welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
promotional stunts for movies well know
this is obviously a PR stunt but it’s a
good one
before we begin we publish new videos
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more great content for this list we’ll
be looking at some of the greatest and
most innovative promotional stunts that
were used to generate hype or buzz for a
film apparently don’t need to see the
movie in order to find a million dollars
there are clues in the movie but the
clues are also on the boxes of this
retail product which has a tie-in with a
movie number 10 telekinetic coffee shop
girl Carrie in Stephen King’s novel
Carrie is an abused high school girl who
discovers that she has telekinetic
abilities and uses them to kill students
and destroy her hometown
it’s very Stephen King so to promote the
2013 remake the people behind the movie
had a coffee shop played a little prank
on its customers by featuring an actress
throwing another actor against a wall
moving tables and making books and
pictures fly from their spots all by
using her supposed telekinetic abilities
real customers freaked the hell out and
the video soon went viral amassing over
68 million views on YouTube as of early
to promote Devils do an animatronic
devil baby was created and let loose
within the streets of New York City the
baby had a grotesque appearance complete
with black eyes and vile around its
mouth and it would create all sorts of
havoc like flippin cops the bird popping
up and scaring passers-by and projectile
vomiting some sort of milk like liquid
it would be terrifying to witness but it
doesn’t take itself too seriously either
it’s a mostly harmless prank and the
video footage of it certainly made an
impression on the internet and got
people talking number eight free Pot
American ultra yes unbelievably American
ultra gave out free weed at Comic Con
however it’s not like they just grabbed
a handful of pot and made it rain on the
crowd instead it was only available to
those who had a legal medicinal cannabis
card real care incorporated delivered
free samples of a unique American ultra
strain to those who had a card and it
undoubtedly made their days Ament the
many forms of entertainment vying for
attention at Comic Con 3 weed is
certainly a fantastic way to get your
name out there and he helps some people
who genuinely need the drug win-win
number 7 transforming 7-elevens into
kwik-e-mart The Simpsons Movie
to promote the then upcoming Simpsons
Movie several 7-eleven locations were
transformed into kwik-e-mart complete
with redesigned exteriors and Simpsons
theme treats like buzz Cola and crusty
O’s the cost was a quoted ten million
dollars to implement but it was a
resounding success with the altered
7-eleven seeing a 30% spike in profits
the movie eventually went on to grow 74
million in its opening weekend making it
the third highest opening weekend for an
animated film behind only Shrek 2 and
Shrek the third who needs the
kwik-e-mart we all do apparently who
needs the kwik-e-mart
number six real Chucky child’s play and
Chucky’s only a doll right
those poor tourists just wanted to see
Times Square and ended up getting chased
by Chucky brandishing a butcher knife to
promote the 20th anniversary DVD release
of child’s play a horde of actors
dressed as Chucky descended upon Times
Square where they ran amok and playfully
caused terror among the
hustle-and-bustle complete with butcher
knives cleavers
and axes while the actors don’t look
that much like Chucky especially
considering Chucky is like 1 foot tall
it would still be delightfully
terrifying to see a human size one
running towards you with an outstretched
knife hello Andy
[Music]
number 5 treasure hunt million dollar
mystery in this flick a White House
employee hides four million dollars in
various locations but only 3 million of
it is found so audiences were given a
chance to find this money in real life
by buying glad lock bags and filling out
a form declaring where the money was
located from clues given in the movie 14
year old Alicia Jones guessed that the
money was in the Statue of Liberty’s
nose and she subsequently won the prize
in a random draw beating out thousands
of others who correctly guessed the
location as well given that this Tom
Bosley led film cost 10 million dollars
and earned back less than a tenth of
that she was the only winner here and I
didn’t win the $25,000 instant prize but
I can use this to say 15 cents on my
next purchase I’m not sure all of this
has to do with the art of the cinema but
I guess it’s an interesting promotion
number 4
Bruno flies into Eminem’s lap Bruno
Sacha Baron Cohen certainly knows how to
generate buzz if he isn’t spilling ashes
all over Ryan Seacrest he’s flying into
Eminem’s lap and sticking his butt in
the rapper’s face such was the case at
the 2009 MTV Movie Awards when Cohen
performing his Bruno flew over the crowd
on wires before something went wrong and
he landed on Eminem’s lap and was
seemingly pissed as he swore a couple of
times as is his way and stormed out in a
huff it was embarrassing and cringy as
hell but it turned out that Eminem was
in on it all along number three breaking
news independence day David you been
good afternoon so far the phenomenon has
not caused any damage if you’re going to
promote your seventy-five million dollar
blockbuster you either go big or you go
home
Fox took advantage of the huge crowd
that Super Bowl 30 would bring and spent
1.3 million dollars on a brief trailer
to be shown during commercial break the
trailer quickly showed people running in
the streets before it cut to the White
House being blown up by an alien ship
with special effects that were unheard
of at the time the caption enjoyed the
Super Bowl it may be your last followed
the gamble paid off and the ad generated
an insane amount of publicity for the
movie number 2 it’s a bomb Mission
Impossible three file this one under the
someone surely got fired category prove
million oh no in order to promote mi3
4500 Los Angeles Times boxes were rigged
with a device that would play the
Mission Impossible theme when the box
was opened
[Music]
however many of the devices failed to
stay in place and dropped into the
newspapers passers-by noticed and
believing the devices to be explosives
called 9-1-1 this force bomb squads to
actually detonate boxes and caused a
Veterans Hospital to be evacuated the
backlash from the botched stunt led John
O’Laughlin a VP with the LA Times to
comment quote we weren’t expecting
anything like this
you don’t say before we unveil our top
pick here are a few honorable mentions
police say a passenger finds a
suspicious package under I 93 by the
Sullivan Square t stop 93 north and the
orange line shut down for a good two
do you have an appointment today and
that’s so much number one pretending
like it was real the Blair Witch Project
I miss very naive if you weren’t around
for the Blair Witch Project it’s hard to
imagine just how much discussion and
hype this movie’s marketing team were
able to draw the film’s website featured
fake police reports and interviews while
missing posters were distributed during
screenings to make the fictional events
seem more realistic when coupled with
the movies found footage gimmick which
was new concept at the time people began
to believe the footage and story were
real the campaign worked incredibly well
as the movie grossed 248 million dollars
on a measly sixty thousand dollar budget
and that friends is how you market a
movie I really don’t think that the film
would have done nearly as much money you
know as the much business done if it
weren’t for the website do you agree
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