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How To Make A Billion Dollars At The Box Office
Your guide to making one of the biggest movies of all time

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How To Make A Billion Dollars At The Box Office
8. You Need A Heck Of A Trailer

Much as we all tend to despise studio marketers most of the time (sorry guys, but we do), on these films you see talented marketing teams working at full tilt - particularly with the trailer. Each of these films had at least one stand-out, must-see shot in the trailer (the truck flip! The wheel fight! The boat standing up on end! Hogwarts exploding! Iron Man bringing the party to us! A Tube train crashing through a wall!) or a quick montage of amazing shots. These snippets made it clear that this is a film that must be seen on the big screen, at least for the first time or two, whether due to groundbreaking effects / stunning visuals / old-school action / gorgeous stars. That's how these films recall the glory days of Hollywood's Golden Age in the pre-TV era and draw in the massive crowds. As a bonus, if you can convince Her Majesty to get involved in promoting your film as part of a massive global sporting event, that seems to help too.

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Have Your Say
Agree with our tips? What other essential ingredients do you think are required to make a $1 billion movie? Register or login now to have your say.

Your Comments
1 RE:
Posted on Monday May 28, 2012, 13:34 by Rebecca Juan
Hey, It's very effective. Read More

2 RE: Shot in Australia?
Posted on Thursday May 24, 2012, 23:32 by Evil_Bob
may be a historical event - but the movie is basically female fantasy. Repressed girl meets guy who opens her horizons and helps her to become the person she wants to be. They engage in a brief but passionate romance. Then he dies (meaning his memory will never be tarnished) and she struggles on becoming a better and deeper person as a result. PURE. FEMALE. FANTASY. f thats how you're definining it then there isn't a film on the entire All time box office list from 1-1000 that isn't fantasty to some description. You know right well what they're talking about with calling Titanic non-fantasy. Apart from the obvious historical settings it features characters that have no magical powers, no extraordinary abilities, are clearly human, not animated, non-extra terrestrial and have events happen to them that while unlikely are not beyond the realm of possibility. As saccharine as it sounds people do fall in love every day and people do have tumultuos relationships, often rendered diffiRead More

3 RE: Puny film snobs.
Posted on Thursday May 24, 2012, 17:21 by Whistler
Negative comment! Read More

4 RE: It's hard to agree that there is a formula.
Posted on Thursday May 24, 2012, 13:39 by Evil_Bob
"Debatable religious figures" Presuming of course that we are talking about Jesus and The Passion of the Christ (just sneaked in as well at number 64) I would like to point out that its not debatable that Jesus is a religious figure. He is. Whether he existed or not is also not debatable. He did. What is debatable is whether he was the son of God and performed miracles etc etc He didn't Either way I appreciate the sentiment. I had lolz. Read More

5 RE:
Posted on Thursday January 7, 2010, 16:04 by Chrisseh
L: lona_no_friends So basically make a film that doesn't aspire to tell a decent story or conform to any of those rules for actually making a heartfelt film and go for something that idiots will love. Good o sh!t sherlock. This isn't a how to make a fantastic film article, its a how to make a crap load of money article. Not everyone in the world is a keen eye movie critic. Read More


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