ReelSociety Forums

Hi,

Dont know why i didnt think of this before, but i thought i would share with you what movies get advertising here in Australia. A lot of the time the ads are shown 2-4 weeks ahead of the release and probably 75% of the time they turn out to be hits. The only thing is half of the films come out a bit later, however we do get a handful of films a week or two earlier than the US on occasion. Heres what we've had lately:

August
Guardians of the Galaxy (hit)
If I Stay (hit)
Lucy (hit)
Into the Storm (near miss)
The Expendables 3 (flop)

September
TMNT (hit)
The Giver (near miss)
Sin City (flop)
The Equalizer
The Maze Runner
Dracula Untold

We don't get movie ads on TV here in France. It's forbidden by the law.

Really? Is that to protect the French film & TV industry from being overwhelmed by the marketing powers of Hollywood? Do local productions get to advertise on TV?

It is precisely to preserve cinematographic diversity, and protect small productions who don't have the tools to compete with blockbusters in terms of advertising, yes.
So to prevent French screens to be invaded solely by Hollywood ads, movie ads are not allowed on TV, for anyone.

We have Canadian Content laws that say a certain percentage of TV shows or songs on the radio need to be Canadian, but there's very little protectionism with the film industry, which is partly why we barely have a film industry while the TV and music industry are much stronger. Quebec's a different story, and there may be more protectionism there, in addition to the draconian language laws they have.

I don't think a law like they have in France would ever fly here, but I could see something that says for every three American movie ads you broadcast you have to show one Canadian movie ad.

That's crazy, Chien, and perhaps explains why France has such a strong, insular film industry. If that were to happen in Ireland I think there's be even more disdain for Irish film because more people would see such disappointing films.

It's somewhat given in the States that a movie gets marketing on TV or the Internet. Unless it's from A24. With them, you're lucky to get a trailer.

We have quotas for music on radio too John, yeah.

Concerning the movies, it's what is called here "l'exception culturelle", the cultural exception.Institutions have always tried their best to protect the national production. That is why there are quotas of screens allowed for each film in multiplexes (a film cannot be shown on more than 3 screens in the same multiplex), that's why there are no movie ads on TV, and that's why each film released in theater finances the local production. There is a sort of small tax on each ticket sold that is injected in the local industry to help finance french films.
That's how French cinema has managed to offer a strong diversity over the years, and keep a high market share locally compared to many european countries where local productions are so low.