Is Hollywoods Reliance on Event Marketing Wearing Thin?
Chris Thilk After the first weekend in June in 2009, 19 different movies scored the top spot on the box-office charts. In 2010, there have been only 11. Yes, the first six frames of 2010 were won by “Avatar” and it’s tempting to attribute the discrepancy in the numbers to that movie’s dominance, which continued from its late 2009 debut. But even taking “Avatar” out of the mix — which isn’t all that accurate — there have been more movies that have repeated in the top slot this year than in the same period of 2009: seven in 2010 vs. only four in 2009. ‘Shrek: The Final Chapter’ What’s changed year over year, at least to my eye, is that the studios are compensating for what seems to be a weak slate of releases by ramping up campaigns to turn each movie release into an event, something that has to be seen right now. “Alice in Wonderland,” “Clash of the Titans” — even “Valentine’s Day” was something to be seen on the titular weekend it was released. The most recent repeat box-office winn
