Given the major changes in the film industry in recent years, successful release strategies are becoming more complex and concrete, with high-profile guest speakers at the Zurich Summit on Saturday asking for tailored strategies to create evergreens and attract communities while relying on festival premiers, social media promotions and academy members.
Providing the current decline in the current business was 193 heads Patrick Waxberger, Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classic, president of Low K. Entertainment, and co-president and COO Daniel Steinman of 30WEST.
Providing perhaps a more innovative take, Barker praised the Zurich Film Festival’s industry conference to help create greater unity in the independent film sector.
“When I started my business, it wasn’t that much of a colleague,” Barker noted. Pointing to the success of independent films in the 1980s and 1990s, Barker said the sector had far surpassed “the last decade or so, and more than anything else, it hasn’t survived.”
He added that indie businesses are always difficult because you have to monitor your expenses, because it’s limited to so many films. You have to roll along with the change of history in a way that finds that niche audience, how to reach out to that niche audience.”
With many independent theatres gone out of business, many movies that cannot be played normally in a multiplex must play in a multiplex. “So you need to create a whole new model of how you release a film. You have to pay attention to all revenue streams,” Barker said.
Every company has different missions and different agendas, but for Sony Classic, “Even if the total falls, theatre has to remain primary.”
“It’s essential to reveal the marketing impression that these films are evergreens,” Barker emphasized.
“One of the keys to Sony Pictures Classics is not only to open a film and make it theatrical enablement of its widest audience, but also to make it evergreen. And those opportunities are more than ever to make the film evergreen if its marketing impressions are published.
What’s getting more difficult is that all films are different and need to be treated differently, he added. “Distributors need to be more creative than ever. There’s a film called “Being Led Zeppelin,” and IMAX solved how to present that documentary in IMAX. With access to many screens, we will be releasing “Merrily We We We Allow” on Fathom. ”
“Traditional spending, I think it’s over back then. It’s like you have to be completely digital. Everything is interconnected.
Colligan emphasized the importance of credibility, saying, “Genius marketing wasn’t able to convince the audience that the film was something, it was that they were able to find it later. I think it’s much more difficult in this era.
Similarly, joint connections can play an important factor. “I think people are looking for how they connect with their community,” Corrigan said. “So if you read books and films based on books, it can become a sense of community. If you like Pierce Brosnan, it becomes a sense of community. There are many ways to utilize the concepts around the community, but people want to see things and spend their time with things they may love.
