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In response to
"Variety: WWE parts ways with Fox, Lionsgate, studio inks deal with Samuel Goldwyn, Vivendi. Part 1"
by
H-Mogul
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Part 2
Posted by
H-Mogul
Jan 19 '10, 01:09
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Where WWE's wrestlers had to be the sole star of its movies in the past, "we revamped the idea of what we're trying to do," Pavone said. "We put a tremendous amount of pressure on them. We're now marrying them with parts where they're surrounded by wonderful character actors and don't have to carry the movies."
That strategy was required, in part, in order to work around the wrestlers' grueling TV and event schedules. "It's tough to book around it," Pavone said. "If they're not in every frame of the movie, it definitely helps. They're too important to take away for two months to work on a movie."
Enlisting Denise Chamian, who has cast films for Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay and Tim Burton, among other high-profile filmmakers has helped established actors to WWE's films.
"If you have great stories and great scripts, great actors will come," Pavone said.
But will the audience show up?
Taking back control of how WWE's movies are marketed is key to attract auds, McMahon said. He wants WWE to handle every element of a campaign -- from the design of posters to the creation of trailers and other promotional materials -- something studio execs have balked at in the past.
WWE has long had a variety of platforms on which it can talk to millions of potential moviegoers, including its four weekly TV shows, live events, pay-per-views, magazines, websites, videogames and DVDs. The TV shows alone reach 16 million viewers.
"That's a large number but there's a much larger number that we're not reaching," McMahon said. "We have the resources, we just need to leverage all of it. There are so many different things that we can do."
It will experiment with how films are released, treating them as live events, with WWE's wrestlers showing up at theaters to interact with fans. Samuel Goldwyn, which will collect a distribution fee for its work, hopes to secure at least 100 screens in the nation's biggest markets to unspool WWE's pics.
"Targeting a specific audience is what our business model has been all about," said Meyer Gottlieb, president of Samuel Goldwyn Films. "WWE is a marketing machine. They have a huge fanbase. Theaters are always encouraged by any activity to promote their movies. That's always music to their ears. Anything that you can do onsite to bring an audience in is very beneficial to them."
With the time frame between a theatrical and DVD release becoming more fluid, WWE is also experimenting with its DVDs in order to save on marketing expenses. "If you do that, you don't have to spend marketing dollars twice," he said. If you promote it once, we don't need to have the talent do two "Tonight Shows" and burn up resources."
All of this, of course, is to boost WWE's bottomline. Movies will help make WWE's already large library, made up of years of footage from its shows and pay-per-views, more attractive to buyers looking to license new content that features its wrestlers, especially overseas, as well as fill the air of its TV network when it launches.
"Heaven forbid we do anything traditionally," said Donna Goldsmith, WWE's chief operating officer. "But we're a public company and we need to look at the dollars and cents."
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