“She said something to the effect of, ’Everybody
could use a little Elle Woods positivity right
now.” Witherspoon and her co-star Victor Garber
helped views spike with social media mentions.
And people turned out, with as many as 1.1
million tuning in over the course of the film, with
a peak of 22,300 simultaneous views.
“We were impressed with the numbers,” said
Bruno. “The hope is we can do more.”
Focus Features tried it out with “Emma,” enlisting
Turner Classic Movies host Alicia Malone to
lead a discussion on Twitter at a designated
time. But viewers had to rent that title for
$19.99 if they wanted to follow along. The
studio is also starting Movie Mondays, a free
series, on Facebook, with links to donate to the
Entertainment Industry Foundation’s COVID-19
Response Fund. Movies include “Moonrise
Kingdom,” on April 13 at 8PM EST.
Not everyone is putting pressure on watching
together, though. The American Film Institute
started the AFI Movie Club that is curating daily
selections with high-profile introductions, from
Steven Spielberg to Brad Pitt.
Availability of movies online can be an issue. It’s
one thing for a group of people to agree on a
film. It’s another find one that’s also streaming
on a site where everyone is signed up with
an account.
That’s a problem that film writer Tomris Laffly
encountered with her group of friends. Instead
of Slack, they watch together through the
application “Netflix Party,” a Google Chrome
extension that lets multiple computers
stream the same film simultaneously with a