If Close Encounters of the Third Kind isn’t the biggest movie to hit the country in the last ten years, Columbia Pictures isn’t acting like it.
Deciding that the best way to promote the $20 million dollar film was word-of-mouth, Columbia Pictures made an unprecedented move in the film industry. They invited 800 movie critics, entertainment editors, magazine editors, political writers, political cartoonists, science writers, and even college papers to a premiere screening. Originally scheduling the world’s largest press screening to be held in Los Angeles, the screening was split between Los Angeles and New York.
“All expense paid” invitations were sent to the top 120 college papers in the country, and according to Barry Lorie of Columbia Pictures, there were no refusals from the colleges.
“We do press junkets quite often,” said Lorie, “but never on this scale.” The college papers were included because, according to Lorie, “you people are the movie-going audience.”
Some of the colleges represented included the Universities of Utah, Arizona, Houston, Oklahoma, Colorado, Minnesota, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Colorado State and UCLA.
The media representatives were flown to Los Angeles on Thursday, November 10. Upon arrival at the hotel, each guest was given a briefcase with press packets and a cassette tape recorder. The screening was held that night at the Sam Goldwyn Theatre Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences, which boasts the best sound system in the country. The audience numbered 1,000 including the press group and other guests of Columbia Pictures.
When asked the cost of the extravaganza, the answer was “a lot.” But even without specific figures, paying all expenses including plane and taxi fares, all dining, drinking, hotel and even long distance phone expenses for 800 people couldn’t have been cheap.
With the film having cost $20 million to make, Columbia Pictures cares how well it does. And of course, the most frequently asked questions were those comparing Close Encounters with the current hit Star Wars.
Most of the people present at the press conference were reluctant to really compare the two. Spielberg said he feels that Close Encounters is “light years different from Star Wars… it will appeal to an older audience.”
Columbia Pictures National Promotions Manager Tony Hoffman says that “Star Wars is a brilliant film in its own right, but there is no way to compare the two. One is completely a escapism comic-book approach, whereas Close Encounters raises more questions.
Hoffman feels Star Wars is an entertaining film, but that Close Encounters entertains, yet it achieves in other ways too.