Studios Won’t Pay For Domain Names — Why Movie

Movie studios aren’t willing to pay for great domain names.

In an interview with NPR a few weeks ago I noted that movie studios rarely part with their cash for the “ideal” domain name for a movie release.

I think one big reason for this is that most people gravitate to review sites and movie listing sites rather than the official site for a movie. They want to hear what other people are saying regarding the movie and when it is playing rather than the studio’s pitch regarding how great the movie is.

Thus, the official web site domain name isn’t all that notable. At the end of the day it would be difficult to convince a studio that having an inferior domain name will lead to lower ticket sales.

Below are the top 11 movies at the box office last weekend and what I think are their “official” web site addresses. A lot of times a studio will advertise an alternative address that forwards to these, though.

X-Men First Class – x-menfirstclassmovie.com
Hangover 2 – hangoverpart2.warnerbros.com (the studio has registered domains for a possible sequel)
Kung Fu Panda 2 – KungFuPanda.com
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – disney.go.com/pirates
Bridesmaids – BridesmaidsMovie.com
Thor – thor.marvel.com
Fast Five – FastFiveMovie.com
Midnight in Paris – MidnightinParisFilm.com forwards to http://www.sonyclassics.com/midnightinparis/
Something Borrowed – somethingborrowedmovie.warnerbros.com
Jumping the Broom – jumpingthebroom-movie.com
Rio www.rio-themovie.com (probably sent a lot of traffic to Rio.com)