Movie magazines grab limelight

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov 15, 1994 by Erika Isler

Blockbuster movies and soaring boxoffice sales don't automatically translate into gains for the magazines that devote their pages to the big screen. But this year, at least, they haven't hurt, either.

K-III's Premiere and Time Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly (a title that covers more than just movies) are both up in ad pages and circulation, and independent upstart Movieline and Larry Flynt's irreverent Film Threat appear to be making some headway of their own, as well.

The publishers of these titles attribute some of their recent successes to the "hot" pictures that have been coming out of Hollywood over the past year, but they also point to the public's voracious appetite for tidbits about their favorite glitterati. "Audiences today are much more literate [about movies] than they used to be," suggests Film Threat executive editor Paul Zimmerman. Adds EW publisher Michael Klingensmith: "Movies are the subject that generate the highest reader scores in our own in-house studies."

Still, category members admit there is no direct correlation between Hollywood's prosperity and the financial health of the magazines writing about it. "A better year in Hollywood certainly means there's more capital around for advertising, but it doesn't immediately translate into print ads," says Movieline publisher Anne Volokh. "Magazines are only part of studio marketing plans."

So who gets credit for the gains these magazines are making? Essentially, the readers themselves. "This genre of magazines is hot because of the preoccupation of people age 18 to 49 with music, television, movies, etc.," Klingensmith observes. Advertisers are looking for the vehicles that will reach those consumers--and titles like Premiere, EW and Movieline have them.

"The readers of those magazines are heavy users of a lot of youth-oriented products," says Chuck Abrams, media director at McCann-Erickson L.A., which handles Columbia Pictures, "so the appeal as an advertising medium goes way beyond the endemic base."

According to the National Association of Theater Owners, total gross revenues for U.S. theaters jumped from $4.8 billion in 1992 to $5.5 billion last year. And through the end of August this year, the industry was tracking ahead of its 1993 performance by 3 percent.

As for the magazines themselves: Through September, Entertainment Weekly had posted 891 ad pages, a 23 percent jump over the same nine-month period in 1993. The monthly premiere had 510 ad pages, about seven more than last year. Both publications also showed circulation gains through the first half of the year, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Premiere was up 3 percent, to 609,000, and EW was up 9 percent, to 1.1 million. Movieline, which appears 11 times a year, saw its circulation increase by 15 percent, to 164,000, although the title's ad pages were relatively flat through October, at 369.

Wenner Media's monthly Us was up 6 percent in pages, to 393, while circulation has remained fairly steady at 1.1 million despite an 11 percent drop in newsstand sales through the first six months of the year. The bimonthly Film Threat, with an unaudited circulation of 125,000, has also experienced gains, albeit on a much smaller scale: Founder and editor Chris Gore says the title expects to run between 20 and 25 ad pages in its January 1995 issue, compared with 10 ad pages in its January '94 issue. Last year, the magazine's circulation hovered around 70,000.

Because magazines have to share the ad spotlight with more immediate marketing vehicles like television, radio and newspapers (and because studio marketing plans are often finalized at the last minute, too late for ad closings), the percentage of ads that come from Hollywood is actually rather small. At Film Threat, studio ads have amounted to "less than 10 pages" in 10 years, Gore points out. "Our ad base is expanding, but the bulk of our advertising is made up of alternative record companies and alternative videos."

That may seem logical for a title like Film Threat, with its anti-celebrity edge, but the story really isn't all that different at the more celebrity-friendly titles, Premiere, Movieline and EW.

Forrest Gump is not enough

"[These magazines] are not going to make it on movie advertising alone," notes Premiere publisher Terry Russell. "Right now, about 10 percent of [Premiere's] ads are from the studios." In fact, despite recent box-office successes like Forrest Gump, Russell points out that business from the studios is "relatively flat" this year.

At Entertainment Weekly, movie advertising accounted for roughly 154 pages last year out of a total of 1,109. At Movieline, ad revenue from cinema and home video releases accounts for about 25 percent of the total base. This year, the magazine has added some 40 new advertisers, but the biggest gains have come in the fashion category, with retailers like Guess? and The Cockpit.

Russell says the movie publications need to work harder to convince the studio marketing types of their value. "Our job is to raise the importance and priority of these magazines," he explains. "The fact is, we own the people who will be going to the movies, so it really behooves the studio people to support us as much as they can."