‘Undefeated’ director on how he’s marketing his Sarah Palin documentary

The Orlando Sentinel ^ | July 6, 2011 | Roger Moore, Film Critic

[2ndDivisionVet]

At the preview screening of “The Undefeated,” the Sarah Palin bio-documentary that I caught at the AMC 24 at Downtown Disney last week, organizers for this “opinion leaders” showing shared a little of the release strategy for the film.

They’re looking to get folks to round up friends who share their politics to go see the film the opening weekend with a goal of “12,000 tickets sold” that first weekend.

That’s 1,200 tickets per theater, since the film is opening in only 10 theaters nationwide including the AMC Universal Citywalk. And that breaks down to about 100 tickets per showing. Rounding up the ticket prices, they’re hoping the film does about $12,000 per screen per city.

I asked the film’s producer and director, Stephen K. Bannon, about this during a chat Tuesday.

“It’s very rare for documentaries to go into multiplexes, and AMC theaters (the only chain showing the film) take on very few docs. It’s even rarer for a documentary to come out in the summer, when they’re competing with the ”Transformers” and Harry Potter movies.

“I kept this movie under wraps until five weeks ago, and with movies booking their theaters months in advance, it’s hard to get screens. But AMC really wanted this movie....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Firstly, I predicted that they would market this like The Passion of the Christ several weeks ago, so I feel vindicated. LOL Second, why do they always try to paint the Tea Party as old and white, when tons of young, middle-aged and multi-ethnic individuals were at almost every Tea Party rally, march and protest?

[Waywardson]

Fearful white people with guns. That is still what they think.