Starbucks Signs With William Morris to Get Deals Brewing
Starbucks Corp. has tapped William Morris Agency to help find projects that are its cup of chai.
The alliance, which will be announced today, authorizes the Hollywood talent agency to identify music, film and book projects for the world’s leading coffee retailer to consider for marketing and distribution in its stores, according to a news release.
And not a moment too soon, if Starbucks’ first venture into the world of movie marketing is any measure. Three months after the Seattle-based company announced it would launch a movie marketing venture with the feel-good feature film “Akeelah and the Bee,” the film opened to sluggish box-office returns.
Lionsgate’s story of a young African American girl winning a spelling bee, which Starbucks has promoted in its 5,500 North American stores, grossed an estimated $6.3 million, or $2,847 per screen. On a blockbuster-free weekend, it came in eighth, far behind the top-grossing “R.V.,” a comedy starring Robin Williams, and “United 93,” a re-creation of a passenger revolt on one of the planes hijacked Sept. 11, 2001.
Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, who is well connected in Hollywood with a board seat at DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., has said the company has no plans to finance movie productions. But it does want to claim its place as an entertainment and “lifestyle” destination, where customers buying lattes can also purchase CDs, DVDs and books.
“We believe Starbucks is a very powerful distribution channel,” Schultz said in a news release, “which is why we are so pleased to be working with the largest diversified talent and literacy agency in the world, William Morris Agency, to bring our customers even more forms of entertainment.”
William Morris Chief Executive Jim Wiatt said in the same statement: “As they extend their reach into broader forms of entertainment, we couldn’t be more pleased and honored to be working with Starbucks.”
The release did not disclose financial terms. A William Morris spokesman referred all calls to Starbucks. Starbucks officials did not return repeated calls for comment Sunday.
When Starbucks launched its movie venture in January, executives at the company said they hoped to teach Hollywood a lesson about marketing. Beginning in early April, the company promoted “Akeelah and the Bee” on coffee sleeves, with words of the day on chalkboard menus and through barista recommendations. It also is selling the soundtrack of the movie in stores.
Although Starbucks’ music venture, launched in 2004, has been a success -- most notably with Ray Charles’ “Genius Loves Company,” which sold more than 1.3 million CDs and won several Grammys -- its first movie outing has been less than impressive. The film, which stars Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett and Keke Palmer, has failed to bring in big audiences despite a plug from Oprah Winfrey and good reviews.
When a movie has good buzz, it usually makes well above a $3,000-per-screen average on its opening weekend. Privately, Lionsgate executives had said the best way to gauge the effectiveness of Starbucks’ marketing would be to see how well the film crossed over to non-blacks.
Apparently, it didn’t cross over enough. According to Lionsgate, the film played best among black women. Buoyed by tallies that show box-office revenue jumped 60% from Friday to Saturday, Lionsgate is hoping word of mouth will give the film legs over the coming weeks.
Starbucks received a producer credit on the film, alongside Lionsgate and 2929 Entertainment, even though it did not invest in the production. The coffee giant will receive its cut of the profit after Lionsgate and 2929 recoup their costs.
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Times staff writer Josh Friedman contributed to this report.
