Post

Back in 2011 there was a small production of Atlas Shrugged. The studio bought out full auditoriums for weeks by buying blocks of tickets to give away to church and school groups. 10 am matinees on Wednesdays appeared sold out and not a single person would show up.

More recently, the evangelical Angel Studios employed pay-it-forward and BOGO schemes to boost the box office take on films like The Sound of Freedom and Young Washington. With this kind of chicanery, box office transactions occur while tickets can go unused. The outward appearance is success.

A small clarifying note: I say “the studio” buys tickets above because the studio and producers often coordinate these sort of bulk sales, but that doesn’t mean they alone do this. Often outside actors—deep pocketed individuals and institutions—step in and purchase ticket blocks as well.

it certainly creates the appearance of success for the financial backers, which is the real audience — the only ROI they're primed to expect is in influence, and you have a much easier time cooking the numbers to make a production seem more influential than it is than you do inventing profit