San Francisco Chronicle An unexpected pair: God and 'Rocky'
Joe Garofoli
12/20/06
Creating box office buzz by pitching "faith and family" films to religious leaders has become an increasingly popular tactic since the 2004 success of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." More than a dozen films were marketed through Christian channels in 2006.
But the marketing tack is novel for a secular film -- particularly one crafted by an entertainer whose career was minted on violent flicks. At www.rockyresources.com, a Web site created by Motive Entertainment -- whose founder, Paul Lauer, helped promote both "Passion" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" -- teaching tools like "The Leader's Guide" are offered. The guide is intended to "help in creating lively discussions about faith themes found in 'Rocky Balboa.' "
This week, Lauer sent a mass e-mail with the subject line, "Jesus behind 'Rocky Balboa'?" It promised, "This isn't a 'Christian' film, but there's some pretty cool stuff that you can relate to faith and values."
Ted Baehr, whose MovieGuide Web site (www.movieguide.org) provides reviews based on a film's "biblical principles," praised the "strong and positive Christian content" in "Rocky Balboa."
The film shows how religious themes can appear "more naturally in a film. It doesn't have to be people reciting Scripture and saying prayers," said Baehr, who teaches a course in electronic Christian media at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.
The Philadelphia Inquirer 'Rocky' Seeks Faith-Based Fans
Michael Klein
12/03/06
Star/creator/director Sylvester Stallone has enlisted Paul Lauer to help spread the word of the sixth in the Rocky series to the faith-and-family market.
Lauer's Motive Entertainment worked with Mel Gibson on The Passion of the Christ, as well as on the films The Polar Express and The Chronicles of Narnia.
In a conference call Monday, Stallone spoke of his own faith. It was no accident, he said, that the opening shot of the 1976 Rocky original is of a painting of Jesus hanging in a gym. "If you don't have a great relationship with God, you can go off the deep end," Stallone said.
In materials at www.rockyresources.com, Motive pitches church groups on doing sermons and programs surrounding the film's messages.
Christian Post
Christians and Rocky Balboa
Chuck Colson
1/ 31/07
The statement we received from Motive Entertainment read, in part, "This isn't a 'Christian' film, but there's some pretty cool stuff that you can relate to faith and values."
Many of us here were taken by surprise. The Rocky movies had their virtues, but faith is not the first word they bring to mind. And the whole issue of faith in film is more complicated than it appears. Remember, ever since The Passion of the Christ cleaned up at the box office, many film companies have had dollar signs in their eyes whenever they looked at Christians. We are now considered a group to be marketed to--but that status can have its price. It can tempt us to go along with and endorse things we shouldn't, simply because it might help us keep our power. As John Fischer wrote on our website, BreakPoint.org, we must be careful, for the sake of our message, not to let ourselves be "used."
That brings us back to Rocky Balboa. Now, in this case I was pleased to discover that the marketers were not just making things up. Rocky Balboa is no more an overtly Christian film than its predecessors, but Motive Entertainment had a point in calling it "spiritual." The story concerns Rocky's controversial return to the ring when he's well past his prime.
But the images that linger are those of a strong man helping and protecting the weak (in this case, a single mother and her teenage son), and being a wise and encouraging father to his own troubled son. "The world," Rocky tells his son, "is a very mean and nasty place, and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it."
But Rocky consistently demonstrates compassion, selflessness, and loyalty, showing the best way to respond to a "nasty" world. That sounds like a pretty good reflection of the Christian worldview to me.
So I'm glad to be able to recommend Rocky Balboa as a good film, one that Christians can enjoy watching. It demonstrates that a film, while not using overtly Christian themes or employing Christian jargon, can still teach Christian values.
In a marriage of modern mythmakers, the Walt Disney Co. is marketing a film based on C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia". And in doing so, Disney will take a page from Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ".
Disney has hired - Motive Marketing, which ran the historic, grass-roots efforts for "The Passion". Paul Lauer, founder of Motive Marketing, declined to comment on his campaign for "Narnia", apart from confirming that his firm is handling it.
"Disney, as the consummate corporate animal, is looking at Paul as the guy who delivered the audience of The Passion," says Barbara Nicolosi, of Act One, a program designed to bring Christian writers and executives into the entertainment industry.
USA Today
Disney, along with other studios, has often courted the so-called faith community when the appropriate movie comes along, including such religious-themed comedies as Sister Act or uplifting sports dramas like The Rookie. But since the advent of box-office sensation The Passion of the Christ, such wooing has become a science. For that reason, Disney and Walden have hired Motive Marketing, the company that oversaw The Passion's outreach program, to assist them.
Gibson has half-jokingly remarked that "The Passion" may be a career-killer for him. If it is not, if it somehow manages to open, and even to succeed, it will be in no small measure owing to [Paul] Lauer's efforts.
Advertising Age
''The Passion of the Christ'' has stunned even the believers. A dissection of some of the movie's marketing details to date, shepherded by Icon's Los Angeles-based marketing consultant Paul Lauer, reveals a campaign that covered all the obvious bases and a number of far-less-than-obvious ones. ''There's been nothing conventional about how this movie and its marketing have unfolded,'' said Alan Nierob, a spokesman for producer Mel Gibson's Icon Productions. ''It's defied all the practiced way of doing things.''
Earlier this year, Motive was hired by Warner Bros. to promote The Polar Express to Christians. But wait, is The Polar Express an evangelical film? You'd certainly think so, considering the expansive campaign of preview screenings, radio promotion, DVDs, and online resources that Lauer unfurled in the Christian media this fall. This Polar Express downloads page includes endorsements from pastors and links to church and parenting resources hosted by the Christian media outlet HomeWord.
Motive also produced a promotional package that was syndicated to over 100 radio stations in which Christian recording artists like Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Avalon talked about the movie as they exited preview screenings.
Motive's biggest gambit, though, was sending promotional DVDs to 50,000 churches. The "Preaching and Teaching Resource DVD" features a brief Q and A with Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis with no religious content. There's also a section called "Connection Ideas." Connection Idea No. 1 is to take a Sunday school class to see The Polar Express. Connection Idea No. 2 is to take a family trip to see The Polar Express.
Los Angeles Times
"When this movie came out, with the opening weekend, the reviews, everybody thought it would just disappear," said Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and president of worldwide marketing and distribution for Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group.
Within the industry, the odds against "Polar Express" succeeding seemed so long that one executive at a rival studio, who did not want to be identified, made a bet that the movie wouldn't get past $80 million. As of Sunday, the film had grossed an estimated $155.2 million. "In this business, we focus all our attention on the first weekend," which commonly represents a third or fourth of the final take for a big studio event movie, Blake said. "If it doesn't live up to expectations, we tend to write it off and move on."
But a strange thing happened with "The Polar Express." It did not follow the usual pattern of dropping 40 percent to 50 percent in its second weekend. Instead, figures posted on tracking firm Box-officemojo.com show that it declined about 33 percent in its second weekend, then business went up about 24 percent in the third, which was Thanksgiving weekend.
Slate.com
After a slow start, The Polar Express has picked up steam and may well make back its $165 million production budget. Considering his track record, Lauer might see a lot more work coming his way. He's already started planning for his next major project, a big-budget adaptation of "The Chronicles of Narnia". Lauer describes the movie as The Lord of the Rings meets the Bible. Now, that's something everyone can believe in.
TiVo will soon offer subscribers a way to customize some of the ads they receive -- and offering advertisers a way to make sure they're targeting consumers who want what they're pitching. The new service won't conflict with ads seen
Threatening to make both competing high-definition DVD systems, Blu-Ray and HD DVD, quickly obsolete, a holographic storage system that can store up to 300GB on a single disc is expected to hit the market by this time next year
Broadening its deal with Steve Jobs' Apple Computer company, Disney announced today (Monday) that it will post trailers for its The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on Apple's iTunes online store
