A good popcorn movie has a message. You don’t have to pound your audience over the head with it. But there’s no reason why you can’t be passionate about something and still write an entertaining script.

I've been thinking about studio marketing strategy a lot since reading about the A Christmas Carol train that just left LA and will be making stops all over the country until November. Imagine how much money that costs! Will they really be able to recoup? It seems like a staggeringly bad idea to me, but I guess we'll find out come opening weekend.

I can't quite grasp why Warner Bros. would spend megabucks on advertising for Terminator Salvation and then schedule it right up against Star Trek. What kind of thinking led to that?

It's not in anyone's best interest to compete for the same audience at the same time. Sure, there are the fanboys who will go no matter what. But a lot of people need to spread it out a bit and go see something else - I don't know, maybe a family film, say Night at the Museum? - with the other parts of the family. A couple more weeks would have made a big difference for Terminator, I think. All the ad money in the world can't make up for bad scheduling.

Olive and LindaM's comments recall that line from William Goldman re Hollywood: "Nobody knows anything."

Re the Christmas Carol train: That's crazy money, isn't it? In a crowded consumer marketplace, Hwood is willing to try anything to break through the noise. Could a train, stopping at hundreds of cities along the way, help to generate buzz? And here's an obvious question: How will the marketing people determine how much impact the train actually made in terms of box office results? Will they rely on anecdotal evidence? Or perhaps they've worked out a deal with the Dept. of Homeland Security to match faces that show up at the train stops to faces that show up at the movie.

LindaM's point is spot on. Clearly Star Trek and its 'legs' clearly had a negative impact on Terminator: Salvation. Plus, going up against a sequel to an enormously popular four-quadrant movie like Night at the Museum -- in retrospect, not a smart decision per the calendar. And these type of scheduling snafus go on all the time. Just off the top of my head, I can think of Iron Giant and The Shawshank Redemption as getting hurt by poor release dates.

It's why the studios jockey for key weekend dates so far in advance, especially during the summer season. For instance, the 8th and final Harry Potter movie is already slotted for its release date in 2011.

It's a screwy business. Which is why, when I read the NY Times article, I couldn't help but chuckle when the expert said that marketing movies was clearly unlike marketing toothpaste. Different animals.