Tron:Legacy for the dude who owns 9 copies of Tron, one of which is on laser disc.

August 7, 2009 5:51 AM

How does a normal, average couple from the Midwest score a ticket (invite?) to a big movie premiere?

My husband's favorite movie ever is being remade, and should be released sometime next year. If I could somehow get him to the premiere, you'd never be able to convince him I wasn't the coolest wife ever to have existed in the entire history of marriage. And I kinda like that idea. So how does someone like me, who has absolutely no connection to Hollywood, make this happen?

posted by ferociouskitty to media & arts (6 comments total)

Frankly, I don't think the odds of you actually getting in to watch the screening of the red carpet premiere are very good at all--roughly none, if you don't have a connection to someone with a connection to someone. (I did my time in PR back in the day, and my mom has been in PR for about 25 years.)

But actually going to watch the red carpet grand guignol would be a great deal of fun, and if you made it a trip you could see the starz lolzomg!!! get walked down the carpet and then a day or two later, see it on opening day in the theatre. It's been a few years since I went to a big premiere--the last two were Troy (which was a riot, and the party afterwards at Cipriani, if I recall, was awesome--thanks mom!) and Squid and the Whale (delicious Phoebe Cates is still le yum)--but just standing on the street can be totally a great time, particularly when the talent make an effort to be cool--as Brad Pitt did. It was fun to watch people's heads explode.

But there will be a number of pre-release screenings, and if you can find out who is doing the PR you can ask if you can be added to the guest list. Generally, at least in NYC, the "all media" screening (for the press who don't merit seeing it in a screening room) is at a big theatre and there is a push to make sure its filled, so they do look for bodies. Of course, there are often a lot of people happy to go to a free movie that has not been released yet, so they're not exactly hurting for people. But if you somehow got through to me way back when, I might have thrown you a pass.

Another route might to do the "I've got a blog" hussle, but you can smell bullshit a mile away on that one.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 6:09 AM on August 7

If you have a good shtick/story, maybe you can email the movie producers and they'll take a liking to you.

See the mefi pixar story, slightly related.
posted by gushn at 7:15 AM on August 7

I'm going to suggest that you make your inquiry to staff at The Academy of Motion Picture Sciences (www.oscars.org) for the best route. This great organization is very industry connected, and very approachable. Just last night, I attended a brilliant lecture on the physics of action flicks. The speakers worked on Apollo 13, Batman, Spiderman, Pirates, and numerous others. So ask the Academy folks how it's done. Good luck.
posted by effluvia at 8:07 AM on August 7

I was on vacation with some friends in LA and we were a bit lost and hungry so we decided to stop where we were and find dinner.

We parked the car and wandered around. We ran into some police barricades around a movie theater and in the distance we could see some celebrities doing a mini red carpet walk. It was pretty exciting for a group of friends who grew up in the midwest, away from these movie stars.

So, we watched for a few more minutes trying to get our cameras to zoom in on the stars' faces when this guy approaches me and is like, "I'm a coordinator for this event. Would you like tickets?"
My first instinct was to say no and run away screaming, "scam artist!"
I figures he senses this and explains himself so of course I say yes and we got enough free tickets for all of us to watch the movie. We ended up being in the very front row though, but when the director and some of the actors made announcements we were definitely up close and personal.

It seemed to me like a lot of people do this. Wait around at a premiere and try to get a ticket to get in. As we walked the "red carpet" the veteran premiere junkies on the other side of the velvet rope were whispering at us to hide our cameras and there were others sighing over the fact that they didn't get the tickets this time.

I guess it's somewhat of a long shot but if you have the time then give it a try. Even if you don't get in you still get the experience of seeing the stars.
posted by simplethings at 8:34 AM on August 7

Hm. The big premiere may be unreachable for you, unless you know people who know people in the production offices.

That being said, generally most FX-heavy movies have a cast and crew screening at some point in the runup to the release. All you'd need for that is to be good friends with two people who work at one of the companies involved in the production-- the transportation people, the VFX guys, whatever-- and be able to convince them that when the crew screening rolls around, they take you and your husband as their guests. Dinner, beer, and bribery often assists this manner of negotiation.

I work at one of the companies involved in Tron Legacy. I am completely uninvolved in our work on the film, though, and thus cannot be your friend for this endeavor. Sorry.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:10 PM on August 7

In the UK, at least, big movie premieres are usually organised for charities and the charities sell tickets to raise funds. So try charities in the Los Angeles area.

Then again, my friends paid $200 to essentially ... go and see a movie. Wow.
posted by almostwitty at 12:44 PM on August 7