ABOUT US

TheBlackBoxOffice.com is all about the movies. We are dedicated to advancing, discussing and exposing people to film. Film from Africa to Xanadu, independents, major studio and everything in between.

The Black Box Office is for the professional, the aspirant, the aficionado, the underwriters, the writers of reviews as well as the casts of others who contribute their talent, blood sweat and sometime tears to keep the industry viable and growing.

Black Box Office is about… creating awareness, supporting and building appreciation and audience for film.

At Black Box Office we collaborate in the important task of putting butts in seats, particularly when those butts happen to be multicultural or African American moviegoers. This audience is often the difference between meeting the box office expectations and having to again explain what just happened!

Butts in Seats

While awaiting the unaided word of mouth, a playable film for the multicultural audience, led by African American, might experience under-whelming opening weekend and thus weakened returns and an early exit for the film. Films deemed likely playable among these moviegoers require unique impetus, to drive traffic, particularly on opening weekend.

To create this impetus you need a heavy application of word of mouth. Not word of mouth to simply to join the conversation, you need a to blast the dialogue with trust*.

We get the absolute right people to direct the conversation in ways that guarantees to generate early talk. Talk that enlivens and raises the decibel of consumer voice needed to put more “butt in seats”, opening weekend.

Influencer Alchemy 101

Our focus is on the motivating power of the Urban Influencer; those local persons relied upon, lauded as urban thought leaders, the fashionista, music makers, outsider artists or movie aficionados. The influencer/maven, identified by business writer Malcolm Gladwell, are relied upon to reduce the cacophony of messages we all get, and to identify the best choices and options. The Influencer’s point of view, particularly among multicultural targets, often results in deliberate action by down-line cohort of, in this case, moviegoers. And for our needs directing them, at the first opportunity, to see new films.

* A 2007 Myers Publishing study found only 17% of people trusted advertisers. And things got worse in 2008, when respondents to a Gallup poll said that only 10% of ad practitioners were trustworthy.
Survey from Bridge Ratings found that the most trusted source among US consumers was their own friends, family and acquaintances. In 2009, a TNS poll indicated that the number one trusted source across all media was “recommendations by friends.”