Los Angeles has long been the major hub of American movie premieres, but the times they are changing. And it's largely thanks to Jimmy Fallon. The happy-go-lucky late night host successfully pulled The Tonight Show from Los Angeles to New York City, and with it have come a slew of Hollywood premieres.
THR reports The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon is such a major draw for stars/marketing tool for studios that its success has brought bunches of Hollywood premieres and swath of stars to New York City to promote their films. Fallon's audience skews younger than Jay Leno's had, and his bits like lip sync battles and bonkers sketches get way more traction online, giving studios a relatively inexpensive and inventive avenue to sell their projects. By the estimates of Craig Waldman, founder of the events production company 15/40, the amount of movie premieres happening in NYC has just about doubled. He suspects that 30-40% of all premieres will now belong to New York.
You go, Jimmy.
In just the past few months, such major tent poles as The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Fault in Our Stars and Edge of Tomorrow shunned L.A. to host their debut's in the Big Apple. And soon, New Yorkers will be the first to see Transformers: Age of Extinction... once it has its sure-to-be showy premiere.
Jimmy Fallon--and his mass commercial appeal--is being considered a major factor in this recent shift. Though it's not the only factor. THR notes that the very popular press tour stop that is The Ellen Degeneres Show is on break for the summer, which hurts L.A.'s promo appeal. The other element to this movie premiere migration is simply scheduling. A rise in foreign markets means talent and execs are often hitting international (think Europe) junkets as well as those in the U.S., and a flight from many of these to NYC is far less taxing (and expensive) than going half-way around the world to Los Angeles.
One studio that isn't likely to budge to peer pressure is Disney. The House of Mouse is solidly set up in California, where they own the El Capitan theater, an illustrious Hollywood spot for premieres. Plus, they don't need to play to Fallon and his fans, as they own ABC and by extension the wacky and beloved antics of Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Here's hoping Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel can spin this inside baseball into a rousing rivalry that will make for great TV and addictive online vids.
