Let’s go to the movies!
I don’t consider myself a person who goes to the movie theatres often. True, there are some movies that I have waited hours in line ups both to buy tickets and then to ensure a good seat (for example, most of the Harry Potter films), but in many cases I only go to the theatres every once in a while.
This past Saturday night, I ended up with the choice of a going to see a movie and my immediate thought was ‘Easy A’, staring Emma Stone. I had previous seen trailers, and commercials of this ‘chick-flick’ and had heard overall good responses from my friends. However, after reading the Movie Review section in the Vancouver Sun that highly recommended and praised Ben Affleck’s new crime-thriller, “The Town”, I decided to take a break from my love of girly comedies and take a chance with this new film.
“The Town” ended up being an entertaining and exciting movie and I was glad that I had the chance to see it. However, if I had not seen that review in the newspaper, I wonder whether I would have risked going to see it at all. Although “The Town” received great reviews, I had not seen any advertisement promoting this film at all; nothing on busses, at skytrain stations, or even on TV, and had not heard any mention of it amongst people prior to its release. Therefore, my first introduction to this film was when I opened the paper on Friday morning and read the movie review.
So now I ask, is the marketing of films really necessary to the extent that some companies work to promote their new movies? It may have just been a strange case that caused me to see “The Town”, but it made me wonder whether movie reviews are in fact such a powerful form of persuasion. Despite seeing advertisements of “Easy A”, I ended up basing my movie decision based simply on the thoughts of a single movie review, without even seeing the trailer for “The Town”.
On a final side note, “The Town” ended up winning the top seat on the weekend’s box office, and “Easy A” took second place. I’m pleased to say that I contributed to the $28.8 million Ben Afflect’s new thriller grossed.