You get people to see a movie the same way you market tons of other things.
It’s about the principle of association.
- You open a new store by getting Justin Bieber to come to the grand opening.
- You sell snacks and drinks to people who are already coming to watch a ball game.
- And you get people interested in your movie by putting an A-list celebrity in it.
Independent films do this move by debuting at film festivals.
“Tons of people are coming to watch movies at the Telluride Film Festival. Let’s try to get our movie in too!”
And uh, this example is outdated.
Notice I said A-list celebrity and not some other version of:
Frankly, the most reliable way to get people to go to movies is to put people in the movie that people already know they want to see: Charlie Chaplin might be the perfect example.