25 Clever, Fun, or Just Plain Wacky Ideas From Recent TV and Film Premieres

The New York premiere of I Am The Night, TNT’s crime-noir drama directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Chris Pine, took place in January. The after-party, held at the World of McIntosh townhouse, featured a variety of performances inspired by themes and scenes from the miniseries, which is set in 1960s Los Angeles. Macabre performances included a woman lying on a table, wearing a dress made of candles and melted candle wax. Creative direction and production was overseen by Jay Rinsky of Little Cinema, a collective that offers immersive entertainment for events. Preview Events was the local production partner.

Other performers included a creepy figure covered in white balloons.

The Los Angeles premiere of the series took place later the same week, with an after-party at the Chateau Marmont. The event featured entertainment similar to the New York premiere, including acrobatic dancers performing a routine in front of a massive painting with a 3-D effect. Little Cinema also produced and directed the event. Event Eleven was the local production partner.

TBS teamed up with Grandesign to promote the series premiere of Miracle Workers, a new limited series starring Steve Buscemi as God, for a weekend in February. Diners throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn were surprised with toast imprinted with Buscemi's face, along with TBS-branded placemats and toothpicks.

Jordan Peele's new horror film, Us, premiered at Austin's Paramount Theatre during South by Southwest on March 8. The highly anticipated follow-up to Get Out, the movie follows a family that is terrorized by their own creepy doppelgängers—who are all carrying a pair of sharp gold scissors. The after-party featured, what else, an installation constructed from scissors.

The premiere party for Netflix's new series The Umbrella Academy, inspired by the comic book of the same name, took place at NeueHouse Hollywood in February. The streamer worked with MKG to create the on-theme space, which included an eye-catching step-and-repeat made from neon lights.

Inside the event, the central bar recreated the doughnut shop from the series. An umbrella was projected above the DJ area.

Decorative props and portraits throughout the space evoked the show, which follows a group of superhero siblings being raised by an eccentric millionaire.

To celebrate season two of Amazon Prime Video’s comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the brand reopened New York’s iconic Carnegie Deli for a week in December. The deli was turned into a 1950s version of itself, attracting passersby with a vintage Ford car and a branded bicycle parked outside. The pop-up was produced by Tool of North America.

The deli, which garnered a waiting list of more than 7,000 people to dine, offered throwback prices and used proceeds as donations for the L.E.S. Girls Club; the event ended up raising more than $7,000. The inside of the deli also revamped the wall of fame to include framed images from the series.

For those dining in, tables displayed printed pink and white placemats, napkins, and menus that promoted the series.

To premiere Netflix's original film Bird Box in December, the streaming service hosted a party at Loeb Boathouse in Central Park in New York. Mannequins were used to recreate the movie's memorable harrowing scene, in which Sandra Bullock's character Malorie rows her two children down a treacherous river while blindfolded. The event was produced and designed by Benarroch Productions.
Click here to read more about this event.

The premiere for the third season of HBO’s True Detective took place in January at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. The event, which was designed by Billy Butchkavtiz, featured a creepy, life-size corn husk doll that guests could pose with—a motif taken from the new season of the anthology crime drama. Guests could also make their own corn husk dolls.

The event featured a faux forest where guests could pose in crime scene photo ops.

A photo booth aged half of guests’ faces, nodding to the use of flashbacks in the series.

To promote its new series Good Trouble, a spin-off of The Fosters, Freeform hosted an upscale communal dining experience—in the back of a truck parked underneath the Hollywood sign. The iconic location was chosen to reflect the excitement the main characters feel after moving to Los Angeles. The experience, which took place in November, was produced by Blue Revolver.

The back of the trucks opened to reveal three distinct spaces inspired by the series, with mismatched chairs, painted walls, framed pictures, and hanging plants creating a cozy but trendy atmosphere.
Click here to read more about this event.

Fox hosted the premiere party for its new sci-fi drama The Passage in January at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Designed and produced by Russell Harris Event Group, the event took guests inside the show's secretive Project Noah, a medical facility housing a dangerous virus. A creepy vignette before the screening depicted the facility's experiments; at the after-party, guests could pose for photo ops in similar custom-made cells.

Other on-theme details included medical props and florals from In Bloom L.A. placed in beakers.

In December in Los Angeles, Vanity Fair and Focus Features hosted a cocktail reception to celebrate the new historical drama Mary Queen of Scots. Held at Chateau Marmont, the event featured a costume display from the film, and guests could pose in a themed vignette with costumed actors. The event was produced by Mitie Tucker Event Production.

For the world premiere of Bumblebee, Paramount Pictures' latest Transformers film starring Hailee Steinfeld, a doughnut wall took the shape of the transformers' logo. The event was held at the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles in December.

History hosted a premiere party for drama series Project Blue Book in Los Angeles in January. The series follows U.F.O. investigations during the Cold War—so organizers chose the Simon House, a 1950s-style residence in Beverly Hills, as the venue. The pool area featured projections of the company's logo.

Props were set up throughout the house that referenced themes from the show. The event was designed and produced by the network along with Tallman Events.

For the season three premiere of HBO’s weed-theme comedy High Maintenance, the network partnered with Grandesign to serve free CBD (cannabidiol) lattes, drip coffee, and cold brew to passersby in Venice, California, and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in January. Lattes were served from a branded truck by ambassadors wearing green flannels and helmets, inspired by the show’s main character, who delivers weed to customers on a bike.

For Rebel Wilsons's new comedy Isn't It Romantic, premiere party sponsor Captain Morgan created special rom-com-inspired cocktails with tongue-in-cheek names such as "Love Bites." The party was held in February at the Ace Theater in Los Angeles.