Cinema Marketing Firm PaperAirplane Helps Exhibition Take Flight During Pandemic

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: 2020 was a year of utter bewilderment as movie theaters went largely dark from Covid, and studios grappled with a complete stoppage of distribution.But with great chaos, came great opportunity as Lionsgate vets Mike Polydoros and Will Preuss decided to open the doors to PaperAirplane, a first-of-its kind marketing agency which is liaison between movie theaters, studios and theatrical media ad agencies, creating and fostering in-theater promotions.Polydoros, who was instrumental in delivering the in-theater marketing success of numerous blockbusters, including The Hunger Games franchise, Knives Out, and La La Land, saw the need for a one-stop solution between cinemas and studios for in-theater marketing.

That efficiency is achieved via PaperAirplane’s Hanger, a centralized hub of proprietary digital movie marketing assets which studios upload to, and movie theaters download from, i.e.

DCP trailers, social media videos and graphics, custom and exclusive content, web banners, GIFs, digital one sheets, etc.And the decision to launch just as movie theaters were struggling to reopen toward the latter half of 2020?“I’m optimistic about this business,” Polydoros tells Deadline, “People keep trying to put a pin in it since the advent of several mediums –radio, TV, BetaMax, DVD– and the one thing that’s been true is that people keep coming back to the movies.

It’s a communal experience.”In just over a year, PaperAirplane has racked up 1,300-plus registered users, and has supported over 225 titles for studios of all sizes to date, including Warner Bros., Universal, Focus Features, Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Paramount, STXfilms, Briarcliff/Open Road, A24, Bleecker Street, Netflix, Gravitas Ventures,