Typically a movie hits the cinemas, then has an artificial delay, then hits the rental market then you can buy it. The plan is to try and get you to pay to see/ own the movie 3 times, once at the box office, once at the DVD box and once in store.
Well, if you want to skip one or two of those steps then perhaps you should pre-register with Google Play to be notified when Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hits the Play Store. Our guess is this is more of a promotion for the movie than an attempt for Google to subvert box office attention.
Google has played an interesting role in the marketing of Warner Bros latest hit flick, with several tie-ins and promotions across several of their properties. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Google do this. With the last Star Wars movie, for instance, Google sent half of their sites to a galaxy far far away.
Google is treading a fine line with what looks to be a marketing partnership, assumably at a cost to their ‘partner’. With Star Wars, we were all too excited to notice, with Harry Potter our attention has been piqued, if this happens to regularly there could be a backlash.
Would you be unhappy if Google continued to market movies and similar?
Apple started this months ago basically having pre-orders for every major hyped movie the day it starts in theatres. I still think pre-orders for digital goods are weird, given it started with physical to make sure you didn’t miss out on getting a copy when you wanted.
Hey Duncan,
Is the issue that they’ve put the movie in their featured section on the front page?
Because I’ve got LOTS of movies in my Wishlist that aren’t out yet. Star Wars Rogue One, Fantastic Beasts (which I added months ago), Doctor Strange (again, some months before the theatrical release), Beauty and the Beast (hey, don’t judge me! :P)…
Hey Dan,
I guess seeing this combined with their other actions made me stop and consider their wider marketing strategy.
I also wonder if people don’t write about this stuff if they even would know or care
Fair call, mate. Yes, the fact that it’s being pushed at the same time as all the other tie-ins could be a bit fishy. But I expect, just like the availability of movie bundles, it’ll be WB pushing it, Google’s just giving them the tools to do so.