How Much Movie Promotion Does the Film s Star Have to Do?

There was a time when a movie star only had to show up to the premiere of the film and grant a few interviews before it was released into theaters. With the advent of the Internet and a more globalized box-office focus, the responsibility of movie stars when it comes to promotion has grown massively.The amount of publicity an actor or actress has to do varies wildly, depending on the film being promoted. If it is a small independent film that was made on a minuscule budget, the distributor probably is not going to spend a lot of money to promote it. Each red carpet event, including premieres and photo shoots, costs the studio money. Those costs are added to the total cost of the film, which must then sell more tickets in order to recoup its budget. As of 2007, the average Hollywood film spent a whopping $35.9 million on marketing costs per film. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. If the small indie film in question is garnering awards buzz, then a studio might step up and begin spending more money on promotion. The studio knows that if the film gets nominated for Golden Globes, SAG Awards or especially Oscars, that will spur more public interest in the film. Even if the added promotional costs to get stars out to do publicity means a smaller profit margin, it is worth it for the prestige of winning major awards. This is one of the only times that a Hollywood executive might overspend on publicity.If the film is expected to be a huge hit like "The Hunger Games" was in spring 2012, it will get a full publicity push that could add millions to the total cost of the film. The movie was based on a series of books by Suzanne Collins, so it already had a huge fan base before the first scene was filmed. It was expected to make millions just in midnight showings, and it didn`t disappoint. Part of this was because of the werbefilme campaign. Stars like Jennifer Lawrence don`t pay for their airfare or hotel accommodations when they fly to different locales for publicity events. The studio generally foots the bill for all of those expenses, including pricey stylists and makeup artists to make sure the stars look picture perfect on the red carpet.