How to Train Your Dragon, the latest 3-D spectacle, isn’t the only entertainment rumbling at the multiplex this weekend. Ultimate Fighting Championship, for the first time, will air a live welterweight fight Saturday night in 300 AMC, Regal and other movie-theater chains via a deal with NCM Fathom. UFC 111: St. Pierre vs. Hardy is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET. The UFC, which stages about a dozen pay-per-view events each year for cable and satellite distribution, has pummeled its young male target with marketing for the new venture. There have been trailers on 7,500 screens, e-mail blasts to half a million UFC fans, Google and Yahoo! search-engine marketing, video clips in 600 sports clubs, theater posters, college-newspaper ad buys and grassroots outreach to 500-plus mixed martial arts clubs. The pact calls for more UFC events this year with NCM Fathom, which has screened everything from operas and faith-based movies to Golden Boy Promotions’ pro boxing. More info here.
—Posted by T.L. Stanley