Clerks 2 for marketing inspiration

Chris over at Movie Marketing Madness uses “Clerks 2″ to remind us how to make money with a movie: First of all, Kevin Smith has a core audience he’s painstakingly built up over the years by releasing mostly good movies. And he realized that this movie will play to that core audience, so no big budgets were needed. Kevin made his new film for the relatively small sum of $5 million, and then spent less than that on buying tv ads. What he has done is get his core audience excited about the film in ways that don’t require a lot of money.

According to Kevin:

“That’s why we spent 45 weeks throwing up making-of video blogs over at www.clerks2.com. That’s why I did a fifteen city tour promoting the flick to every local news outlet I could hit. That’s why Jeff Anderson and Brian O’Halloran did the same, in fifteen other cities. That’s why Rosario Dawson and I did couch duty, separately, on Leno, Conan, Kimmel, Ferguson, and Regis (yes, Regis).”

The point is that with its $10 million dollar opening the first weekend, Clerks 2 was already making a profit. And Chris is absoltely right when he surmises:

If more studios thought along these lines - small budget movies for core audiences that have targeted and cost-effective campaigns - Hollywood would be a much happier place. It’s called the Long Tail. Learn and embrace.

What I particularly like from Kevin’s strategy is the video blogging from early on. I think we’re going to see this more and more because it’s an insanely effective way to build buzz and loyalty. People want the inside scoop, especially on movies featuring stars and characters they love. After witnessing engaging video early on, they will have to see the movie and most likely tell their friends to see it too.