Beating the Big Guys at Their Own Game through Word of Mouth
Last weekend, a small movie, financed for about $13 million and headlined by a comedian you likely aren’t that familiar with, took the number one spot at the box office, grossing more than $33 million in its opening weekend. That movie, Think Like a Man, beat even the most optimistic studio estimates, surprising just about everyone – except, that is, for its star.
Kevin Hart is arguably the most successful touring comedian today, but he’s hardly a mainstream presence. He credits HIS success to the same thing he says drove the film’s blockbuster opening weekend… social media.
They couldn’t afford the huge studio marketing push that tentpole franchises like Transformers would get, so Kevin (and other cast members) leveraged the cast’s combined 20 million Twitter followers (and Kevin’s 5.1 million Facebook “likers”) to drive word of mouth.
The results speak for themselves:
