LOS ANGELES — The longest lines outside theatres this Thanksgiving weekend may be for the new ‘Star Wars’ trailer that exhibitors will show in some locations.
Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., Cinemark Holdings Inc. and Carmike Cinemas Incorporated, will run a trailer for Walt Disney Co.'s new ‘Stars Wars: The Force Awakens’ over the extended holiday weekend. Director J.J. Abrams on Monday confirmed the November 28 release plans on Twitter.
The anticipation around the trailer for the seventh episode of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise is the latest drip feeding of information about the picture, and it's timed to exploit the Thursday-to-Sunday U.S. Thanksgiving break, a big weekend for films. In 1998, some movie fans bought tickets to a Brad Pitt feature, ‘Meet Joe Black’, only to see a trailer for ‘The Phantom Menace’.
“Trailers have always had this kind of hold on the fans,” said Robert Marich, who recounts the Pitt episode in his book “Marketing to Moviegoers.”
“The fans, the geeks, the aficionados, they are trend setters, they're plugged in online. They show up for trailers.”
Until Burbank, California-based Disney and the exhibitors say more, “Star Wars” fans will have to guess which current films the trailer will be running with. Disney's latest feature, ‘Big Hero 6’, is still in theatres.
Regal, the largest exhibitor, announced on its website today it would play the trailer in nine locations starting Nov. 28, according to trade reports, and then pulled the notice down.
Regal, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, didn't respond to email requests for comment.
“If you don't see us tweeting for a while, a certain Wookiee pull some certain arms out of their sockets,” the company said on its Twitter feed.
Other big chains such as Kansas City, Missouri-based AMC, the second largest exhibitor, Plano, Texas-based Cinemark and Carmike, in Columbus, Georgia, said they'll be showing the clip.
The efforts to build excitement around the new release with teasers tap into the growing importance of previews to a fanboy audience. A trailer for “Age of Ultron,” the new Disney/Marvel Avengers film, was recently leaked and has been seen almost 60 million times on YouTube.
Universal Pictures, part of Comcast Corporation, released an online teaser for the new ‘Jurassic World’ on Nov. 23 and planned to unveil a longer online trailer on Thanksgiving Day, according to an official Twitter feed for the film.
In an age of social media, trailers are often released online. The decision to unveil the “Star Wars” clip in theatres highlights the importance Disney places on the film.
The studio ranks second this year in domestic box-office receipts behind 21st Century Fox Inc., with $1.46 billion in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. Its biggest domestic films this year have been ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” both from Marvel
Thanksgiving ranks as one of the biggest weekends for movie going. In 2013, receipts from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 totaled $208.1 million, led by “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” in its second week in theatres, according to Rentrak Corp.
Two new films open in wide release on Nov. 26: DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s “Penguins of Madagascar,” distributed by Fox and “Horrible Bosses 2,” from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros.
‘The Hunger Games: 'Mockingjay — Part 1’, which had the biggest opening of the year last weekend, will also be vying for film fans in its second weekend of release. – Washington Post