Ken Cline

Universal is going to give away $15 million in tickets for Peaceful Warrior starting 3/18/07 - 4/1/07 exclusively through bestbuy.com (no purchase necessary)

ABC News - Free Tickets

LOS ANGELES Mar 14, 2007 (AP)— Universal Pictures has come up with an unusual plan to try to fill theaters when its film "Peaceful Warrior" opens later this month: The company is giving away $15 million worth of free tickets.

Through a partnership with Best Buy, the film company will give interested moviegoers as many as 10 free tickets to see "Peaceful Warrior" during its opening weekend, March 30 to April 1, Universal's president of marketing, Adam Fogelson, announced Tuesday.

The inspirational film, based on Dan Millman's best-selling novel, "Way of the Peaceful Warrior," doesn't lend itself to traditional promotional techniques, Fogelson said.

"We wanted to allow consumers a chance to sample the film and opted to redirect money from a traditional marketing campaign and instead purchase and provide tickets to moviegoers directly," he said. "This truly is an example of an offer with no strings attached."

The hope is that viewers' "word of mouth and enthusiasm might sustain interest" in the film, he said.

The film came out last year in limited release.

Tickets will be available online beginning Sunday, with the giveaway ending April 1.

RichC2

I remember seeing ads for it when I was in Best Buy and commenting that it didn't make sense, the movie bombed last year and it's getting a second shot?

And now it makes sense, though I still don't get it.

starman9000

Fixed that part

SPiRAL

Wasn't this released last year ? I remember seeing it playing in Pasadena.

Edit : Nevermind I didn't read that part that said it had a limited release.

Seantn

Directed by everyones favorite pedophile, Victor Salva.

Bugg

Given the film's 19% rating at Rotten Tomatoes with 50 of the 62 reviews being negative. I wonder just what kind of word of mouth they are hoping for.

Seantn

It'd be interesting to see how far a studio would go to make their film a hit. If this film makes 30 million dollars, that would be considered somewhat successful since it has a low budget...but 15 million of that might have been from the studio handing out free tickets, so was the film a hit or not?

g

I saw this and liked it.

Corvin

Even though they're giving away $15 million, I'm just Best Buy is giving them something to have people go to their stores--no?

AGuyNamedMike

I watched this a few months ago in the church rec center and thought it was okay, but more of a TV movie feel. Free tickets, maybe I'll go.

hellmutt

The link seems to be already posted in myrewardzone.com and redirects you to here. The tickets seem broken though, so it might not be fully working yet.

Free Passes

Anubis2005X

Yeah, well, I got a free ticket to Catwoman when I bought Batman Animated Series Season 1...didn't mean I was gonna use it though!

AndyCleveland

as cheezy as this looks, i'll go for free.

i saw the trailer almost a year ago and i've been looking for the dvd due to mild interest.

Trevor

I used mine, but quickly left the Catwoman theater and walked into a better film.

Peep

This is a pretty good idea. Warner gave away $65 million in free tickets to 300 and look what that did for them.

Trevor

It was thoroughly mediocre. Too long and slow, story a bit cliche. A few funny moments, a few moving moments, but nothing worth paying for.

Seantn

Here's how well the film did this weekend - It was released in 955 theaters across the country, and after all was said and done, the studio didn't even release how much money it made! Looking at the box office list of 107 movies on Box Office Mojo, this film isn't on there. Even if only 1 person saw it per theater, this movie should have placed on that list.

ScandalUMD

I was at Best Buy, and they had the tickets all over the place, and nobody was taking them.

I think free tickets would definitely encourage viewers to see blockbuster movies, but nobody is going to make a trip to the theater to see this. There is absolutely no audience for it.

Who wants to see an inspirational film by a child molestor?

Seantn

Nobody, apparently, heh.

Mqm127

Box Office Mojo's article about the weekend had a paragraph on Peaceful Warrior....

"The unconventional release means the picture will not be listed on the box office charts, though it will continue for paying audiences through the week."

Seantn

Interesting. Well, at least we can see what it makes during the week.

Seantn

From Box Office Mojo:

The weekend saw a marketing experiment from Universal Pictures. The studio re-issued Peaceful Warrior, a drama that made a meager $1.1 million last summer under Lionsgate's tutelage. To build word-of-mouth, Universal offered $15 million worth of tickets through retailer Best Buy that people could redeem for free at 615 theaters on this weekend only, and another $2 million was spent on prints and advertising. According to Universal, an estimated 250,000 tickets were redeemed and the movie generated the equivalent of $2.1 million, 11 percent of which came from paying moviegoers. The unconventional release means the picture will not be listed on the box office charts, though it will continue for paying audiences through the week.

kaze0

Let Salva do Jeepers Creepers 3 and give free ticket sto that.

ScandalUMD

Isn't there enough promising new talent that studios can stop paying to film the imaginings of convicted child molestors?