In January of this year I started a campaign called “Die Hard for the National Film Registry.” Through Twitter and other social networking sites, I went about informing people what the National Film Registry was all about; how they were set up more than 20 years ago to help honor and preserve classic films. The Registry’s board selects up to 25 films each year, based on their criteria which states a film must be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The board accepts recommendations via email and they take them seriously, so I also set about asking people to send their votes in for DIE HARD. It’s not in the Registry, but it’s a worthy candidate. Then I thought, what’s a great way to honor and show off how great the movie is? Why, I have to screen the movie, of course. That’s where Tugg comes in.

I immediately loved the process behind Tugg when I first heard about it. Setting up screenings and promoting it to your social network. It’s a process that was made for a campaign like mine that thrives on a social network made of movie fans. I set up a screening a day after the film’s 24th year anniversary at the greatest movie theater I’ve ever been to, the Alamo Drafthouse. Tugg went about it pretty quickly and got an even page started in about a week. That was probably the easiest thing about the whole process. The hardest part was getting the screening filled up.

I sent the event page link to everyone I knew. I went to my @DieHardNFR Twitter page, Tumblr, Facebook, etc, in order to promote this to all DIE HARD fans. I think the key was to get not just DIE HARD fans interested, but regular movie lovers. When you have a movie that is as beloved as DIE HARD, it’s only a matter of time when the right people hear about it via their social networks.

Seeing a more than 20-year-old film like DIE HARD on the big screen doesn’t happen every day. The “event” angle is important to promote. “Come see this classic on the big screen!” and “Don’t miss out seeing DIE HARD the way it was meant to be seen!” were phrases I kept repeating. With just a few days before the event’s deadline I met my goal of tickets sold. It was the biggest success for the “DieHardNFR” campaign.

The screening itself was a lot of fun. I chose to screen the movie in 35mm, because I’m a fan of film and thought it would be great to see the film how it was meant to be seen. The movie ended up a bang and the crowd loved it. It was a great night and I can’t wait to set up my next screening.

Yippee-Ki-Yay!
Marcelo Pico
“Die Hard for the National Film Registry”

Who woulda thought that one of the only two silent films to win Best Picture at the Oscars would have been made 84 years after the talkie revolution.

It’s one of our favorites of 2011, and now it’s available on Tugg. Wanna bring it back to your town for an encore? Set up a screening!

Love this Mondo poster for Office Space. Milton made of straw… Question is, which one is the last?

We’re super excited to add Office Space to our library! Wanna bring Milton to your theater? Request a screening here.