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

[jefferiestubes8]

23skidoo mentioned about the original Battlestar Galactica tv series.

back in 1978. They even released the original pilot TV movie to theatres

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.

For the first time anyone in TV circles can recall, a network is using a pilot for a show not as the beginning of a series, but as the start of a marketing campaign.

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.

[Clancy_s]

They could but would they want to?

[Bluesteel]

Clancy_s wrote:

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They could but would they want to?

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!

[jefferiestubes8]

Bluesteel wrote:

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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.

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 ?

[AviTrek]

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.

[RobertScorpio]

Bluesteel wrote:

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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!

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

[jefferiestubes8]

AviTrek wrote:

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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.

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.

Showtime made the season premiers of their hit shows DEXTER and CALIFORNICATION on YouTube for anyone to watch for free.

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.

AviTrek wrote:

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

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.

[jefferiestubes8]

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?

[jefferiestubes8]

the Austin Film Festival showed the pilot for Caprica on the big screen at the Alamo Drafthouse - Ritz earlier tonight. Not only was it the pilot episode, but star Esai Morales and pilot director Jeffrey Reiner were in attendance durin' the presentation, and there was a post-screenin' Q & A.

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.

[Temis the Vorta]

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..

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.

[Kelso]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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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?

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.

[jefferiestubes8]

[QUOTE=Kelso;3541441]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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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.

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 .

[jefferiestubes8]

Kelso wrote:

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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.

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 .

[RobertScorpio]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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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 .

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

[jefferiestubes8]

RobertScorpio wrote:

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Going back to TV, again, would be the wrong thing to do

TOO MUCH Trek is what got them to where they were. And this is according to pretty much everyone from every generaton of shows

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?
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