Week 7 responses

How was the saturation booking and marketing of Jaws different than other Universal films (or earlier blockbusters such as The Godfather)? 

They bought television spots on the three prime time networks.  They all targeted different demographics.  Jaws ended up having the largest television campaign.  With the marketing of the book and the buzz that was created, Universal had the film open in theaters all over the country, straying away from just releasing to the major cities like L.A. and New York.

 

 

 Name three ways in which the publishers of the book and the producers of the film worked together to promote Jaws. How did they know that their logo for Jaws was successful? [Include names/companies in your answer.]

 

1.) The producers under Universal, Zanuck and Brown helped exhibitors push the release of the book even though it did not mean any advances financially for them.  They wanted to hype the book to hype the movie.  Zanuck would go on to produce the movie Sweeney Todd by Tim Burton but that is not important.

 

2.) The author of the book Peter Benchley was having the book published by Bantam books at the same time that Universal was producing the film.  They encouraged Benchley to do a lot of interviews on talk show knowing that talk would turn to movie hype.

 

3.)  Universal planned on releasing the film within months of the paper release of the book.  Zanuck/ Brown and Bantam books all worked on the logo together so that the movie and the book could be thought of together.  They knew they were successful when they showed and two thousand people waited in the rain to see it.

 

What is “blind bidding”? Why did exhibitors object to the proposed blind bidding for Jaws? Why was the blind bidding for Jaws called off?

 

Blind bidding allows exhibitors to big on film to show in theaters that they have not seen yet.  The Justice Department regulates and has rules on how to and how many films an exhibitor can blind bid on.  Universal was asking an exorbitant amount of money for a film that no one had even seen yet.  Exhibitors had no idea if the film was any good but they knew it had potential to flop leaving them out to dry and broke.  There were extreme charges just to show the film.  After a sneak preview that ensured a successful logo for Zanuck/Brown and Bantam books, the Justice Department called off the bidding because some exhibitors had the unfair advantage of seeing the film.