Movies advertising sales not all that good

When a movie hits the big screen the general public knows about only because of the advertising surrounding it. Very few movies profit from the more traditional word of mouth like the faux-documentary Blair Witch Project. And even Blair Witch need some advertising to really break through. When you have a major movie with really big - read expensive - actors. You better put as much money as you can on the advertising budget to make sure that masses will flock to the theaters to see your movie.

The only way to cover the cost of producing movies with big stars is by having as many people possible to watch the movie in theaters. Sure there are DVD releases but if you can't thrive in the movies you shouldn't expect too much from the DVD releases.

Take the Curious Case of Benjamin Button movie, it's very long and some people think it's a Forrest Gump copy cat. Brad Pitt is one of the most expensive male actors in Hollywood. To cover to costs of that movie and make benefits, the producers need not only invest a whole lot of money to advertise the movie but also they better wish that critics and the public like it. Nowadays with the web everyone is a movie critic who reviews movies they've seen so their friends can read about it. Imagine how much free publicity such reviews generate. Hopefully for Benjamin Button the film was nominated for quite a few Oscars which will only generate more free publicity.

Now how about sales? Well it turns out that the most expensive stars do not provide the best ROI for movies. That's why a movie like Twilight is probably a bigger commercial success because the cast is not a bunch of super famous and extremely expensive Hollywood A-listers. Sales are important because if you put money on a movie you expect not only to break even but to make profit. After all the movies industry is a business and a big one at that. It seeks to make profit, that's why Hollywood stars can enjoy the lifestyle that they have.

But don't big stars sell more tickets than lesser known stars. Yes kind of, especially in the case of bad movies. An unknown cast won't convince people to go see a movie that critics think is bad but people will go see a movie labeled bad by critics if their favorite star is in it. The problem is we all have different favorite stars so the star effect is not enough to make a movie profitable especially when you consider the cost of the star and the fact that producers tend to spend more when big stars take part in a movie.