Where's Universal's Children of Men Oscar Campaign?
[posted by Nicole Sperling] From the billboard on Sunset Blvd. to the spectacular ad blitz in the LA Times, Universal Pictures is clearly pulling out all the stops with their Oscar campaign for United 93. While that makes sense, considering that the film hasn’t been in theaters for five months, it does seem that the NBC-owned company is spending considerably less energy and marketing dollars on an Academy campaign for what many are calling the best film of the year, Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men. The film was just released on Christmas Day, so it’s understandable that much of their work is dedicated to the film’s theatrical release. (The film will expand wide tomorrow to 1200 runs.) Still, shouldn’t more of an effort be made to promote this dramatic work of art to the Academy?
Children’s producer Marc Abraham insists, via e-mail, that he is comfortable with Universal’s strategy: “Children by design came out very late, so it has been supported by a much more retail campaign, which after all is the main concern of the studio right now. They haven’t had a huge award campaign because they are spending millions of dollars right now on TV and print (and especially as we have decided to go wider earlier ). That said, we have had a solid, if not flashy Academy Award campaign," he writes. “Also, and probably as much as anything, by coming out so late, we’ve not been seen by nearly as many people--including the press. I do know the studio is behind the picture and excited by the way momentum is building and that reviews and the ‘Ten Best Lists’ have really exploded.”
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