Now is as good of a time as any to announce this, I suppose — I’m helping Tucker Max with some of the online marketing for his movie that’s coming out next year.
I imagine that it might be hard for some people to believe Tucker’s repeated claims about how well this film is going to do. Everything he writes is convincing enough, but to anyone who isn’t familiar with him, his posts will just seem like they’re full of hyperbole. Nearly all of the “This movie will be a hit” posts are written by him, an inherently biased source, so I think it’s only natural to be a bit suspicious.
Because I’m pretty much an objective outsider in this situation (I’m not emotionally invested yet I know the film’s marketing strategy), let me tell you what my predictions are.
But first, I need to lay out a few facts to establish my lack of bias:
- I have not seen this movie or read the script. And until I see it firsthand, I can’t be certain that it will be a big hit. Marketing is great and all, but without solid content to back it up, it won’t really help much in the long-run.
- I do not work for Rudius. I’m only working on some of the marketing for the movie.
- I have never met Tucker. I’ve only talked to him on the phone a few times and corresponded through email. What I’m saying is, I’m not doing this post as a favor or anything. I’m doing it of my own accord.
All that being said, I’m nearly 100% positive that this movie will have a MASSIVE opening.
When Tucker first explained his entire marketing plan to me over the phone, there were three instances where I interrupted him to blurt out “That’s brilliant!” I wasn’t saying it to be nice — I really meant it. In my mind, there are three specific ideas (out of many) that he’s come up with that are ingenious from a marketing perspective, and will really catalyze this movie’s success.
Now, I acquired a lot of my marketing knowledge from the best marketer in the world. I study this kind of stuff voraciously and regularly come across great ideas. I know good marketing when I see it, and I can assure you: Tucker knows what he’s doing. Although his movie blog can seem cocky and boastful at times, there’s definitely a foundation beneath all of his predictions. He says those things for a reason — because they’re actually going to come true.
My prediction: This movie is going to be big. Very big. And the mainstream press will not see it coming.
I don’t know much about Tucker. No even convinced he’s a real person… but just from the little I’ve gleaned he has a pretty good indie film marketing thing going.
He’s got a blog, he has prior material he’s released… it’s almost like he’s doing an adaption (which comes with a built-in fan base).
For a big theatrical opening (if you mean first weekend) he has to have a major distributor. There is really no way of doing it otherwise. Printes are expensive and if you already have exhibitor relationships, you can’t build them up for one movie.
Is there a release date yet?
By: Julian Perrera on December 23, 2008
at 3:57 pm
Tucker’s film will have a wide-release around the country. It will come out in 2009, but he’s still not entirely sure what month it will be released.
You know, it always confuses me when people question whether Tucker’s authentic, or whether his stories are real or not. First of all, it’s almost impossible to fake that persona for 6+ years. Second, I guess my friends and I just have too many stories that are very similar to his, so it’s really easy for me to believe him. For instance, I’ve personally witnessed my friend drunkenly throw a samurai sword, wearing nothing but boxers, at a moving police car. Trust me dude, Tucker (and people like him) are all too real. Maybe I’ll write a post defending the drunkards someday…
By: charhoehn@gmail.com on December 24, 2008
at 4:34 am
I’ve been following Tucker for the entirety of my collegiate life (now 5 years) and he’s the real deal. I have no doubt that he has something fantastic up his sleeves and will (again) show the old guard that they need to rethink how they operate.
And I have ridiculous drunk stories too. If you think about it, the alcohol does most of the work for you.
By: Jake Hoffberg on January 9, 2009
at 1:56 am
The thing often miss about Tucker Max (as much as can be gleaned from an online persona) is that he seems every the bit the unstoppably voracious nerd that consumes and synthesizes as much information as possible as he seems the drunken asshole he portrays in his stories.
I found Seth Godin’s blog through his links, this blog via his Delicious account, and the work of many other interesting thinkers and marketers. If he manages to put into practice half the shit he seems to have read, there’s no way this movie can fail (without it being a huge piece of shit, of course.)
By: Sean on January 12, 2009
at 5:18 am
Right about alcohol doing the work. See “Drunk History” on FOD.
Hey, how about recommending to Max that he make a TRAILER? I hear they’re pretty useful marketing-wise. If he already has final cut in the can, the fact that he doesn’t have a trailer yet is a little, eh, pathetic.
By: fallenman on January 23, 2009
at 4:45 pm
You marketing genius! I can’t believe both Tucker and I never thought of making a trailer. It’s so simple and obvious… How did we miss that?!
Seriously though, the movie is coming out at the end of this year. Tucker’s on top of that stuff. But I don’t really see how not having a public trailer yet is, eh, pathetic.
By: charhoehn@gmail.com on January 23, 2009
at 4:55 pm
[...] of Tucker Max’s upcoming movie, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Although I’d made some predictions about how well it was going to do based on the marketing alone, my claims were more or less unsubstantiated because I had no idea [...]
By: My Review of “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” « Hoehn’s Musings on March 19, 2009
at 10:49 am