A "substantial part" of the advertising budget for "Spider-Man 3"--which cost about $400 million to make and release--has migrated away from newspapers to the Web, according to Jeff Blake, Sony's head
of worldwide marketing and distribution.
For example, some members of the Spider-Man Movie Network (established by Sony) spend hours every day debating (on a Sony Web site) whether the
"Spider-Man 3" villain Venom spends enough time on screen. The studio is also taking in what's said about the movie on blogs and message boards so it can hone its publicity.
Because
young moviegoers don't want to be treated as passive observers but as collaborators, Sony made sure that online fans would be the first to read snippets from "The Spider-Man Chronicles"--a forthcoming
book about the making of the film--on the studio's movie blog. And in partnership with Target stores, Sony is giving five fledgling filmmakers the opportunity to produce "webisodes" to be featured on
a bonus "Spider-Man" DVD.
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