The mergers and acquisitions traced in the previous chapter had as their rationale the integration of multiple markets for generating film revenue. Before the 1980s, these were mainly theaters and broadcast television. By decade's end, these included the former as well as pay cable, home video, the marketing venues of product placement and product tie-ins, and the synergies that might be obtained through strategic crosspromoting in these areas. (During the eighties, the majors also saw significant revenues from the production and syndication of broadcast television programming. In 1980, for example, Gulf and Western's Leisure Time Group derived 90 percent of its revenues from series and films for television.)¹ As a result, film marketing grew more complex and required new strategies but could deliver greater revenues when the ancillaries worked in synergy, reinforcing one another.

Marketing films has always been a difficult business...