Sylvester Stallone has enlisted [Motive Entertainment’s] Paul Lauer to help spread the word of the sixth in the Rocky series to the faith-and-family market.
Category Archives: Press
As The Polar Express cruised into the top 10 movies of the year at the box office, executives at rival studios marveled…Within the industry, the odds against Polar Express succeeding seemed so long that one executive…made a bet that the movie wouldn’t get past $80 million. But Warner Bros. expects it to reach $170 million and possibly more. “We reached out in our group sales effort to schools, religious organizations and corporate groups,” said Warner Bros’ head of distribution, Dan Fellman.
Is The Polar Express an evangelical film? You’d certainly think so, considering the expansive campaign that Lauer unfurled in the Christian media this fall.
The Passion of the Christ has stunned even the believers. It’s defied all the practiced way of doing things. It has become a textbook study in both high-profile and below-the-radar marketing.
…Lauer declined to discuss this campaign in detail. “There’s a certain proprietary element to it,” he said. “We have spent a great deal of time creating a new system.”
…Most talked-about movie event in America, in large part because of a marketing strategy… One Hollywood executive at a major studio described it as “a brilliant marketing campaign.”
Gibson has half-jokingly remarked that The Passion may be a career-killer for him. If it is not, if it somehow manages to succeed, it will be in no small measure owing to Paul Lauer’s efforts.
Mel Gibson’s The Passion isn’t an easy sell. …no major studio wants to touch it.
In a marketing campaign built on the lessons of The Passion of the Christ, Narnia has also been skillfully sold to the Christian audience, much of it orchestrated by Motive Entertainment.
Disney, along with other studios, has often courted the so-called faith community when the appropriate movie comes along… But since The Passion, such wooing has become a science. For that reason, Disney and Walden have hired Motive Marketing, the company that oversaw The Passion’s outreach program.