Distribution and Promotion

Often HALF of the budget for a blockbuster movie is spent on marketing and promotion. Promotion is often done through the use of:
-Trailers (advertised through the TV, Radio or Cinema)
-Posters
-Toys (eg. free McDonalds toys)
-Film websites
-Companies social network sites (twitter accounts, facebook advertising etc.)
-Youtube (interviews with actors, early viewers etc.)

Any company can associate with any other company. For example, Warner Bros, a huge marketing company that distributes films joined forces with a few different companies whilst promoting 'Batman: The Dark Knight Rises'. They joined up with:
-Toshiba Electronics- the company ran a six week campaign to win tickets to the European premier in London.
-Nokia- the release of their new phone the Nokia Lumia 900 came with limited edition batman branding on it, and came with exclusive movie content if you bought it.
-French Connection UK-the company sold limited edition T-shirts across 70 worldwide stores.
-Armani- the company provided clothes for the actors to wear during promotional events

Warner Bros also struck a partnership with Lego, so Lego made their own trailer for Batman but with with Lego figures, and Batman is now show in Legoland as a Lego version.

Marketing a big product like a movie can be a very expensive business, especially when that product has a limited shelf life. Movies have to be a hit on their opening weekend, often on their opening day, otherwise they tend to disappear very quickly, and the studio stands to make a loss on their investment. Due to a short shelf life the movie studio may begin marketing a movie as long as six to eight months before the release date, especially to create anticipation for an event movie, using teasers (enigmatic posters, short viral videos).

This would be key in our thriller as we are releasing a trailer, so our trailer needs to create great anticipation and provide teasers to become a good adverisement.