It saw an incredible PR campaign which created such a buzz that the BNP most likely dismissed their prejudices to pre-order tickets in anticipation of the uber-gay-themed controversial comedy “Bruno”.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s portrayal of a camp Austrian fashionista attempting to make it big in the US introduced a publicity drive incomparable to any other I have seen in a long time. Dominating the media each day the hype was insane, and it’s opening weekend topped the charts both in the UK and the states taking £5 million at the UK box office alone, the second highest opening for an 18-certificate film in the country even though it fell short of Baron Cohen’s £6.24 million opening of the 15-certificate Borat in November 2006.

Despite the flying success of its first weekend at cinemas Bruno was soon subject to a barrage of snap judgments and word-of-mouth publicity from fan to fan via social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook such as this from user Cathy Zhang: “Some scenes from Bruno I’ll never erase from my mind.” On the flip side, many Twitter commentators raved about “Bruno.”

Bruno suffered from the “Twitter effect,” meaning audiences reacted quickly online to raunchy scenes of sex and nudity, scaring people away. A process which can boost, or bomb, ticket sales.

It is becoming more and more apparent that this instant process of critique amongst peers can create a box office hit or a flop is forcing major studios to revamp marketing campaigns.

Adam Fogelson, Universal’s president of marketing and distribution said even Twitter comments that seem critical can be good publicity because they show people are passionate about the movie and can spark discussion that increases attendance. He attributed “Bruno’s” lopsided opening day not to negative fan buzz, but to an unusually large crowd of Cohen’s fans rushing to see the film on its first day.

Film marketers look at weekly declines in ticket sales to judge fan buzz. In recent years those “drops” have widened significantly as communication has speeded up thanks to the Internet and more recently social networking services like Twitter and Facebook.

This summer, which is the most lucrative movie season and can make up as much as 40 percent of annual box office, ticket revenues for new films have dropped 51 percent, on average, from week No. 1 to week No. 2, a figure matched only in 2007, according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.

In a bid to tackle this studios are actively using Twitter to not only allow viewers to voice their opinions via an official movie-Twitter, but PR-controlling everything that actors Tweet on set.

It will be interesting to see how big budget movies like the recently released “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and the up-coming, much anticipated “New Moon”, sequel to the popular vampire saga “Twilight” fair against the Twitter effect or even mediahustler‘s newly penned phrase: ‘‘Twattered’…

(source: Reuters.com)