'I think it was exacerbated by the fact that a lot of people were watching TikTok videos because they were stuck at home. 'The devotion to this part of marketing is probably the biggest change during the COVID era,' says Marc Weinstock, the president of worldwide marketing and distribution at Paramount Pictures. Instead, studios are now dedicating members of their marketing teams to forging relationships with influencers and actually collaborating with them, paying them tens of thousands - and sometimes even hundreds of thousands - of dollars to create content tailored to a specific project. These days, it's not enough to simply fly people with a lot of followers out to red carpets and hope they post about the film. And now influencers are using their newfound cachet with filmmakers to make it off the apps and onto the big screen. While cultivating relationships with well-connected people in hopes of creating buzz for a product is nothing new, TikTok's explosive growth among Gen Z and millennials has made partnering with influencers a must-have for film studios looking to score opening weekend. Influencer Amanda Castrillo is hoping to parlay her TikTok account into a TV writing career.Ĭastrillo, who has over 300,000 followers on TikTok, is just one of many influencers who movie studios, networks, and streamers enlist to get the word out about new releases. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

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