Cinemax will become heroic this summer.
Home Box Office’s premium sister service, which will celebrate its silver anniversary in August, is placing its consumer and affiliate promotional emphasis in the months ahead behind a quartet of box-office hits under the “Summer of Heroes” banner.
The multifaceted campaign, beginning this week, centers on theatricals The Day After Tomorrow (premiering on Cinemax May 14), Spider-Man 2 (June 4), I, Robot (July 9) and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (August).
“This is the best summer lineup we can remember. These four films alone took in over $1 billion in box office,” Cinemax vice president of program planning and scheduling Jill Champtaloup said. “But we wanted to support those tent poles with other product, so we went to second windows and our library.”
Playing to a large extent off action, adventure and science-fiction themes, other films that will air this summer on Cinemax include: Matrix Reloaded, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Resident Evil 2, Starsky & Hutch, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Top Gun, Superman: The Movie, Alien vs. Predator, Chronicles of Riddick, Patriot Games and Dirty Harry.
Champtaloup believes these and other films will reinforce the idea “that Cinemax has the best movie lineup for our existing subscribers and help to convince new customers to sign up for the service.”
Along those lines, Cinemax will provide affiliate support in the form of cross-channel spots, direct-mail pieces, tent cards, training materials, broadband/online backing and an incentive sweepstakes.
For more on Cinemax’s Summer of Heroes, please see Mike Reynolds’ story on page 33 of Monday’s issue of Multichannel News.
