Is Casting The Book Cover of Your Film?

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Casting is as important as a script in selling a production. When a name actor is selected for a cast, the actor is selected to interest a select territory of the world.

Jackie Chan, for example is considered to be an international star. He has star power not just in Asia, but the Americas, and parts of Europe.

The cast is used to market a film to audiences in countries they have popularity in. They are as important as the synopsis of the movie. Thus, it is like a book cover of a book in marketing because the public sees who is in the cast as a familiar face. A book cover attracts the public with an image they find appealing.
 
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What if the movie has an international cast and DVD and movie posters are made different for each country to feature the actor in the art for the country the movie is shown in+

Are you familiar with the two versions of King Kong Vs. Godzilla where Godzilla is the hero and feature star in the Japanese version. And, King Kong is the hero and feature star in the version they sent to the USA?
 
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The cover is only one portion of the saleability of the film.

Star power really helps when it comes to selling to distribution partners, especially international distributors.

Lately I've been seeing a little bit of a pattern where movies will pack in stars that appeal to different regions. For instance, packing in stars that appeal to the us market and separate stars who are rather unknowns in the us market that appeal to the Chinese market for instance.

So, to answer your question yes. But only if you take a simplistic look at the topic. The real answer is deeper and covers more topics than just the choice of stars.
 
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The simple approach makes the general idea easier to grasp for a wider audience.

A filmmaker on LinkedIn has no clue of how to sell a film internationally. This is easy enough for him to grasp the general concept. So, that is why I am simplifying the casting / marketing strategy here.
 
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Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
The simple approach makes the general idea easier to grasp for a wider audience.

A filmmaker on LinkedIn has no clue of how to sell a film internationally. This is easy enough for him to grasp the general concept. So, that is why I am simplifying the casting / marketing strategy here.
Click to expand...

The general idea is easy, package your film with names who can sell your film to buyers worldwide.

The hard part however, is to actually attach the names to your movie, this is not an easy thing to do.
You either need money, or a strong track record and an existing relationship with the stars and/or their reps.
Usually you will need both.
 
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The simple approach makes the general idea easier to grasp for a wider audience.
Click to expand...

That is not what I meant. Attaching Bruce Willis, Arnie and/or other stars does not guarantee success, just like a poster doesn't guarantee or even imply the success of a film. I was saying that your question suggests that you're looking for a simple answer to a question that should be more of a topic that deserves a more complex and in depth conversation. What I said has nothing to do with the fact that you need to be precise and rather simplistic in how you present your premise to your target audience.

Is your casting the book cover for your film? Yes, if you do it correctly. Otherwise, it's more like false advertising.
 
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As I said it's only part of the picture. Sites like Rotten Tomatoes is playing more and more of a part to the success or failure of a movie than ever before.

In the current age, the quality of a movie comes into play. More and more people are paying attention to movie review sites and the word of mouth of friends.

Advertising still plays a very important part, as does the names in the movie, the movie poster, the advertising, the target market, the hooks, grassroot marketing, and so on.
 
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