Sunday, February 10, 2008

How do you market a movie that's only going to be in theaters for a week? Disney thinks they've got it down. Pair up teen sensation Miley Cyrus (better known as Hannah Montana) and put her on the big screen in 3-D, and fans will come running.

Last weekend, tweens spent $31.3 million to get a chance to see "Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" which was only available for a very "limited time" in theaters nationwide. It set a record for a movie opening on SuperBowl Weekend, which is quite an astonishing feat for a movie targeted at such a narrow audience. But, how did they do it?

Dan Smith, marketing professor at Indiana University states that "When you create that kind of buzz and combine it with scarcity, you're going to drive up demand. It strikes me as not much different from a rock concert." It also helps that Disney has established such a credible franchise, and has sole ownership over an entire television channel where they can market and advertise events such as this repeatedly.

Disney has now given theaters the right to keep this movie/concert in theaters for as long as they'd like, based on it's enormous success. Even though I'm almost 20 years old, I will still admite I am a large Miley fan. I haven't gotten the chance to experience this 3-D adventure yet, but perhaps sometime in the near future I will.

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