a new movie that is, say, in limited release in LA and NY, I think I’d much rather know per screen viewership than per screen take which is dependent on the cost of the going to see a movie in those cities.

    Comment by Nick — July 24, 2006 @ 12:39 am

35. I’m single, so spending $10 for a movie and another $10 on food doesn’t bother me, I don’t care. I will go to the movies regardless.

    So while thousands of eager job seekers will be trying to dazzle the “mark-ster” with new fangled marketing gimmicks, revenue sharing, co-branded ad ideas, web things “oh-so-done” to many times, I harken back to a little flick I once saw called “Mr. Mom”.

    Parents “Mothers and Fathers” but moms specifically don’t care how cool or awesome a movie is. Sure, they want their kids to see good movies, but what really matters to them is the bottom line; that’s dollars and cents to us simple folk.

    If the goal is specifically to get more “families” out to the cinema, then make it monetarily benefical for them to do so.

    Movies are movies, and tuna is tuna (”schooner Tuna” to explain my “Mr. Mom reference above).

    To get to the point, a lot of companies make movies, and a lot of companies make Tuna, so if you wanna sell more tuna, lower the price of tuna, but for movies offer a special admission rate for families. Shit, there exists special pricing for everything else in the world based on demographics and other specialized affiliations.

    If both mom and dad go to the show with one child anywhere under the age of 18, the kid gets in free.

    If a family of 5 or more go to the show they get in for $35 total spend.

    Basically, the more volume you move, the cheaper the price. If you’re single, whatever. If you’re a family, no gimmicks, its cheaper because you are a family, not overly expensive because you are one.

    If the average family of 5 get out to the movies 2 more times a year, the money will more than be made up all things considered; admission, eating, merchandise, etc.

    Comment by Brandon Piddington — July 24, 2006 @ 12:41 am

36. The more I think of it, the more I’m convinced that giving away the first 15 minutes is the best way to go.

    Trailers, video clips, myspace accounts for characters, etc is advertising. Advertising puts the onus on you to figure out how to reach people and get them to do something that results in your getting paid. Why bother with this if your business is content? Play to your strengths. A one minute trailer culled from a movie is advertising. The first 15 minutes of a movie is content.

    There are experts who make their living figuring out how to buy, hype, and spread content. Let network or cable TV run the beginning of your movie as a special. They know the business of reaching people. Dump all that hassle on their door. The TV network makes money by running ads on top of your clip, you make money by getting people so hooked on your movie that they go to the theater to see the rest of it. After this, the clip will make it onto the Internet where it will reach even more people without your having to do anything at all. Youtube, google video, pirates, bloggers, etc also already know how to reach people and distribute content.

    Comment by Ed — July 24, 2006 @ 12:53 am

37. One thing that I’ve always found annoying is having to get to the theater early to try to get a good seat. This problem is compounded on Friday or Saturday nights, or if I’m going with a group of friends. Not only do I have to set aside 2-3 hours for the movie, I need to set aside another 30 minutes-2 hours to get there early enough to get a decent seat. Hard to plan dates, etc, around that. My solution is to do what they do with sporting events, concerts, and theater: have assigned seats. First, this will drive online ticket purchases WAY UP Second, it saves everyone time. Now you just need to arrive 20 minutes ahead of time to go find your seat. To help make my point, just imagine if they didn’t do assigned seating for sporting events, concerts, and theater.

    Comment by Patrick Lee — July 24, 2006 @ 1:01 am

38. Mark, not to be modest or anything but your better than any other NBA Owner for 1 reason. That is you react with the fans, the people of this country. Most owners try to stay away from the crowd while you make it your main stay to go with them. You and the ex-76RS Owner Pat Croce to me are considered the greatest owners in sports. I dont know of any owner that reacts with the people as much as you do. It may not always be for the right reasons, but your doing your job. Pretty much because people are always talking about you etc..Like if you were to sell something people would buy it just because they know its from you and they can either praise you or hate you for it. This may sound weird coming from me to, seeing as I am no die-hard Mavs fan what so ever. I like the team you have put together, Avery Johnson is by far one of the best coaches in the league, and you have made all the right moves. I live in michigan, born and raised so yea im a Pistons Fan, by head and heart. But opposing fans have to like what you have done, because you open the door for fans like me, to like more than 1 team. To be intrested in a marketing place other than the one you live. I just wanted to say I have appreciated what you have done, and Pistons fan or not, I enjoy watching your shows, your team, and your business.

    Comment by Brandon — July 24, 2006 @ 1:09 am

39. I think there should be one site, like a portal, and with a subscription fee per month, you can choose your viewing option. You can check new movies trailers out, see reviews, order the movie to watch online (once), download the movie, buy the movie and have it shipped to you, or print tickets to watch it at a local theater.
    The subscriptions could be tier-level based. For example, it’s cheaper to watch one movie a month than once or twice a week.
    I know many people, like myself, who don’t go to the movies simply because of the experience. People ruin the movie experience. It’s great to hear other people’s reactions to the movies sometimes, sure, but sometimes it gets annoying.
    One of the problems I have is seeing a movie trailer before the movie is released, thinking you’ll wait to see it on DVD, and then you hardly see any advertisements about it coming out on DVD, so I never rent it.
    I think you’d get a lot more people willing to watch your movies if they could do it whatever way they want. If they like seeing it at their home, they can do that, if they like the theater experience, they can order tickets online without waiting online. Everything, all in one place for convenience.

    Comment by Matt — July 24, 2006 @ 1:36 am

40. The problem you face is one of marketing and advertising in the digital age. With so many options the value of a theater experience has a lot to compete with. Be happy, more people go to movies than vote.

    Politics. Empower people through how they spend their money. Make it work like a vote. The movie going experience is horrible these days despite all the technological benefits like reserved seating. I only tend to go when I really want to support a film, artist or genre, and I show my support with my dollars because I know that’s the only thing Hollywood can effectively measure as a meter of success. I also only buy DVDs for the same reason. I’ll buy crappy movies because they are part of a genre I’d like to see nurtured or expanded until content in that category IS of higher quality. Look at the comic book movie - they were laughable until Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon and started throwing money at it. Then they took it seriously.

    The converse is also true - I won’t give money to a project that involves people I don’t like or whose products I don’t like.

    If I can control whose pockets my money goes into, I will. Think about that statement as it relates to tracking information and purchases and profits and commissions in the digital age.
    The more control I am given, the happier I am about it and more likely I am to exercise that control.

    If my presence in the theater gave me something else, such as a vote in how the company that made that movies spends their money to make future films, awesome, I’ll be loyal to that company. The best it does now is get us a sequel when the take is over 100M.

    Otherwise I am simply just a good little consumer being fed what’s handed to me by people who make a lot more money and who’s opinions apparently mean less than mine. If these high paid marketing people are worth the six figures you pay them, what do you need my opinion for? Get rid of them, slash marketing budgets and lower the movie prices, or better yet, make your business about empowering the consumer. Make their theater ticket count for something more.

    Comment by Jake Lockley — July 24, 2006 @ 1:53 am

41. Develop a channel.

    Provide price breaks on tickets. Develop an infrastructure so that people can become retailers of your tickets. Provide a 20c price break for 10 tickets, 50c for 100 tickets etc. Then let the free market and competition work its magic. Suddenly all the folks with desirable properties can buy tickets from you and sell them at a profit. You will have hundreds of folks marketing your product in hundreds of different ways, all with a profit motive.

    Develop a way to sell the tickets electronically and support electronic transfers of tickets. Once you have this infrastructure in place you can even do innovative things like auctioning tickets for opening night to really popular movies and then allowing the reselling of such tickets on eBay etc.

    I realize that you don’t really own the tickets, the theatre does but I’m still sure you could make this work.

    Comment by Neil Golding — July 24, 2006 @ 1:54 am

42. Mark,

    When you started MicroSolutions, you made sure your customer reps went the extra mile - which drew business to your door that other dealers couldn’t service.

    When you created AudioNet, you made sure you delivered a quality product which the common person understood, wanted and could use easily - which drew huge amounts of traffic to the site.

    When you took over ownership of the Mavericks, one of the first things you did was create an atmosphere where both players and fans WANTED to come to the arena - which drew both fans (many of which had deserted the team) and top players (many of which *never* would have otherwise considered joining the team).

    You already know how to make this happen — create an atmosphere where people WANT to attend your movie by offering a reason for them to do so.

    How? Use the same tools and techniques you’ve been using successfully for the last twenty years.

    Apply the promotional ideas you use with the Mavs — say, by co-sponsoring free (or very inexpensive) outdoor viewings of a movie on a spring night at Starplex in Fair Park with up-front passes given away on 103.3 for the week previous to the showing. This would make an EVENT out of the first few showings, and would raise interest from those who saw it among their acquaintances and those who listen to the station, for instance. Other companies would certainly join you in the sponsorship of this — making it inexpensive, but very effective.

    This may sound equally crazy, but how about showing a specially-made preview (about 5 minutes, sort of like an extended music video) on the Jumbotron right before Rangers games? The previous idea of screenings at the AAC fits in here as well, although IMHO you’ll need to have another reason than just the movie for folks to attend.

    These are just some immediate “quick hit” thoughts. I’ll provide more ideas upon your contact with further interest.

    Comment by E.R. — July 24, 2006 @ 2:07 am

43. Just had another idea. There are alot more people out there with awesome home theatres. These people are usually passionate about film, and are the “Mavens” and “Early Adopters” or people you want spreading word of mouth about your movie. These people also usually follow the films they want to see for months, if not years, before the movie comes out. Entire weekends are planned around movies. But, most of these people would rather watch the movie in their home theatres, if they had a choice, and they would pay for it. Why not provide some sort of pre-order for the movie industry. People could pre-order a one-time/one-weekend use dvd that would be delivered to their door the day the movie opens. This happens with books and amazon all the time. It also gives you a clue as to whether the movie will be popular or not. If the movie is good, the film fan who bought the pre-order for opening weekend will tell his co-workers and others about the movie who then might see it the next weekend. OK, its late, and I just took some nyquil *sp. Night.

    Comment by Eric Allam — July 24, 2006 @ 2:21 am

44. You’re Mark Cuban?? Can’t you promote it on Charlie Rose, David Letterman, The Tonight Show, etc? If you did some lame publicity stunt like base jump, or climb a skyscraper, it’d make the news in a big way.

    I don’t understand the dileman, you’re like E.F. Hutton of the 70’s. I own a copy of Enron TSMITR, because of your blog. You’re a hero to many an entrepreneur, and the media loves to put your mug on TV, newspaper, etc.

    Comment by Kirk — July 24, 2006 @ 2:33 am

45. A) Forget the theatres, you’re on the right track, sell Landmark.

    B) Bring the content into the home, and once again, cue it for display after downloading, in Hi-def, or standard, for more volume.

    C)Charge the same price as the theatre(standard broadcast), more for hi-def, for the convienince of home, and the quality of the theatre.

    D) Produce something WORTH WATCHING.

    Comment by jh dfgd — July 24, 2006 @ 2:38 am

46. why not try to motivate potential viewers in a given area by giving them something in return after they see a movie, for example you are going to donate something to a community if they can hit a certain target points, this way the whole community will look at it as a fund raiser activity and a fun way to help the community…

    Comment by dindo — July 24, 2006 @ 2:38 am

47. The Idea:

    Here is a unique but potentially profitable solution.

    What is the worst part of going to the movies? Besides sometimes having to sit through awful movies? It’s the concessions. Two sodas, a popcorn and some candy costs $20 - $25! Ouch, that hurts! I hate having to pay that much. Everyone does. Even though we like the grub, we still have a the sick feeling that we are definitely being ripped off!

    I know that theaters make most of their money from concessions. I also know that the cost of soda and popcorn is almost zero. The stuff is dirt cheap.

    Here is where it gets interesting. We will setup a membership club called the “Back Stage Club”. Similar to a gym membership. When members join they get 1 free soda and 1 large popcorn when they come to see any movie during it’s opening week. People will love it. I know it might seem like it will cut down on concession sales, but we’ll talk about that in a minutue. What it will definitely do is get a ton of people back in the theaters. Specifically our theaters.

    Consider this: As a member in the “Back Stage” club, am I going to go to the theater down the street where I am not a member? A theater that offers me no immediate benefit beyond the movie itself? Heck no. Even if it is closer, I will drive right past it to pay my $10 to watch it at your theater.

    The Details:

    Putting a price on something helps to create value. So the membership would not be free. Maybe something like $19.95 or $24.95 per year.

    To become a member one would be required to give their email and address. This is where it gets really interesting…..more on this in a minute.

    Once you have paid for a membership you would get one of those key tags or plastic card with a barcode that is attached to your account/membership. Whenever you purchase a movie at the box office (or online) your barcode is swiped (or entered) into the “system”.

    Once you have your tickets you head inside to get your goods. When you arrive at the concession counter your card or key tag is again swiped which tells the staff that your account is valid and you have just purchased a movie ticket(s).

    Once you are “approved” you are welcome to indulge in your free soda as well as one jumbo popcorn. All 100% free.

    The Benefits:

    1. More tickets sold! Knowing that free bonuses await, we will have more people come to our movies. And by putting a requirement of “opening week” we not only create a sense of urgency, but we ensure that they will come during the first week or weekend (statistically important for movie ticket sales).

    2. Less money spent on promoting the movie. Every Friday morning we send an email/RSS Feed to every member which contains upcoming movies, reviews, behind the scenes footage and links to trailers. This gets our message out for pennies…to the exact people who are most likely to act on it….on the day they are most likely to act on it.

    But for best results, we need to take it a bit further. Over time we will know exactly which movies members go to. We scan their membership card each time they buy their ticket. We see the trends. We know if they come to chic flicks or action movies or a mix of both. Maybe they only see Harrison Ford movies or maybe they love horror movies. Whatever it might be, we will know. We then tailor the weekly email to their tastes. Don’t show my wife “Star Wars” content and don’t bother telling me about “She’s The Man”. No thanks. The idea is that the content is now relevant and personal and as a member not only will I appreciate that, I will come to more movies!

    3. Virtually zero cost. Of course we still need to promote the movies on the net and even limited runs on TV, billboards and radio. But the key is limited. Instead of spending 60mm dollars we will spend less than 15mm.

    The cost to implement the membership program is very low. We need software and computer and servers to scan tickets, analyze trends and send email, but the technology for that is very affordable.

    What about the cost of all that popcorn and soda we are giving away? I don’t have the exact numbers, but the annual membership fee of 20 or so bucks would almost cover this in full.

    What about the lost revenue from all those free concessions? Well, lets do some math.

    Current Scenario:
    Lets say I go to the theater 2 times per month.

    I buy two full price $10 tickets on each visit. That is a total of $40 per month spent on tickets.

    I might but popcorn and soda and candy on one of those visits (maybe). Total paid for concessions: $20.

    Total Monthly Revenue: $60. Total Annual Revenue: $720

    Membership Scenario:
    Knowing about current movies that I have an interest in (from the email) and knowing that I have free popcorn and soda waiting for me, I now go to the movies at least 4 times per month.

    I buy two full price $10 tickets on each visit. That is a total of $80 per month spent on tickets.

    I get free popcorn and soda but I still might buy candy or nachos on 2 of those visits. Heck, the $6 I now pay for candy seems like a deal! Total paid for concessions: $12.

    Total Monthly Revenue: $92. Total Annual Revenue: $1,104

    The proof is in the pudding! The membership plan increases ticket revenues by over 50% while reducing promotional costs substansially. We are getting more people by spending much less money.

    There are a ton more things we could do to polish and enhance the club. For instance give members some type of incentive to get their friends and family to become members.

    The main thing to keep in mind is people only care about themselves. They don’t care about our theater, our industry or our troubles. They only what to know, “What’s In It For Me?”

    Let’s give them a reason to come back to the theater. As you mentioned in your foreword for “Marketing Outrageously”; Being conservative when it comes to marketing is really the dangerous path.

    Mark, I am brave enough to help you implement this if you are brave enough to give it a shot!

    Thanks for this awesome opportunity,

    Sean Alsobrooks

    Comment by Sean Alsobrooks — July 24, 2006 @ 2:43 am

48. 1 - Make the whole movie experience more enjoyable. Noisy people ruin movies because you miss things that are said, right? Eliminate that by putting tiny speakers in the back of each seat. The sound will be directed at the person and they won’t miss what is said just because the rude jackass next to them is talking on their cell phone.

    2 - Make adult only, say 25 an over, theaters that show movies aimed at the same demographic. Make the seats a little more plush, further apart so you don’t have to bump elbows, maybe a tiny table between each instead of those stupid cup holders that you hit with your knee nearly flipping your drink out on your neighbor. Make reclining seats with a headrest and an actual foot rest on the back of the seat ahead of you. Even at 35, I still have to fight the urge to put my feet on the seat infront of me. Instead of putting an age limit on the theater, you could just put an age limit on times/nights. Another idea is to create a lounge-type area with extra comfortable seating, it’s own surround sound and a waiter/waitress and sell the tickets for those seats at a higher price. Make it a sunken area that can be surrounded by a partition to separate it from the general audience.

    3 - Make something worth watching. Rarely do I see a movie I would watch more than once.

    4 - Buying advanced tickets online at a discount is a great idea. Selling a complete package such as tickets and concessions together or maybe a family package is another idea.

    Comment by Jackie — July 24, 2006 @ 2:49 am

49. This one is a little ‘out there’ so I don’t mind sharing it publicly..

    There are hundreds of thousands of people (actors, directors, editors, etc) who aspire to get on that big screen. Most just wait tables or sit around with their thumbs in undesirable locations waiting for that ‘big break’.

    Why not begin an independent ’studio’ that utilizes that worthless screentime before a flick (usually static local ads for dealerships or restaurants) for shorts under 5 minutes? These will play 10-15 minutes before the start of the big production.

    1. Anyone who participates in one of these shorts will become your ’street team’ spreading word of mouth in person and on the ‘net. Their mothers, fathers, sisters, and grandparents will all get into the act as well. You could probably even make a well-publicized competition out of it.

    2. We might get some pretty interesting and creative ideas showing up, possibly raising the quality of films altogether.

    3. It’ll be very cheap (well, it won’t even be close to 60M per) and the labor costs are virtually nill. As a bonus, movie-goers might also feel that they’re getting more bang for their buck.

    4. Concessions will go up as people will start showing up earlier and will have some time in between. Ok, I might be grasping at straws now..

    Basically it’s an independent film fest and viral video in one that utilizes ‘dead air’ (while driving people to the theaters).

    Comment by Chris — July 24, 2006 @ 2:54 am

50. http://www.youtube.com

    This is the most popular video site for the major 18-34 demographic. People go here to see videos and movie clips. Period. If the video preview is featured, hundreds of thousands of views per day is common. The more people that see it, the perpetual nature of the video’s presence and marketability will flourish.

    See, that didn’t take a million words like some of these other posers and BSers trying to “land a job.”

    Michael

    Comment by Michael — July 24, 2006 @ 2:59 am

51. It might not be the cheapest but it will be the most effective!!!! NASCAR is the answer!
    as the “new” world’s biggest sport, me included a fan, have seen many a movie on a car going in circles for hours thats continues advertising all the 200,000 in person and millions watching on t.v. and the di-cast replicas and t-shirts verry effective!

    Comment by Nathan Knebel — July 24, 2006 @ 2:59 am

52. One of the problems theaters have is there is no compelling reason to see the movie TODAY. There is always tomorrow then PPV then HBO and then the preferred way to see a movie, NetFlix. Combined with the worry that today will be over crowded / unpleasant fellow attendees.

    So have a night to see the movie for the “film club”; that showing is members only; hopefully at most 50% of capacity. It would require the cooperation of the theater owners; but they could get local tie-ins; perhaps more advertising revenue due to demo of crowd. Lexus night where Lexus owners get valet parking since Lexus does things at opera/ballparks. You would test market it in a few markets until you proved it worked. (My outsider opinion is that Movie makers and theater owners prefer to whine and fund MPAA lawyers rather than innovate but perhaps #s/experience would sway them. ) if It would not be about cheaper movie experience ( a theater it night will never be my cheapest way to see a movie.) rather a better experience and a reason to see the movie at the showing or two.

    This is not a general solution to movie attendance. If you have read Gladwell’s Tipping Point, the goal is to incent the “influencers” in that town to see your movie and preferablely early when they can influence more people. If you and/or affiliated movie distributors (you may not have pipeline to justify club) could do a “season pass”; I find that when I do a season at theater/opera/Mavs I see performances that I would never have purchased individually, but afterwards say that was pretty good. Thus, you get these “mavens” i think Gladwell called them - people who other people ask about movies - to see your movie even if it is not in their favorite actors/genre.

    So the one sentence pitch would be “using exclusivity and enhanced movie experience to seed the viral marketing.” or perhaps “do you want to spend your promotion dollars on a commercial I Tivo through or on getting the alpha movie watchers in the town to see your movie.”

    N.B.: the caveat is this requires good movies; as my marketing prof used to say “nothing will kill a bad product faster than good advertising.” The last thing you want to do is to have the movie mavens see your bad movie.

    The showings might be useful for surveys. You could even provide a web site (or a way for local theater owner to have a site) so the film club members could use their member number to vote on the movie. And the site gets some local PR (what does the Reno/Austin/Atlanta… film club think about this movie…) Which increases knowledge/exclusivity which drive people to club which gets more movie influencers to see your movie.
    Lee Davis
    P.S. Reno has U of Nevada and is growing rapidly due to refugees from CA; when can you justify putting a Landmark theater here? Please?

    Comment by lee — July 24, 2006 @ 3:05 am

53. That’s great that you claim you do “buzz marketing” but you’re (or your ad agency) not doing it right. Look at “Snakes on a Plane”, they’ve done a fantastic job with it.

    I know you say that if it’s been done before you’re doing it, but that’s not good enough, you need to do it RIGHT.

    And.. Don’t go with the MySpace affiliate program, that’s just lame bro and it will not work.

    Comment by cameron — July 24, 2006 @ 3:15 am

54. The first guy who posted had the best idea. Make movies worth seeing and they will sell themselves.

    As for THE EXPERIENCE; make palces that ENFORCE certain rules and wil kick people out (IE bratty little punk kids) who don’t follow them. So perhaps open a chain of theatres that require you to be a certain age to attend. That would get more adults out for a date night.

    But you can have all those wonderful things and still not have a great product. If movies aren’t worth seeing then it doesn’t matter how you market them. No one wants to go on a bad date. And going to a bad movie can make for a bad date.

    Comment by Todd Johnston — July 24, 2006 @ 3:19 am

55. hey marky!
    first of all,great job getting the DMs’ to the finals so soon,never expected that.
    too bad they lost,they kinda deserved to win.(KINDA)
    ok now to the movies:
    what the hell r you complaining about?the system right now is pretty good,if the studios don’t spend money how the hell are people going to know about the movie?
    every body is an aspirational idiot these days!!!nobody cares how effing good or great the movie is!!!!it’s just that HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MOVIE?and why,because the damned flick is so heavily promoted!!!!c’mon don’t tell me that u don’t know that hollywood movies(pardon my french)are CRAP!!!they cater to the LCD!!!Exceptions of course prove the rule!!!C’mon man ,Viva America,keep the system running,u’ve got a great thing going,not only does hollywood make barfastic movies but does one hell of a job selling them.
    i should know,because i watch so many of them.
    saludos amigo,keep up the good work with the mavs’.

    Comment by kvb — July 24, 2006 @ 3:21 am

56. hey marky!
    first of all,great job getting the DMs’ to the finals so soon,never expected that.
    too bad they lost,they kinda deserved to win.(KINDA)
    ok now to the movies:
    what the hell r you complaining about?the system right now is pretty good,if the studios don’t spend money how the hell are people going to know about the movie?
    every body is an aspirational idiot these days!!!nobody cares how effing good or great the movie is!!!!it’s just that HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MOVIE?and why,because the damned flick is so heavily promoted!!!!c’mon don’t tell me that u don’t know that hollywood movies(pardon my french)are CRAP!!!they cater to the LCD!!!Exceptions of course prove the rule!!!C’mon man ,Viva America,keep the system running,u’ve got a great thing going,not only does hollywood make barfastic movies but does one hell of a job selling them.
    i should know,because i watch so many of them.
    saludos amigo,keep up the good work with the mavs’.

    Comment by kvb — July 24, 2006 @ 3:24 am

57. Free babysitting within the theater would get me there! Here in Arizona, one of the theater chains offers babysitting, for $6 an hour, but if that was free, my husband and I would be there every Friday or Saturday night, especially if the facility offered some real engaging activities for the kids while the adults are watching an adult movie.

    Comment by Lisa Willard — July 24, 2006 @ 4:02 am

58. Just want to add a small idea that works overseas. In Denmark there’s something known as Biografklub Danmark (Cinema Club Denmark). Last year 3.5% of the Danish population joined the club. Every year you can sign up for $12 which will give you a rebate card that gives you a 50% discount on seven pre-selected big films. In the 2005-06 season it covered four Danish films, Mrs Henderson Presents, Memoir of a Gaisha and Match Point i.e. mainstream films for grown ups. The normal ticket price in Denmark is around $10 a piece. The club has been open for 11 years and cover most cinemas in Denmark. In Denmark, this is how you get people like my 58 year old parents to go to the movies 6-7 times a year every year.

    This is hardly the answer to your marketing cost problem, but I just wanted to add this and encourage others to post ideas that has worked elsewhere.

    Comment by Michael M — July 24, 2006 @ 4:16 am

59. Use binary option trading sites like http://www.TradeSports.com to hedge against losses. Sell movie tickets in advance using an auction based system like http://www.eBay.com

    Comment by Eddie — July 24, 2006 @ 4:20 am

60. Yes, we have a similiar thing here in Arizona during the summer months. You can buy a summer movie pass for the kids, with seven preselected movies and days for a very cheap price. Something like that for adults might work too or how about a referral fee for every friend I get to go see a movie?

    Comment by Lisa Willard — July 24, 2006 @ 4:22 am

61. Stop paying for attention. Attention itself is the new currency. As attention is getting scarcer you have to pay more and more to get the people to the movies.
    But you can have their attention for free all you have to pay is attention and that doesn’t mean you have to do promotion or advertising. There are other ways think of links as the perfect example of exchanging attention. The more you link to others the more they link to you.

    Comment by Bertram — July 24, 2006 @ 4:31 am

62. I haven’t read all 58 comments before this, so I’m sorry if this was said already…

    I think you should only market new movies on really, really hot days. I just went to see a movie today, for no other reason that it was 95 degrees in Seattle. Yeah, I know it’s hotter other places, but we’re used to the 70’s, and have no A/C… so it’ freekin’ hot!

    I spent money on the movie, ice cream and even went in early just to stay cool for even longer. Maybe you could invest in global warming so that your movies would sell better!
    And, I’m lookin’ for a job!
    http://tweblog.wordpress.com/tag/jobhunt/

    Comment by Toby Getsch — July 24, 2006 @ 4:36 am

63. check out the i-comm product of http://www.icginternational.com/

    great communication platform that provides marketers with the ability to deliver rich content ( ie Movie Trailers) at any time to targeted consumers or user groups.

    Comment by Paul — July 24, 2006 @ 4:44 am

64. Start the prices at $0 then increase as more viewers want to watch the movie.

    Comment by Bulls Fan — July 24, 2006 @ 4:55 am

65. Simple. Less ad spend, more word of mouth. Put the money into ‘kids for a quid’ (1GBP in English money) for opening weekend/weeks. As many as you like with at least one full paying adult.

    This a) fills the theatre on opening weekend, b) is spread word of mouth by the kids, c) gets the movie watched and more word of mouth - and word of mouth is king.

    Total cost = less than a traditional campaign. Full theatres. happy people.

    I’ve seen this work in sport. My home town football (soccer) club use this periodically and _always_ sell out the ground. These kids are future season ticket holders. The cheers are a little higher pitched but it works.

    Of course, you need to have good movies and believe in them for that to work - but I assume you are cool with that.

    Comment by Josh Hart — July 24, 2006 @ 5:57 am

66. Cool! I know some people from webdate.com who might be interested to take up your challenge!

    Comment by Elizabeth — July 24, 2006 @ 6:14 am

67. Mark,

    Quick Pitch

    I feel there is a variety of different ideas floating around too solve this problem. Many of the ideas are garbage and I feel innovation is the key to lower prices and better service in any sector or market in the United States. The U.S. in general is completely enthralled with personal computers and the convenience of using a Tivo to watch their favorite show. I feel that the growth of the internet is changing the way we watch TV. Some people watch news clips online, and others now use online T.V. players (TVU player) to watch content from anywhere in the world as long as the user has internet access. As a lazy/on the go culture in general, I feel the best way to lower marketing expenses while creating a new market would be to promote “Live Theatre” a new way to watch movies. It would allow for the movies to be seen in the home or from anywhere where a computer is connected.
    Basically, you could have the first ever simultaneous live movie link between the entire world. It would be impressive and could change the way we would watch movies in the future. There are a lot of ideas that can branch off of this to create different revenue flows and this idea could be implemented fast in variety of ways. Feel free to contact me to learn more or to work on a business plan, thanks Mark.

    Mark Smith (I.U. Grad)

    Comment by Mark Smith — July 24, 2006 @ 6:32 am

68. Try giving some extra value for their regular ticket (I take it that you cannot influence too much the price at which theaters will sell the tickets). Anyone who sends you a used ticket has the right to a discount on the DVD (whenever that is edited), on the VoD-edition through your platform and on any merchandise you might have with that movie. This may not increase too much your movie sales in theaters, but is a good way to spread the word a little, to sell more in later stages, to have satisfied consumers and to have their emails (since you will exchange those discounts for their ticket AND their email).

    Comment by AMRS — July 24, 2006 @ 6:58 am

69. I like the free baby sitting idea. The adults would drop the children off to watch a kids movie, while they watch their own. This is the number one reason we see less movies!

    Here’s another idea, send the movie’s main actors to a random theater(s). Make it like Country Music’s Fan Fair.

    Comment by Robert Gremillion — July 24, 2006 @ 7:11 am

70. To me it seems simple… you have to get people to that point where they absolutely have to see the movie. So, what about making the first 20 or 30 minutes available online. Or, what about some kind of lead in to the movie, so that watching those 20 or 30 minutes doesn’t kill the movie (because yeah, 20 or 30 minutes may be almost a 3rd of some movies) and then get the potential audience interested that way.

    I don’t think that doing advanced screenings is a great idea, because you turn the value of the movie into $0, and any time I missed an advanced screening in college, even when people said it was awesome, I waited until I could get the value as close to $0 as possible, which sometimes meant I didn’t watch it at all (sweet, I hit the $0 value of watching the movie) or I rented it.

    But, by maybe getting people where they have to see the movie, they’ll go out and watch it. Shoot, if you did it just right I know that my wife and I would try to leave the house immediately to go see the rest of the movie.

    Comment by Alan — July 24, 2006 @ 8:03 am

71. There are a lot of things you can do in order to attract more people to the movies and reduce your advertising budget. Here are a few:

    There will always be people who will go to a movie the first week it comes out (I was like that for quite some time). They are not your problem. The problem is the people who don’t care about watching the movie two months after its release.
    Solution: Build a steps based pricing system for movies. A movie should cost $12 at the first week. But after a month, his price should be lower. (In the back end system you can also tie the price to demand. When demand start to go down, the system automatically reduce the price of the movie). You can also do a promotion where if a person goes to a movie in the first week, he gets a discount or a free ticket for an older movie.
    Yes, it could mean that some people will wait a few weeks before going to the movie in order to get a reduced price, but it also mean that a lot more new people will go to see the movie. The backend pricing formula should find the right balance.
    (You can also run this idea on seating places. Like in concerts. The best seats costs more than the ones in the first rows.)

    Print on the movie ticket a code users can enter when they back home in an Internet site in order to get some value. For example:
    - Access to screen savers, desktop background, ringtones etc.
    - Free download from iTunes of the movie theme song.
    - On line chats with the movie actors, producers, etc
    - A possibility to register to a lottery with some cool prizes
    - Access to director comments about the movie, behind the scene footage and interviews (could be even scraps from the material already made for the DVD)
    - Discount code for another movie
    - A discount on the movie soundtrack (via partnership with iTunes, Rhapsody, etc)

    As comments here can’t be formatted using HTML, i posted my complete answer to your question in my blog:
    http://www.nechmads.com/blog/blogs/shahar_nechmad_-_diaries_of_a_startup/archive/2006/07/24/32.aspx

    Comment by Shahar Nechmad — July 24, 2006 @ 8:05 am

72. Mr. Cuban,
    Take a look at my blog, especially the “MMM’s Greatest Hits” series of links off to the right. I think you’ll see I’ve given a lot of thought as to how to change the marketing of movies. If you think my stuff is strong enough I’d love to brainstorm with you.
    –Chris Thilk

    Comment by Chris Thilk — July 24, 2006 @ 8:20 am

73. tie it into kids fundraising. almost any activity has some sort of fundraiser(candy, carwash etc). sell them in the spring for a fall opening with the kids getting a buck for each one sold and some free tickets if certain goals are met. just an idea, but remember, almost any fundraiser is a beating for parents.

    Comment by john acton — July 24, 2006 @ 8:28 am

74. Television is very developed in our modern world. Practically a television set costs in every house. Therefore people which inlay a money in development of television will never remain in a loss.
    The more so young men very carries with this

    Comment by Puhanov Roman — July 24, 2006 @ 8:35 am

75. Mark, this suggestion may help.

    When you buy a ticket for a movie for the theater you should receive a ‘credit’ for 1/4 off the DVD when released. If you buy two tickets, you receive a ‘credit’ for 1/2 off the DVD. Set that as the maximum you can get off of a DVD though, 1/2 off. If you buy 100 tickets, you can only get credits for 1/2 off the movie you just saw in DVD format.

    This should only be redeemable directly after the movie has played in the theater though. Have a little stand in the theater where customers can redeem their credits directly after the movie. The DVD should be shipped directly to the customer’s home. (This will also help theaters market directly to their customer base with email notifications and snail mail marketing to YOUR CUSTOMER BASE!)

    By doing this, you’ll eliminate the issue of folks not going to the theater because they can buy the DVD when it comes out. Lots of folks say ‘We’ll get it when it comes out on DVD.’ They’ll feel like they’re not throwing away $20 to see a movie (if it’s crummy) if they can see the movie in the theater and buy the DVD both for about $30. Also, I rarely want to see a movie just once! This would allow me to see the movie and purchase the DVD together.

    To make this ‘really’ work, and if you really want to hit a home run on this, ship those DVDs to ‘preferred’ customers a week before the DVDs are released in retail stores. You’d have to work with the studios on this though!

    You see a movie and say, I can’t wait for this to come out on DVD when you’re walking out of a good movie. Then you are able to order the DVD there, have it shipped to your house and receive it a week before those who didn’t go to the theater to see it. It’s a win, win situation!

    I think one or more of these suggestions could really benefit the theater business. With a little tweaking to this module it could really improve sales.

    So, when do I start?

    Comment by Aaron — July 24, 2006 @ 8:42 am

76. It is about the product, Mr. Cuban.
    A company should not need to spend the retail price of the product in order to attract customers to purchase it.

    I work in the Detroit auto industry.
    (And I’m staying, but thanks for the job opportunity.)
    We are on the wrong end of the economy of selling cars right now because we have been making product that the customer doesn’t want. We’ve been listening to ourselves, not the people with the checkbook. Over the decades, competitors have come along and eaten our lunch. If we (the US Auto Industry) had taken care of our customers by listening to them and providing for their most basic wants, there would have been no opening for other products. So now we offer huge incentives in flailing attempts to attract customers. Does that sound familiar?

    Similarly, the movie industry has been paying attention to it’s own internal voices but not to the voice of it’s customers. And now there is competition for our entertainment dollars.
    Virus Marketing (which is one of your suggestions) is not going to get more people into movie theatres any more than “rebates” and “gas cards” get people to buy products customers don’t want.

    I can assure you of this - produce a good product and people will pay a fair price for it.

    I’ll tell ya what, here’s a good idea for you: How about you form a movie production company here in Michigan. We have lots of hard-working people who will compete for those jobs. We have plenty of big buildings to create indoor sets and use CGI for the rest. Production can run nearly year-round because without the distraction of nice weather - shows can create more content.
    But in order to make it work, you have to start by structuring the company as a business - with business people at the help. Not with “entertainment” people. This problem Hollywood faces is similar to the problems of the US Auto Industry in this way too. We have gone through cycles where we put an “engineer” in charge and the company would make exciting products but lose money. So we would switch to a “bean counter” and the company would make a profit but have boring products.

    Does this seem familiar to Hollywood’s current problem? Lots of incentives to purchase the product? Lots of creative output but nobody holding the purse-strings?

    I’ve read that some of the best “inventions” are where someone applies a concept from one field into an entirely different field. Well, here’s an idea and a chance to apply it. Study what the non-US auto companies have done to become such juggernaughts in the US auto industry. Then apply those concepts to the US movie industry.

    Good luck.
    I look forward to sitting in a theatre someday, enjoying your success.

    Comment by _Jon — July 24, 2006 @ 8:46 am

77. Idea #1:
    Have your engineering staff devise a mobile movie theatre. Whether by land, sea, or air… as long as you make the setup of the theatre itself as “cool” and as RubeGoldbergish as possible, that, itself, will become part of the show — and the public knows a good show when they see one. Strike one and only one print of a given movie, then have your mobile theatre tour the U.S. — if not the world — with it before the “real” run. Gasoline is not cheap right now, of course, but I bet that changes in a hurry once we put down the insurgency in Iraq. * * *
    Idea #2:
    Bring back the serial. Produce an action-heavy/FX-heavy/funny/weird serial, have each chapter play before an at least semi-appropriate new feature, and of course don’t release the serial on DVD until all the chapters have been shown theatrically. You might have noticed that quality special effects keep getting more affordable. You also might have noticed that people have been spotted paying for just the trailer of a much-anticipated movie and then walking out. In this way, you may well get the same people coming out to see 12 or 14 or 18 of your movies instead of just one. Since the Landmark audience tends to skew older, you might find it a fine idea to produce the first new Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers serial in about 60 years.

    Comment by Jack Maxfield — July 24, 2006 @ 8:58 am

78. I think we have to look at the world of sports entertainment to guide us in this process. So many sporting events now are just one piece of a much larger puzzle around them. Take a look at few examples.

    College Football- We no longer arrive at the game 30 before it starts then leave for home after the final second. It is an entire day’s event. RV’s role in the night before. There’s food, recreation, pre-game rituals. The stuff around the game has become bigger than the game. But thats okay, it still helps college football.

    NASCAR- Same thing on even an bigger scale. People arrive days before the event, campout, eat food. Some people do not even go to the acutal race, but watch it from their motorhome. Again, great for NASCAR.

    This idea also hold true for other entertainment venues. People and families want the “big” event, lots of things to do, see, eat, experience. Festivals, fairs, amusement parks, water parks, theme parks, all day events. That’s where the money is being spent.

    So, the big question is- How do we take this philosophy and tie it into movies.

    First, it is already being done in the form of film festivals. Film Festivals, once for the wierd, odd, indie crowd, are now become more mainstream. However, we’re not taking about more film festivals as being the solution.

    The answer is in how we surround the movie with things that attract people to see the film. This is where a radical approach needs to happen. The stand alone theater is outdated. Theaters need to attach themselves to other entertainment venues, and I’m not talking about a mall. Imagine if the major theme and water parks had large theaters within thier walls and were part of the park experience. A family walks around in the heat for 5 or 6 hours doing the rides. The kids are getting cranky and the parents are hot. Maybe it’s time to hit the theater in the park to see the new Cars movie. I know some parks already have a theater or two, but that’s not what I’m talking about. This would be an entire theater complex with all the new releases, not a movie about the history of bubble gum.

    The bottom line is there has to be an attraction for the family. There has to be more. It has to be part of an “all day event.”

    Just my thoughts.

    Comment by Scott Engbrecht — July 24, 2006 @ 9:17 am

79. Comments 59. and 63. are on the right track (try to use a market mechanism to determine the correct pricing for a ticket), but haven’t gone into enough detail to come up with a workable solution.

    If we are looking at the movie theater business as a revenue-maximizing problem (and assume more-or-less fixed marketing costs), one obvious potential solution is to use a multi-unit auction format that attempts to maximize the revenue from each screening of a movie, rather than maximizing the revenue per ticket. Movie seats are perishable items, so (within limits) it makes sense to try and fill the theater for every screening. Of course, filling the theater also increases the number of people that have seen the movie and can generate buzz around it.

    The fairest multi-unit auction (and the one with the best chance of filling the theater) would work as follows: assume a screening with n seats. Customers bid by indicating how much they’d be willing to pay for a ticket to that screening. Then you take the nth highest bid, and everyone who bid *above* that number gets a ticket, at the price of the nth bid.

    Assume a theater with three seats. Ten people enter bids for tickets, at $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, and $10. We take the third bid from the top ($8), and the top three bidders pay $8 each for tickets (and no one pays more than he/she bid). We now have revenue of $24, more than the revenue ($18) of pricing tickets at $9 (we have only two people willing to pay that price, so we won’t sell all the seats). Lowering the price to $7 makes no sense, as we can already fill the theater at $8 a ticket. If we have five seats to sell, the price per ticket is $6, which although lower than our original $8 ticket, still yields more revenue ($30 for five tickets) than the $8 price ($24 because we sell only three of our five seats).

    A multi-unit auction format also solves the problem of what to charge for matinee tickets, what to charge for tickets after a movie has been in the theaters for a while, how to maximize revenue for the opening week-end, etc.

    Obviously there are issues with this plan, among them the simple fact that it might be hard to explain how the auction works to the average consumer. But if used for select screenings (especially for geek-friendly movies), I think it’d be worth a try (and just the buzz from the first auction could help promote the film).

    Comment by Jack DeNeut — July 24, 2006 @ 9:18 am

80. The industry is shifting from a ‘one size fits all’ to a niche mentality.

    There is less and less ability for the customer to be forced to adapt to you and more of adapting to what the customers want.

    There will not be a give 20% discount and all will be well answer.

    You will have to make it be different things to different people.

    For example:
    My wife will get a group of friends to see a $1 movie and bring all of the kids at 12:00 in the summer. The movie is not important, it just has to be a kids movie. And actually seeing a movie that the kids have already seen is safer.

    Teenagers, yea they are influenced by advertisement. The latest movie and late at night and a ‘hip’ atmosphere that is important. Thier goal is to get out of the house, and be part of what is exciting.

    When we go on a date night, there are several different attractions. The whole goal is to get out of the house. Sometimes a quiet evening with not much concern for the movie, and sometimes as group, sometimes we go for a specific movie.

    Other groups that we are involved in would be a huge oppertunity to go see something relavant to that group.

    Comment by Mike — July 24, 2006 @ 9:19 am

81. Mark Cuban, there is no way you will get people like my father out of the house, none. He watches a few movies per month from the comfort of his easy chair and has no interest in social networking, movie theatre memberships, or affiliate promotion. My suggestion is keep movie prices high and to cohabitate a theatre with an office building so as to receive regular rents on the building when movies are not being shown.

    Comment by Earle — July 24, 2006 @ 9:25 am

82. When I was young, movies were not as expensive, and on Saturday afternoon the theater ran 3 of them, back to back. We took the bus or sometimes our parents drove us, and every seat in the theatre was filled. The popcorn and pop was the same price in the theatre that it was outside, or a little, but not much more. Parents dropped their kids off, and did their shopping, and we sat there hugely amused. Your industry has raised your standards so that going to the movies is now an event. To go for a movie and a hamburger costs teenagers $50.00 here in Canada. They can see DVD’s at home so much cheaper. Your industry needs for it to be something lots of people do almost every night. For a while in Canada they had 2 Dollar Tuesdays, they made quite a bit of money, so they raised the prices, and cheap Tuesday dissappeared.
    Take a city, your choice, and run kids movies4 hours worth on Saturday afternoons. Lower the price of candy bars to something like the people pay in the super markets, and the price of pop to something more realistic. Put on movies that the kids know, and sometimes if you have a hot new first run kids movie, toss it in, fill the theatres, and teach young people that this is a good way to spend some time.

    On hot days have heat wave specials where you charge a few dollars for admission and as always make people thing they got a deal on popcorn and soda. Too many people view your food and beverages as a rip off, and well they are, stop being so greedy. Recently there was a heat wave in Ontario Canada, how much money could have been made if during the hottest part of the day the Theaters were running double bills at a reasonable price, heck it’s summer, and it’s hot, how many mom’s would have given anything to have a safe entertaining place to get their kids out of the heat. There should be childrens favourites running every afternoon in every theatre in North America. and they should change every three days so the kids can spend 2 afternoons a week paying you money. Maybe not a lot of money, but you are showing them old favourites, and are already in the black for them. A movie theatre filled with squealing little bums at 3.50 a head Saturday afternoon is better than a theater with 10 people at $12.00

    Good Luck with this, Owning theatres used to be a gold mine, you guys have really screwed it up.

    Comment by Peter — July 24, 2006 @ 9:30 am

83. The issue here is not that new movies suck (they do.) There’s a reason for that…people spend millions on shitty movies every weekend (You can thank the Bays and Ratners for that.) It’s buzz. Plain and simple. I’m not talking about over-the-top spending on McD’s promotions and $10 million trailers. This can be achieved with intelligent promotion to target audiences.

    You’ll see an example of how effective “buzz” is later this summer with “Snakes on a Plane”. Yes, Snakes will probably top $100 mill. in a few weeks with the help on a little thing called the Internet. (I haven’t really seen any promotion for this movie at all) The thing is, internet geeks love getting excited about medocrity. Snakes will not be a ‘good’ movie, but will entertain geeks en masse.

    This model could potentially be applied to every movie. Create a demographic-friendly buzz, and you’ll put assses in your seats. BTW, if it does top 100 million, you owe me a job.

    Go Mavs,
    Geoff

    Comment by Geoff Scott — July 24, 2006 @ 9:31 am

84. I see a theme: Everyone wants you to solve the thing they like least about theaters.

    - bad movies
    - no babysitters
    - ticket prices
    - no “Netflix” like database recording their preferences, predicting movies back to them
    - no streaming release (for those who don’t leave home)

    I hear complex solutions to a simple problem. The problem—no cheap way to market films—is connected to another problem: movie theaters and movie marketing are as focused on community as Wal-Mart. The result is where we’re at today, people go to the theater to connect to beautiful movie stars, not the people around them.

    It wasn’t hard to market films back when theaters were neighborhood hubs for social activity. Neighborhoods have changed but the desire to connect remains. Now we see a trend of people connecting through smaller, tighter groups built around more refined interests. If somebody were to survey, “Where do you connect with your friends?” I don’t think “The local multiplex” would hit even the top ten.

    Imagine ten little theaters packed out with ten different films from all over the spectrum and history, most of them one night events hosted by the person who coordinated and marketed the screening. Why did they coordinate and market a screening? The same reason people sacrifice a Saturday to clean and cook for a party. Imagine theaters returning to their previous state as gathering points for people in relationship. The movie-lovers at the center of those relationships know what their people want to watch and when they want to watch it. So give them what they need (charge them if you want to) and let them do your marketing.

    Your challenge is to build a brand that represents that experience. People’s expectations are jaded toward a multiplex. Change expectations. Don’t nickle and dime ticket prices and online rating systems. Obliterate what people expect to experience from movie theaters, and be something different.

    That’s what we’re working toward at http://spout.com

    Comment by paul@spout — July 24, 2006 @ 9:37 am

85. Lots of great ideas have already been mentioned…the industry doesn’t need a bandaid, it needs to be torn down and reconstructed

    -movie theaters with beer and food (the paramount in Oakland is busy…they even have baby brigade where you can bring your infant on Monday nights)
    -zap cell phones in the theater (legislation to allow them to be used by theater owners)
    -variable pricing - a movie that cost a million to make should not cost as much as a blockbuster
    -reserved seating - charge more for the best tickets and then you don’t have to get there 30 minutes before the show
    -more 2nd run theaters, between first run and dvd/cable release
    -tie movie stubs with discounted purchase of dvd

    I hope these are the ideas you are looking for, because there is no small fix and no amount of social networking is going to get people to movies under the current paradigm.

    Comment by M — July 24, 2006 @ 9:48 am

86. Change 2929 Entertainment and Magnolia Pictures websites into more than just information about upcoming and released films. It should make the process more transparent and interactive. Release information about projects that you are considering and get the feedback from movie fans. Gather opinions about possible cast and crew. Release information about progress as you go and build interest without the advertising hype that often leads to anticipointment.

    Most movie websites are only useful to determine if you want to see a movie after it has been released and you’ve already heard about it. Make your websites into places where people can go to find out what movies are in production and let them have input into the process. That will give them some ownership of the movie and incentive to see the movie when it is released.

    Comment by Steven T. Cameron — July 24, 2006 @ 9:56 am

87. You need better posters. You need dynamic images. You need trailers that properly tease people into the theater.

    What’s the biggest film going right now? Snakes on a Plane. Why? Because the poster looks great with the snakes wrapped around the plane. The trailer teases us with snakes on a plane.

    Here’s another thought - dress up your theaters to excite folks to come down and see that film that you own. Look at what Hitchcock did to theaters for Psycho.

    Arresting images. Teasing trailers and an atmosphere that screams “Be Here Now!” Don’t appeal to the old people. They’ll come if they come. Don’t appeal to families. They always complain about why Hollywood doesn’t make nice simple family films and then they don’t show up (outside of the blockbusters). Appeal to the people in your theaters. Bring ‘em back, alive.

    Quit being polite with your ad campaigns. Sam Arkoff didn’t make AIP work by being polite. Don’t be afraid to be a carny. Temptation isn’t a bad thing.

    What could I do for HDNet? Review materials and scream “And I’m going to withdraw $10 from my kid’s college fund for this!” Don’t play it safe and normal. People can stay it home and play it safe and normal. And those are the people you don’t need to appeal to.

    Comment by Joe Corey — July 24, 2006 @ 9:57 am

88. How about a club and membership account. For $19.99/month or $3.99 per DVD, you can join and get the latest movie releases automatically sent to your home (mail date is each Tuesday). The DVD is a special technology that allows you to watch the DVD twice and then recycle the disc. No need to ship the disc back. It’s fully recyclable. Plus, the disc does not need to be sent back to get new movies. If you can watch the movie now, or simply store the disc until it’s convenient to watch. People don’t have to leave the house OR spend a fortune.

    Comment by DVD Dude — July 24, 2006 @ 10:01 am

89. Don’t charge for showings on opening weekend.
    Or, better yet, go direct to the public on the internet, bypassing the theaters for a few weeks.

    Comment by Jeremy Zawodny — July 24, 2006 @ 10:20 am

90. Mark its like this (and if someone has already mentioned it, I apologize, there are just too many other comments to read): Its all about radio. First of all radio is free, it doesn’t cost you anything except for time. Get actors, directors, producers, to go on air and promote the movie. Will Ferrill has been doing it to promote his new movie and it really can be done with any movie. You can even give stations movie premiere passes and they will inturn make 30 second promos for the movie or 10 second liners. Clearly you can’t promote every movie you make on every radio station in the country, but thats where the rest of your marketing team comes in. Target certain demographics and call producers/promotion managers and you have yourself a successful movie premiere.

    Comment by Andrew Brooks — July 24, 2006 @ 10:24 am

91. The Question

    Mark Cuban: - “How do you get people out of the house to see your movie without spending a fortune.”

    The Answer

    The answer to this “Holy Grail” caliber question can be found by breaking down the question to it’s very basic element.

    First, I believe the question is posed incorrectly: It’s not about you “getting” people to do anything. It’s about understanding the process of why people choose / elect to see your product. So, the new question would read…”Why do people get out of the house to see my movie?”

    Possible answers:

    -Because the theatre is the only place to see the movie
    -Because there’s a ton of hype
    -Becasue my friend said it was good
    -Because it was rated well on Yahoo! movies
    -Because it was raining out and there was nothing else to do

    The end goal is to totally eliminate all of the top answers, you want people to say, “I went to the movie because I needed to see the movie and it’s what I wanted to do.”

    What would make people finally start to say that about the theatre experience? I think that the process will take some time, but there are number things you can do to jump start the industry, here are a just a handful I think would work immediately:

    1) GPS Meets WI-FI - I am facinated with the idea of using cell GPS data to deliver internet relevent advertising. Example - I walk around or drive around all day. My phone records the GPS coordinates I follow through the day. i get home, hop on the computer..now my cell phone links to the net via wi-fi, all of the gps coordinates are comminicated toan advertising network…maybe “Ad Maverick”…ads begin to display in banners and in search results based on where I was that day…Now imagine the possibilities of incorporating movie trailers and info based on my daily activity.

    2) Integrate Ice Rocket with Your Database System - This is among the most innovative ideas I have. Imagine being able to rank pages on the net, possibly even MySpaces pages, based on the number / or quality of specific movie references. So I could go to ice rocket, select this new movie tab, type in a movie, and research it on ranked pages. The owners of the sites could get some sorta kick-back. This data could then be appended to database info you keep at theaters to specific customers.

    3) If individual customers could benefit from the success of a movie: I am a fan of promotions, I think if done right promotions are the most powerful form of advertising. Instead of spending 40mm advertising a movie, offer a $1-2 cash prize to a couple movie goers. Or a $10k prize awarded to each or your theatres.

    4) If tech savy folks could get an instant (time sensative) upload to IPOD-like devices @ the theatre only: Imagine being able to offer the new release movie for upload only @ the theatre. The movie file could be protected to prevent copying, editing, or distribution. The customer could use a theater kiosk or approach the ticket counter for the uplaod. Pricing would have to be thought about.

    4) If you encouraged People to Bring Their Own snacks: The number one barrier to theater adoption is prices, Food prices, ticket prices…Encourage people to bring snacks, lower the barrier to adoption. Sure you may lose some consession sales, but you would sell more theater tickets. People already sneak food in as it is…Maybe put up microwaves and allow people to heat-up snacks for a price…

    5) Utilize Database Information to Identify Movie “Influencers” - I like the idea that someone posed on this thread, where you could keep data on customers and use it for personaliztion of services / products. I propose to take this idea 1 step further…use the data to identify “Movie Influencers” and provide the people free access to your theater. These types of people would include: Moms who take their kids to movies 2+ a month, college age kids who visit the theater 2+ a month, etc…

    These are just some initial ideas..but remember you want people to say, “I went to the movie because I needed to see the movie and it’s what I wanted to do.” This challenge will take more than one off ideas. It’s going to take a group of creative, imaginitive folks who are