Cink, a self-described comic book geek and red carpet host, did not ask Larson about her gown as others did that day. Nor did she discuss the movie’s internet trolls or Larson’s call for more diversity in Hollywood. Instead, she focused solely on Captain Marvel and her alter ego Carol Danvers, a U.S. Air Force pilot, played by Larson.
“Carol changed my life, and this movie hasn’t even come out yet,” Larson said as she held back tears.
Red carpet interviews from the premiere were streamed live for fans who could not attend. And the show was as slickly produced as any pre-awards festivities, albeit one that edged toward camp at times. (For starters, Cink’s co-host interviewed a cat, one of several that played Goose in the movie.)
Cink is an employee of Marvel Studios, which produced Captain Marvel. And if there is any question why the studio would air the red carpet live, consider this: The livestream has been watched more than 485,000 times on YouTube alone.
Fans today clamor for anything related to their favorite movies and television franchises. As a result, livestreaming from the red carpet is not just for the Oscars anymore. More studios are producing their own red carpet extravaganzas, hiring battalions of brand-friendly hosts to market the studio’s offerings and control social media messaging. And with technology that makes livestreaming easy, new players have joined the fray to take advantage of the summer blockbuster season and its worldwide audience.
“Movie premieres have become global moments,” said Doug Neil, Universal Pictures executive vice president for digital marketing. “Fans like to feel like they are part of the experience.”
Neil would know. Last year, the studio held only one premiere in London for “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.” With an army of Academy Award winners on the red carpet — including Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Tom Hanks and Cher — the event would be difficult for Universal to reproduce elsewhere, he said. Premieres are expensive, too, sometimes costing $100,000 or more. So the festivities in London were livestreamed on Facebook, where they were viewed more than 451,000 times around the world.
“The talent bench was so deep,” Neil said of the celebrities who attended. “And Facebook has our largest community of fans.” With streaming technology, he added, “It’s very easy to flip a switch.”
The quality, though, can depend on whose hand is on the switch. “When we started doing this, it was iPhones on tripods,” said Alison Hoffman, chief marketing officer for the cable channel Starz. Now, she said, the company teams up with media outlets, like Entertainment Weekly, People and Entertainment Tonight, to host livestream red carpet events. That was the case last June at the premiere of “Power” at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan. The channel broadcast a livestream with three video cameras.
“For the right show, it’s a critical part of the mix,” Hoffman said.
That is not always the case, though. Last week, the cast of “Game of Thrones” gathered at Radio City Music Hall for the final red carpet premiere for the beloved HBO show. The spectacle was broadcast live by NowThis, a social media content company, which streamed unscripted, raw footage from the “Game of Thrones” press line. An HBO executive said the company was neither involved in nor aware of the livestream, which explains why it had none of the polish of a typical HBO affair.
Photographers could be heard booing when Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, invited Joe Jonas, her pop star fiancé, to join her on the red carpet. “How about a kiss?” a man shouted at Lisa Bonet, the wife of Jason Momoa, who delighted as the he-man Khal Drogo in Season 1. Bonet shook her head no; her husband was visibly annoyed.
The video itself was sketchy, too. The camera shook and the Wi-Fi was unreliable. Gwendoline Christie looked fetching in a flowing yellow gown until she waved her silken sleeves and the screen disappeared into a haze of pixelated squares. Still, the livestream has been watched more than 188,000 times on YouTube.
“It’s not always the best quality that gets the most eyeballs,” said Tina Exarhos, the chief content officer of NowThis. “When you are on a red carpet, these are the moments you look for.”
Despite the video’s raw quality, she added, “We are looking to do more and more of these with studios.”
The Walt Disney Studios, which oversees Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, Pixar and its own slate of movies, has the most sophisticated livestreaming operation in Hollywood. Lylle Breier, who oversees premieres and special events for the studio, said there were often multiple hosts — some on stages, others on the red carpet — and several cameras used for interviews.
The movies that attract the most attention are the “Star Wars” and Marvel franchises. Last April’s red carpet premiere for “Avengers: Infinity War,” for example, has been watched 7.28 million times. There, Gwyneth Paltrow plugged her company, Goop. (“She did a Goop detox and she’s fine,” she said of her stressed-out character, Pepper Potts.) Paltrow also admitted to never having watched an “Avengers” movie.
As many as 30 people are hired to produce a livestreamed red carpet show for a Disney company premiere. And hosts, like Cink, have jobs mostly because they are fans. “They do not ask reporter-type questions,” Breier said.
Cink has hosted at least six streaming red carpet premieres and writes all her own questions. She copped to being flustered by only one celebrity: Stan Lee, the force behind Marvel Comics. (Lee died in November, and “Captain Marvel” carries a dedication to him, as well as a montage of his movie cameos in the Marvel logo.)
Her background in improvisational theater is helpful, she said. Once her earpiece quit working during a live shot, which made it impossible to hear.
“I looked like a deer in the headlights,” she said. “I screamed my intro. I know I looked, like, cuckoo bananas. And it was completely live. I was kicking off the whole show.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.