A movie ticket with your cappucino?

Starbucks, which has seen great success marketing CDs, is now getting involved in promoting new movies, according to this piece from today's Seattle Times. (Thanks to Seattle-ite Jeff Carlson for the link.)

"While we are a coffee company at heart, Starbucks provides much more than the best cup of coffee — we offer a community gathering place where people come together to connect and discover new things," Chairman Howard Schultz said in a statement.

The Associated Press says that "... Starbucks baristas who get a sneak peek at the film will wear lanyards with `Akeelah' buzz words in hopes of sparking conversations about the movie..." The coffee shops will sell the soundtrack CD beginning in April, when the movie comes out, and the DVD later in the year.
"Akeelah" looks like a fictionalized version of the great movie "Spellbound," starring Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett. The trailer is here.

How long is it before Starbucks starts picking up indie films on the festival circuit for direct-to-DVD distribution in its stores?

(AP Photo by Elaine Thompson.)