Opening Weekend: Selling Hollywood with Jim Fredrick continues on the TG&TG feed.

This week Jim rides solo, revisiting the campaign he calls "the assignment of a lifetime": Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. As senior vice president of creative advertising at Warner Brothers, he traces the campaign from an illustrated owl poster with no actors in sight to a $90 million opening weekend that turned one film into a franchise.

Takeaways:

  • The call upstairs. A 1999 meeting with his boss turns into the assignment of a lifetime.
  • Freezing in Leavesden. A week cutting a promo reel on location, scored to the Home Alone soundtrack, and the door that opened onto a world of pure movie magic.
  • The slow reveal. Why the campaign opened with an owl and a letter, then opened the envelope a little further with each poster.
  • Sitting on the fence. Balancing filmmakers on one side and studio bosses on the other, and why that tension is the whole job.
  • One agency, one shot. Why Jim hired only The Ant Farm, and what Drew Struzan's final poster meant for the campaign.

Just remember:

  • "There is no franchise unless the first film is a hit." — Jim Fredrick

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