Honored to Serve as Hollywood’s Newest Focus Group
After the surprising $55 million opening weekend of 2009’s GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie, Hollywood’s marketing geniuses decided that it must have been the advance screenings on military bases that created the buzz that sold the tickets, especially since most reviewers and bloggers had been dismissing the movie for months.
Since that thing they did worked that one time, of course everyone’s started doing the thing over and over until it doesn’t work any more. Paramount Studios gave both True Grit and The Fighter a series of advance screenings on bases around the country.
Did any of you attend one of these screenings? What’s the vibe? Was everyone happy just to see a movie for free or was there a real positive response? Let us know in the comments.
![Der Gro?mufti von Jerusalem [Amin al Husseini] bei den bosnischen Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS. Der Gro?mufti ist auf dem Truppenubungsplatz ein[getroffen] und schreitet die Front der angetretenen Freiwilligen mit erhobenem Arm ab.](http://images-undertheradar.military.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/nazicollaborators300.jpg)
Under the Radar is commentary. We don’t report the news; we offer our take on what happened.
1 Comment
I didn’t attend any of the screenings, but feel military bases should get early screenings of movies. If it’s any good, the word will get out!