JM: LIONSGATE ALLOTS SMALLER BUDGETS TO MARKETING THAN MOST OTHER STUDIOS. IS THIS SOMETHING THAT YOU SEE CHANGING IN THE FUTURE, PARTICULARLY WITH LARGER MOVIES SUCH AS CATCHING FIRE?

The growth of Lionsgate over the years has been amazing. It’s in the DNA of the whole company to do more with less – and the continued success of any growing company hinges on not forgetting where you came from.  We pride ourselves on being creative and resourceful – and success hopefully means more opportunities with some amazing new partners in crime. But big success doesn’t mean bigger ad budgets. It’s not how we got here and frankly it’s not necessary.

JM: HOW CHALLENGING WAS IT TO APPEAL TO A WIDE AUDIENCE IN A MOVIE LIKE THE HUNGER GAMES?

There were a lot of challenges in marketing a beloved book especially knowing that it was the first of four films in a series. The best decision we made was to take our queues from the book – and we consider the words of Suzanne Collins to be our bible in marketing the film.

JM: WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC QUALIFIERS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT WITH YOUR NEXT MARKETING CAMPAIGN…YOU JUST RELEASED THE FIRST TEASER FOR CATCHING FIRE(WHICH GOT OVER 28M VIEWS IN A LITTLE OVER A WEEK) BUT I’M SURE THERE WERE MANY CHALLENGES.

[...] Probably the most satisfying thing I saw after the release of the teaser was a fan comment on one of the blogs that posted the trailer. I tend to be overly obsessive about reading and monitoring real fan reaction to the materials. This one comment did the most to reassure me that we had hit the mark with the new teaser trailer: “Shit’s getting real.” It doesn’t get better than that.