In 2013, the cinema distributor Betta Pictures acquired Spanish broadcasting rights for the Last Exorcism Part II.

The first part had been successful. However, the sequel did not have the same luck, with a Film Affinity rating of 3.3/10 and very poor reviews. Betta Pictures released The Last Exorcism Part II in november, one year after the US premier and the film was already on YouTube.

This is why they only managed to have the film shown in 30 theaters. How can you make a bad film profitable, without theaters, budget for advertising and with the specialist media against it?

To claim their free ticket, they had to request it via ticketsforpriests.com. Once we confirmed their details, the tickets were sent to the priests’ parishes. We also compiled the addresses of 120 parishes in Madrid, available on the website of the Episcopal Conference, and we sent them an invitation to the film. Of course, we also sent personalized invitations to bishops and archbishops, which could be distinguished by their ecclesiastical colors. And to attract the full attention of the media, we reserved a VIP row of seats for the premiere of the film for Rouco Varela and his 8 exorcists.

We decided reach out to the horror fans, we needed to do something different since the typical trailer strategy on TV and youtube.

A few months before the premiere, the Spanish press reported that Cardinal Rouco Varela, the highest representative of the church in Spain, had sent 8 priests to be trained as exorcists to deal with the increasing number of cases of demonic possessions in Madrid.

We decided to sell “The Last Exorcism Part 2” as a quick training course for priests. The first film to offer priests free entry to the movies to be educated on exorcism.

With a big idea and simple execution that consisted of sending mailings, a small website and a careful press contact policy, we achieved a media return of €630,000, based on a campaign investment of €5,000. We received 72 ticket applications from priests.

The specialist cinema media, such as Fotogramas, spoke favorably of the film on their cover page, and the campaign even managed to form part of mass media opinion articles.

The film generated such interest that the distributor managed to have it shown in an additional 70 cinemas, in addition to selling the rights to pay TV channel, Canal+.