next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount?

23skidoo mentioned about the original Battlestar Galactica tv series.

Do you think Paramount might just might come to terms with CBS around 6 months after Star Trek XIII is released in a few years and put the next Trek series pilot as a double feature to a Paramount scifi feature film during the Summer?
No not a 3-5 minute trailer but the whole pilot?
Could TPTB actually produce a whole pilot with finished effects while working on episodes in a series for the Autumn?
If it were a 12 episode series it could like Mad Men or any HBO original series length of production & post-production cycle.

If it were a June/July opening weekend-only double feature it would accomplish two things. It would get scifi & Trek fans into the cinema to pay for a Paramount Pictures scifi film (as the feature presentation) and also allow them to spread the word of being able to see the pilot of the next Trek series 3 months before the October start of the series.
It would also allow Paramount to have a riskier scifi film in the summer if they knew it was going to have the next Trek series pilot as a limited-engagement only for the first 3 days or first week.

This Spring the TV series Glee aired their pilot 4 months before the series started to build buzz.
TV week magazine mentioned it as a marketing trial by Fox network.

This is similar to how a cinema in Austin, TX was going to show STII:TWOK with a preview of 10 minutes of the new Star Trek (2009) film but then actually Nimoy came out and they showed the entire Trek XI film to Trek fans that spread the buzz about 20 days before the film was released.

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

They could but would they want to?

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

More money? I heard Broken Bow costs about $8-$10 million to make. Double it for advertisement Your going to get return on that in the first week. Nemesis made $21 million on it's first week. Add in the DVD and BOOM! Cash Cow baby!

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

I wasn't getting that CBS Television would share in any profits from a Paramount sci-fi feature film but more like a target demographic marketing idea to build buzz.
Sure if Paramount did it they could put a Trek pilot after an awful Transformers 4 or GI Joe 3 film in an August release but I think they would at least pair it with an okay film to build a little buzz on the Paramount scifi film too. The real issue is the # of screenings a day they would lose to customers buying tickets if a Trek pilot were 75 minutes... What about showing half the pilot?

Or alternatively CBS Television could just have a digital-only screens limited engagement of 3 days fans would pay to see to show the pilot 2 or 3 months before a series would start similar to in 2007 how the TOS 2-part Trek episode "The Managerie" was in cinemas for 1 day.
It would really be minimal cost to market it through internet ads only (no radio or TV) to advertise this 3-day cinema engagement. They would pay off their marketing and build buzz on Series 6 at the same time.
What if they did the pilot in 3-D for a 2-week digital projection-only cinema engagement and the TV series in standard 2D ?

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

Jeffriestubes has the better approach here(have we ever agreed before?). CBS would get nothing from attaching the pilot to a Paramount film, and honestly Paramount would not want to lose extra showings because of the time taken up by the Star Trek TV pilot.

A winter midweek special engagement while theaters have extra space could work. Remember that's when Menagerie was shown in theaters, not a summer weekend when theaters are expecting sold out crowds for their blockbusters. BSG also showed a couple episodes in theaters midweek to promote the show.

CBS could also take the approach SyFy has taken with Caprica and release the pilot to DVD months before the show airs.

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

But isn't that problem that TREK suffers from? They put the CASHCOW in front of quality, and the rest of the world figured this out, even though the fans didnt, and stopped watching the sub-par effort, and only true fans went to see? The GLUT of tvTREKS, no matter what some of us want to believe, is, according to Shatner-Stewart-Koenig and Berman, what led to this 'hollow' feeling that TREK was rutted in..

I hope they wait another 15 years before they even think about putting out another 'run of the mill' scifi TREK show that deals with all the social ideas that TNG-DS9-VOY and ENT all ran into the ground...NO NEW SERIES...

Rob

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

Good point AviTrek yes I agree...!

By the time the next Trek series is in Preproduction the marketing department over at CBS Television will be figuring out what is going to give them some good exposure. Sure they could make a little money to pay for marketing and generate buzz via a digital projection of a Trek pilot or...do what Showtime did and offer it for free on Youtube for a limited engagement of 1 or 2 days.

Oct. 2, 2009
Did Showtime Benefit By Giving Away Free Content?

What is to stop CBS Television from using Hulu and Youtube the same way in 3-4 years? What about if they have a paid content fee for a limited premiere of the pilot even 2 months before the show airs free on TV. BUt would Trek fans pay for it? You bet they will.

Well CBS Television could also go full out and have it as paid content on Hulu, Youtube, iTunes Store, XBOX Live Network, Sony Playstation Network, Amazon's Instant HD Video on Demand service all for a limited engagement of say 2 days only...a weekend. Then a week later offer the DVD for sale. I'm sure in 3-4 years instant streaming and more broadband video will really be big for marketing and promotional events.

 

next Trek series pilot

If series 6 debuts on TV in late September 2012 or 2013 perhaps the New Jersey & Las Vegas major Star Trek conventions in August of the same year would also play the pilot episode on the big screen?

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

thanks for the thread the_constable

Now will Trek series 6 do some marketing like this in 2012-2014 if it is on SyFy channel as first run? If so the pilot could be made and then right into production on the season since the cost to build Trek sets is so immense.

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

Nonsense. DS9 was at its creative peak during the worst of the "Trek glut." Ratings-wise, it was slipping. The slippage had nothing to do with quality, and everything to do with another kind of glut - entertainment in general.

Everything has been slipping ratings-wise. The slippage continued during the creatively dire days of VOY and ENT, and when ENT perked up in S4. The quality or amount of Trek never had anything to do with it. The need to recognize that TV audiences are fragmented into niche markets - and that budgets, marketing and the placement of the show must be adjusted accordingly - has everything to do with it.

I see no reason why Shatner, Stewart or Koenig should be experts on the TV business. They're actors and that's not their job. It is Berman's job, but he sucks at it, so I wouldn't give any credence to his statements, either, especially since he's desperate to find an excuse for his failure.

It's perfectly possible for Star Trek to be a financial success on TV right now. The content would be less of a problem to work out than the business side, particularly the placement of the series. But if some exec wanted to make their name in the biz sorting out this problem, it's just sitting there waiting for them to do it. Nobody gets credit for solving the easy problems.

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

I'm no expert, but it doesn't seem wise to play your television-budgeted pilot immediately after a blockbuster-movie-budgeted blockbuster movie. Wouldn't that be a bit like having Aerosmith open for your garage band? Talk about an underwhelming first impression.

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

point taken. So much for the olden days of a double feature and a cartoon all on a cinema bill...

I think though with the proliferation of digital projection by 2011 that CBS Home video would try something with the pilot in advance like they did with TOS "The Menagerie" in 2007 in cinemas for 2 nights only to paying cinemagoeers.
I would pay $12.50 (current NYC cinema ticket prices) to go see series 6 Trek pilot in the cinema a month or 2 in advance but not $25.00 .

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

I would pay them $12.50 to keep TREK off the air forever...MOVIES only. Going back to TV, again, would be the wrong thing to do, with, I repeat again, over 600+ TV hours to view already...TOO MUCH Trek is what got them to where they were. And this is according to pretty much everyone from every generaton of shows, and producers too..

Rob

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

Everyone except the fans reading these threads based on the number of views.
So what would you like CBS to do with a new Star Trek TV show?
Is There Even A REMOTE Chance Of A New Trek Series?
A New Star Trek Series?
A New Trek Series Should Take a Lesson From Law & Order
Bryan Fuller wants to make a new series
New Trek series
New Animated Series
A Star trek CGI series

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

..who are all fans of TREK. I think the general public had decided that they have had enough of star trek..or did the 2.1 million viewers of Enterprise fool you into thinking anyone cared for that show.

Heck, I would be willing to bet that most of the people on this site did not watch Enterprise on a regular basis...

Your list of threads would be like listing topics spoken at church by the church goers...big deal.

Rob

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

The general public doesn't think anything about Star Trek when they aren't actually watching it. Only we do. The general public will go see a Trek movie if it gets good reviews and word of mouth and actually seems like the cool thing to do. Then they forget about it ten seconds later and think about Transformers or Harry Potter or what they're going to have for lunch. They'd see a TV show on the same basis. But they wouldn't miss or think about Trek if it wasn't being shoved in their face.

Anyone who wants to make $$$ off Trek on TV just needs to do what Abrams did with the movie. 1) create something worth watching. 2) shove it in everyone's face. Pretty much what Transformers and Harry Potter and everything else does. (Well, maybe Transformers doesn't bother too much with point #1.)

Why don't people bitch their heads off about "oversaturation" for everything except Trek? How many frakkin Saw movies have there been anyway?

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

I don't think you could get studios to agree to showing Star Trek series 6 and a movie back to back, it eats up to much time when they are trying to sell as many tickets at a time as possible, although the theaters would be somewhat OK with it, that is if they included an intermission so that people could buy more popcorn, soda, and snacks.

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

Nope, he's right - the other time the general public thinks about Trek is when they see an ad for it...and the reaction that marketing has to get past at this point is "oh, that old shit again." Abrams has done a lot to rehabilitate it, but there's a long distance from a successful film to attracting a sizeable audience to a TV series week after week for years.

 

Re: next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount

Keeping Star Trek off of TV would be a mistake... TNG and TOS were at their best there, IMO.

What the producers need to be able to do is to shoot themselves in the head if they think about making assloads of spinoffs in a row.