The Navy SEALs at the center of "Act of Valor" know that battlefield success requires planning, execution and sometimes a bit of luck. The executives at Relativity Media hope to mirror that formula with the film's Friday opening, upending a series of military movie flops.
Starring real-life SEALs, "Act of Valor" is an independently financed action movie that Relativity bought last summer for $13.5 million. The studio has spent far more than that marketing the film about covert missions, including buying four Super Bowl Sunday spots and organizing a Hollywood premiere with a sky-diving Navy parachute team.
The effort appears to be working. Audience tracking surveys show that "Act of Valor" is poised to enjoy a strong opening weekend, with a potentially winning three-day gross of $20 million or more, while some prognosticators say it could premiere with as much as $25 million. Given how well the film plays to audiences — and that it opens against the lightly regarded "Tyler Perry's Good Deeds," "Wanderlust" and "Gone" — it's likely that "Act of Valor" will fill auditoriums for weeks to come.
While there are no easy Hollywood sales jobs, hawking "Act of Valor" has been particularly tricky, requiring Relativity to organize a three-pronged campaign: first to explain the film's concept, then spell out its story and finally tout its action. "This is a very satisfying movie," said Terry Curtin, Relativity's marketing chief. "But it's also a film with a heck of a lot of challenges."
When Relativity first began describing the film's premise to focus groups last fall, few were buying the idea that active-duty special forces personnel would appear as themselves in a fictional film. "Young males said, 'No way. These aren't real Navy SEALs,'" Curtin said. 'We don't believe any of that hooey.'"
If audiences didn't accept "Act of Valor's" distinguishing trait, it was just one more action movie — filled with a bunch of no-name actors.
So before the studio could even begin to sell "Act of Valor," it had to clarify its premise — that these were, in fact, real soldiers, that the film wasn't a documentary and that it wasn't government-produced propaganda. Relativity assembled a five-minute "making of" promotional video and linked to it in the film's first coming attractions preview.
That trailer premiered on the website for the popular video game "Battlefield 3," whose first-person shooter conceit mirrors much of "Act of Valor's" military action. The game has sold more than 10 million units, according to game maker Electronic Arts.
The next phase of the marketing effort focused on elucidating the film's story line, which follows the international exploits of a SEALs team as it tries to thwart a plot to smuggle suicide bombs into the United States. At the same time, Relativity tried to reinforce the movie's name, which was variously confused as "Men of Valor," "Call of Valor" and other iterations. (That effort still needs work, as audience surveys show potential ticket buyers have trouble recalling the title without assistance.)
To help build word of mouth, Relativity began screening the film across the country, hosting more than 400 free previews and encouraging guests to use in-theater work stations to share their reactions on Facebook and Twitter. Invited audiences included military families, politically conservative voters, sports fans and, toward the end of the screening program, women.
Even though young men are the film's core audience, the studio now believes an extensive screening program partially targeting military wives could broaden "Act of Valor's" pool of ticket buyers. "Act of Valor" also enjoys some high-level support in the nation's capital. President Obama watched the film and told filmmakers Scott Waugh and Mike "Mouse" McCoy that he liked it, according to a person who was present at the screening but declined to be identified because he was asked not to reveal details of the event.
Finally, in a 30-second commercial that ran during the Super Bowl, Relativity launched a hard sell of the film's immersive combat sequences, which compare favorably to action movies costing 10 times "Act of Valor's" $12.5-million production budget.
But the studio's hands were tied when it came to promoting the film's stars, who did only a handful of television appearances as they, and their superiors, want to protect the SEALs' identity as much as possible, in keeping with their code of anonymity.
"You can't go the traditional route where you put your movie star on a talk show," said Tucker Tooley, Relativity's co-president. "You have to get creative about the marketing. My hunch is, the mystery is part of what will get people to go to the theater. If you have these guys on talk shows and the covers of magazines, it might not be as intriguing."
Movies about American military operations do not always travel well. In 2005, the Gulf War story "Jarhead" grossed $62.7 million domestically, and $34.3 million internationally. Two years ago, the Iraq drama "Green Zone" flopped in American theaters, grossing just $35 million, though it took in $59.8 million overseas. "Act of Valor" has but one confirmed release date beyond U.S. borders: March 23 in the United Kingdom.
"It's a good question" whether "Act of Valor" will play overseas, Curtin said. "We've been looking at it as a film about heroism, not a particular war or an American position in a particular war."
In the one battlefield that matters most to Relativity — the American multiplex — "Act of Valor" looks ready to win the fight.
john.horn@latimes.com
Times staff writers Rebecca Keegan and Steven Zeitchik contributed to this report.
Starring real-life SEALs, "Act of Valor" is an independently financed action movie that Relativity bought last summer for $13.5 million. The studio has spent far more than that marketing the film about covert missions, including buying four Super Bowl Sunday spots and organizing a Hollywood premiere with a sky-diving Navy parachute team.
The effort appears to be working. Audience tracking surveys show that "Act of Valor" is poised to enjoy a strong opening weekend, with a potentially winning three-day gross of $20 million or more, while some prognosticators say it could premiere with as much as $25 million. Given how well the film plays to audiences — and that it opens against the lightly regarded "Tyler Perry's Good Deeds," "Wanderlust" and "Gone" — it's likely that "Act of Valor" will fill auditoriums for weeks to come.
While there are no easy Hollywood sales jobs, hawking "Act of Valor" has been particularly tricky, requiring Relativity to organize a three-pronged campaign: first to explain the film's concept, then spell out its story and finally tout its action. "This is a very satisfying movie," said Terry Curtin, Relativity's marketing chief. "But it's also a film with a heck of a lot of challenges."
When Relativity first began describing the film's premise to focus groups last fall, few were buying the idea that active-duty special forces personnel would appear as themselves in a fictional film. "Young males said, 'No way. These aren't real Navy SEALs,'" Curtin said. 'We don't believe any of that hooey.'"
If audiences didn't accept "Act of Valor's" distinguishing trait, it was just one more action movie — filled with a bunch of no-name actors.
So before the studio could even begin to sell "Act of Valor," it had to clarify its premise — that these were, in fact, real soldiers, that the film wasn't a documentary and that it wasn't government-produced propaganda. Relativity assembled a five-minute "making of" promotional video and linked to it in the film's first coming attractions preview.
That trailer premiered on the website for the popular video game "Battlefield 3," whose first-person shooter conceit mirrors much of "Act of Valor's" military action. The game has sold more than 10 million units, according to game maker Electronic Arts.
The next phase of the marketing effort focused on elucidating the film's story line, which follows the international exploits of a SEALs team as it tries to thwart a plot to smuggle suicide bombs into the United States. At the same time, Relativity tried to reinforce the movie's name, which was variously confused as "Men of Valor," "Call of Valor" and other iterations. (That effort still needs work, as audience surveys show potential ticket buyers have trouble recalling the title without assistance.)
To help build word of mouth, Relativity began screening the film across the country, hosting more than 400 free previews and encouraging guests to use in-theater work stations to share their reactions on Facebook and Twitter. Invited audiences included military families, politically conservative voters, sports fans and, toward the end of the screening program, women.
Even though young men are the film's core audience, the studio now believes an extensive screening program partially targeting military wives could broaden "Act of Valor's" pool of ticket buyers. "Act of Valor" also enjoys some high-level support in the nation's capital. President Obama watched the film and told filmmakers Scott Waugh and Mike "Mouse" McCoy that he liked it, according to a person who was present at the screening but declined to be identified because he was asked not to reveal details of the event.
Finally, in a 30-second commercial that ran during the Super Bowl, Relativity launched a hard sell of the film's immersive combat sequences, which compare favorably to action movies costing 10 times "Act of Valor's" $12.5-million production budget.
But the studio's hands were tied when it came to promoting the film's stars, who did only a handful of television appearances as they, and their superiors, want to protect the SEALs' identity as much as possible, in keeping with their code of anonymity.
"You can't go the traditional route where you put your movie star on a talk show," said Tucker Tooley, Relativity's co-president. "You have to get creative about the marketing. My hunch is, the mystery is part of what will get people to go to the theater. If you have these guys on talk shows and the covers of magazines, it might not be as intriguing."
Movies about American military operations do not always travel well. In 2005, the Gulf War story "Jarhead" grossed $62.7 million domestically, and $34.3 million internationally. Two years ago, the Iraq drama "Green Zone" flopped in American theaters, grossing just $35 million, though it took in $59.8 million overseas. "Act of Valor" has but one confirmed release date beyond U.S. borders: March 23 in the United Kingdom.
"It's a good question" whether "Act of Valor" will play overseas, Curtin said. "We've been looking at it as a film about heroism, not a particular war or an American position in a particular war."
In the one battlefield that matters most to Relativity — the American multiplex — "Act of Valor" looks ready to win the fight.
john.horn@latimes.com
Times staff writers Rebecca Keegan and Steven Zeitchik contributed to this report.
