A documentary on country star Tim McGraw will be digitally simulcast Nov. 25 in several U.S. movie theaters, Billboard.com has exclusively learned. The film will be seen in about 30 movie screens in more than 20 U.S. cities, says Robert Kardashian, president of Movie Tunes, one of the companies involved in the promotion. Tickets will be given away by country radio stations in each market.
The event comes a day prior to the release of McGraw’s new Curb album, “Tim McGraw & the Dancehall Doctors.” Curb VP of marketing Jeff Tuerff says the ticket giveaways create a win-win situation, since fans can go to the event for free and “the radio stations can generate a tremendous amount of publicity for themselves and Tim’s new album.”
Kardashian tells Billboard.com that Movie Tunes will be staging several more movie-theater simulcast events with top-selling acts. “Tim McGraw will be our first one. We’d like to do this at least once a quarter,” he says.
The film will be shown in AMC movie theaters in the following cities: Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Houston; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles; Miami; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; St. Louis; San Diego; San Jose, Calif.; Seattle; Tampa, Fla.; Washington, D.C.
At deadline, New York (the largest U.S. market) has not been confirmed as an event location because the city has no country radio station. However, sources say that Curb is working on bringing the event to New York and will find an alternate outlet in which to give away tickets in the area.
As previously reported, McGraw will appear for the first time on Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry on Nov. 30 for two shows. His performance at the historic Ryman Auditorium during the night’s first show will be televised on CMT’s “Grand Ole Opry Live,” which airs at 8 p.m. ET. His primetime NBC special “Sing Me Home” will air on Nov. 27, just a day before his wife, fellow country star Faith Hill, premieres her own NBC special on Thanksgiving night.
