Why did the Facebook movie do so well?

[grcorp]

I just went to see the Facebook movie, and the theater was positively packed.

Sure, the interest would be far beyond that of any other movie given the widespread interest in Facebook... but I have a feeling there was something else behind it.

While a movie's website is not going to make me decide whether or not to see the film, it acts as a gateway to purchase tickets, read reviews, and "recommend" or "like" it on a social networking site such as Facebook to get more people aware, and perhaps interested in seeing it.

What was so different about the website for "The Social Network"?

Not much, on the site itself... but the URL displayed in the ads was "www.500millionfriends.com" - which is easy to remember, straight to the point, and has only three terms in it, so it's hard to get confused over.

Every other movie I had seen in the preview followed a structure similar to "(movietitle)-movie.com".

Oddly enough, 500millionfriends.com is a redirect to thesocialnetwork-movie.com.

Despite the fact that there is no tangible way to prove my theory, I still think it's got something to do with it.

What do you think?

Also, with ICANN rapidly creating new TLD's, does anybody foresee a .film or .movie TLD? :lol:

 

[Gerry]

Geekdom ROCKS!

 

[Deleted member 111831]

The domain had very little to do with the movie doing so well. I don't think most people go to a movies website before seeing it. I think it was a combination of things. Facebook is huge. There weren't any great movies coming out that weekend. The film has gotten a lot of press because Facebook denies a bunch of stuff and calls the movie fiction. Good cast. Good trailer. etc.

I would venture to guess most of the people who saw it were 12-22ish. That about right for your theatre?

 

[grcorp]

The domain had very little to do with the movie doing so well. I don't think most people go to a movies website before seeing it. I think it was a combination of things. Facebook is huge. There weren't any great movies coming out that weekend. The film has gotten a lot of press because Facebook denies a bunch of stuff and calls the movie fiction. Good cast. Good trailer. etc.

I would venture to guess most of the people who saw it were 12-22ish. That about right for your theatre?

Surprisingly quite a few in the 30+ range.

As I had said in my posting, the website seldom had anything to do with one's decision to see the film or not by my experience... but visiting the website creates opportunity to refer the film to friends via social network APIs provided, as well as to see enticing reviews to perhaps make them more inclined to see the film.

The press definitely helped... but I think that the URL did play a role of some sort, no matter how minor, in how many viewers the film got.

IMO, that movie was no match for what Jackass 3 is going to be. I'll make that statement sight unseen. Should the social network have come out 2 weeks later, it would have faced stiff competition.