Posted on 23 April 2012 by Maddie under News Updates, The Lucky One

Warner Bros’ romantic drama from star author Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook,” “Dear John”), “The Lucky One” starring Zac Efron is looking like $8.9M Saturday — about even with Friday – for a $22.8M weekend. This is another wild overperformer because the studio only expected $15M through Sunday. Playing in 3,115 theaters, it received a ‘B+’ CinemaScore from audiences. Warner Bros’ private tracking saw this film was at the high end for a Sparks’ film, which all have a good multiple of approximately 4x. So the studio marketed the movie based on the well-developed fan base for both Sparks and Efron.

The campaign targeted females both by leveraging Zac’s appeal and the novelist’s pedigree. “The heart of our online marketing campaign was leveraging the celebrity and likability of Zac Efron in advertising, publicity and social media, while additionally leveraging the various social networks surrounding Nicholas Sparks and his previous films,” a WB exec told me. [Source]