Tag: chris pratt

guardians of the galaxy vol. 3 – marketing recap

How Marvel Studios has sold the capper to its space-faring super hero trilogy

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 movie poster from Marvel Studios
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 movie poster from Marvel Studios

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that in 2014 few people would have expected Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to be hitting theaters almost a decade later. Expectations for the first movie were kept low, with lots of talk about it being Marvel’s “first comedy” (a designation also applied to Ant-Man a year later) and how it featured a group of heroes so far from the A List they’d only heard about it in stories. But Marvel Studios needed a group of characters to expand the universe to outer space and the Guardians fit the bill.

After coming together in the first movie and exploring lots of daddy issues in the second, this week’s installment sees the unlikely team needing to protect one of their own from the consequences of their previous actions. The actual plot may be too convoluted to fully encapsulate, so here’s the official synopsis:

Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. A mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.

In addition to writer/director James Gunn (more on that below) all the main cast is back, including Chris Pratt as Quill, Zoe Saldaña as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Vin Diesel as Groot, Pom Klementieff as Mantis and Sean Gunn as Kraglin while the combo of Gunn and Bradley Cooper provide the motion capture for and voice of Rocket, respectively. Joining the story this time around are Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, sent to destroy the Guardians for their crimes and Chukwudi Iwuji as The High Evolutionary, who figures into Rocket’s origins and who the team has to outwit to help their comrade.

So with all that established let’s take a look at how the movie has been sold.

announcement and casting

Things got off to a rocky start when, in mid-July of 2018, Disney abruptly fired director James Gunn, who had been working on the script and other aspects of pre-production. That came after a campaign by right-wing trolls and assholes brought up old Tweets published by Gunn that were certainly offensive but which were old news. The same posts had come up years before the first GotG movie and Gunn had apologized for them, but with this renewed push – spurred by his outspoken criticism of President Trump – Disney almost immediately folded and showed these cultural terrorists they would achieve whatever ends they desired.

The backlash from fans as well as the stars of the movies and other celebrities was swift for just that reason, often pointing out that Gunn had grown much more aware in the years since those posts. The consensus (rightly) was that firing him for old material like this sent the signal that improving yourself wasn’t worth it, so why bother? Disney later confirmed after a few weeks of back-and-forth that no, he would not be returning. All of that lead to a delay in production starting.

So it was relatively surprising when, in the middle of March of 2019, Disney reversed course and announced Gunn was returning to the director’s position. Apparently someone decided that caving to right-wing trolls making bad faith arguments wasn’t a sustainable business model.

During the promotional cycle for Brightburn, Gunn was finally interviewed about that whole situation and how things transpired, including how the cast all reached out both publicly and personally to show their support.

In early 2020, as many films were being delayed and productions shut down, Gunn assured fans things were still on schedule and there shouldn’t be any problems with filming.

During Disney’s December 2020 investors presentation the news was announced that before the movie came out a “Guardians Holiday Special” directed by Gunn would premiere on Disney+.

The movie, along with other upcoming MCU entries, was name-checked in the “Marvel Studios Celebrates The Movies” video from early May.

Gillan spoke briefly about the movie during the Gunpowder Milkshake publicity cycle.

Poulter was cast as Adam Warlock in October 2021.

A month later Gunn shared a photo marking the beginning of filming.

the marketing campaign: volume one

In July 2022 fans at San Diego Comic-Con got a look at the first footage from the film, including what seems to be background on Rocket’s origins and more. That was part of the panel where members of the cast and crew appeared and a release date announced, with Gunn also confirming this was the end of the story for this particular cast of characters. He also later clarified that the trailer wasn’t released online for the general public because the special effects weren’t ready just yet and wouldn’t hold up to repeated viewings.

With Gunn making it clear the story of this team was coming to an end it seemed the cast was ready to put this stage of their careers behind them as well. Saldaña, while she was promoting Avatar: The Way of Water at the end of 2022, said she was eager to not have to go through the daily makeup process again and had other “bitter” feelings about the filming of this movie. Later on while he was promoting Knock at the Cabin Bautista promised he would never return to the character of Drax after this film lest it tarnish the character as a cynical cash grab.

Those attitudes were largely understandable given that while this is just the third movie of their own, they’ve played these characters in three or four other MCU movies in that time. And you could kind of tell everyone was just phoning it in when the “Holiday Special” hit Disney+ at the end of November, itself preceded by a full campaign of press interviews, live events, posters and more.

A few more new stills were included in an interview of Gunn talking about the story, his nervousness around making the third in a trilogy and more, including leaving the series as he becomes the head of Warner Bros.’ DC development.

the marketing campaign: volume two

The campaign for the movie itself began in early December of last year when the first trailer (29.1m YouTube plays) was released. It opens with what looks like the Guardians returning to Earth, but when they land it’s inhabited by what look like human-animal hybrids. From there we get brief glimpses of the High Evolutionary and Adam Warlock but the focus is on hinting that the story is about exploring Rocket’s origins along with the usual wackiness the team is known for along with lots of brooding and a bit of sadness along the way.

The poster released simultaneously shows the Guardians standing on the wing of their ship. It’s not much but communicates the bare essentials of the marketing message, that there’s a new movie coming out.

Both of the above were formally unveiled when Saldaña appeared at Brazil Comic-Con to get fans there excited about the movie.

Another trailer (15m YouTube plays) was released in mid-February begins by making sure everyone is up to speed on the story so far, especially the romance between Star-Lord and Gamorra, which was interrupted by her being killed in Avengers: Infinity War and essentially replaced by her past self. The actual story is still not explained in any sort of detail but we see a bit more of High Evolutionary and his megalomania along with the fact that everyone seems to be in the mood for wrapping up their arcs and summarizing their feelings about everyone else.

The Guardians are seen a bit more clearly on the next poster, which has them all kind of staring off into the middle distance, each in a slightly different direction.

As part of Women’s History Month in March, Disney+ released “MPower,” a propaganda film documentary about the female characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe produced by Saldaña.

TV spots began running at the beginning of March as tickets went on sale, each hitting slightly different moments but all covering the same basic ideas of the story wrapping up and Rocket somehow being at the center of an emotional story.

A variation on the latest key art was used in early April on a poster announcing an exclusive IMAX event featuring the first to GotG movies ending with an early screening of this third film.

That was followed by a round of exhibitor-exclusive posters from IMAX, RealD 3D, 4DX, Dolby, ScreenX and Fandango. The ScreenX art was the best because it takes a more original approach by not only being vertically-oriented but showing Rocket reenacting the “evolution of man” progression. A number of them did focus on Rocket or at least bring him to the front of the team lineup to make it clear he was going to be the lead in the story.

A series of character posters – including one for Cosmo the Spacedog – came next.

The cast along with Gunn and Marvel Studio’s Kevin Feige all appear in a featurette expounding on the fun they had making this final installment of the series and how all three films have been about the chosen family the characters made for themselves.

Empire Magazine published an interview with Gunn that included more photos, especially of Adam Warlock and other new elements of the movie.

Marvel set up a Knowhere pop up story/experience in California in the same area as and at the same time as Coachella to take advantage of all the hip young people headed to the music festival, encouraging them to stop in and take a look at props and costumes from the movie along with new swag and products.

The first clip from mid-April has Quill trying to convince Past Gamora to maybe herself up to the same romance he and Present Gamora had before she died, which is supposed to be endearing but is just embarrassing.

Another featurette has everyone reminiscing on the decade-long journey they’ve taken with these characters.

An extended TV spot takes a similar approach, using footage from the first two movies to setup this story.

The next clip shows some of the other animals High Evolutionary has been experimenting on in a flashback to Rocket’s early days. That clip also served as the news Linda Cardellini was voicing one of those characters.

Gunn and members of the cast embarked on the international publicity tour, kicking off in Seoul and continuing in Paris and other locations.

In additional to sponsoring the Discover Weekly playlist for a while, the studio launched its own K-GOTG Radio playlist on Spotify featuring some of the popular tunes featured in all three of the movies.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Spotify Discover Weekly sponsorship banner featuring poster art of the cast
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Spotify Discover Weekly sponsorship

The drama involving Gunn’s unceremonious firing from the movie in 2018 and the efforts by the entire cast to get him back on board along with more from the last 10 years going all the way back to the original casting process were covered in a THR cover story.

Everyone turned out for the official L.A. red carpet premiere at the end of April and looked back on their time together and how the future likely doesn’t involve them playing these characters again but that they all enjoyed working together and hope to do so again soon.

Pratt, Gillian, Gunn and the others all participated in additional interviews, talk show appearances and other press stops in the last couple weeks leading up to release, not really covering any new ground but reiterating stories they’d already told and commenting on making the final film in this unexpected trilogy. Breaking out of that mold was an interview with Iwuji where he talks about joining the series at the end and is praised by Gunn.

overall

Marvel does kind of need the movie to open at the projected $120m level this weekend, even if that’s below the opening weekend of the second film in 2017, to stop “super hero fatigue” from entrenching in the public psyche. More than that, it needs the movie to not drop 70% like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania did a couple months ago.

The focus on the emotional nature of the series ending comes off as *very* forced given these were characters we were actively reminded not to actually root for and who are consistently portrayed as just the worst. These are awful “heroes” but the assumption seems to be that we’ve grown attached to them and are going to be incredibly sad when they stop appearing in movies.

Other random thoughts:

  • There’s an alternate universe where Sean Gunn was given the chance to play Star-Lord and honestly I wish we lived in that one.
  • Congratulations, Marvel, on finding not one but two ways to underuse Linda Cardellini.
  • Wait, so we get a two hours on the early days of Rocket’s creation but at no point in the MCU has Hawkeye’s backstory even been hinted at or referenced? This is my super villain origin story.
  • This is just the latest super hero/sci-fi movie to cast an actor of color but cast them as the villain, hide them under layers of real or digital makeup or both.

jurassic world dominion – marketing recap

How Universal has sold the end of another dinosaur trilogy.

Jurassic World Dominion movie poster from Universal Pictures
Jurassic World Dominion movie poster from Universal Pictures

Jurassic World Dominion has an ambitious goal: Not only does it set out to conclude the trilogy of films begun in 2015 when director Colin Trevorrow brought us back to a world of genetically-resurrected dinosaurs but also put a cap on the sextology begun by director Steven Spielberg all the way back in 1993.

Picking up four years after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, this one takes place in a world where colons no longer exist dinosaurs have proliferated across the planet, upsetting the balance of nature.

Details of the story are relatively inconsequential, as the movie’s cast provides its major selling point. Not only do Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard return from the first two World films, but the core trio from the first films – Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum – all come back for the first time since the 1993 original. Oh, and of cours BD Wong once more reprises his role as Dr. Henry Wu, the scientist behind the mistakes made by so many other people.

Joining the cast are DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Campbell Scott and others. But unfortunately Lauren Lapkus, Wayne Knight and Jake Johnson are nowhere to be found.

So, with all of that established, let’s take a look at the marketing campaign.

announcement and casting

While the movie was still a ways off from production, in September 2019 Universal released “Battle at Big Rock,” a short video directed by Trevorrow that showed what life in a dinosaur-filled country was like. The story was meant to fill in at least some gaps between Fallen Kingdom and the third film.

A short while later it was revealed this new movie would not only bring back Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm but also have Sam Neill and Laura Dern return to the franchise for the first time since Jurassic Park III.

In February of 2020, Trevorrow marked the first day of filming with a photo that also revealed the movie’s subtitle.

Pratt spent some of his time on the Onward press tour building anticipation for this film.

The movie was one of many to have its production put on hiatus because of the Covid-19 outbreak. A big deal was made when shooting restarted in July with safety precautions in place but the Malta-based production had to scale back in August due to another outbreak in that country. In October Universal moved the movie’s release date out an entire year because of continued production delays as well as the uncertainty still plaguing the U.S. theatrical market.

Neill made his return official with a post at the beginning of August.

In an interview in May, 2020, producer Frank Marshall clearly stated this was just the beginning for even more stories and not the end of a trilogy as some had suspected.

Reports came out in June that a fan-favorite character from the first Jurassic Park would be returning in this story.

Goldblum talked about not only making another appearance in the franchise but also reuniting with Neill and Dern when he was on “Late Night” in August. A bit later there were additional interviews with Goldblum on his own and with Neill.

In an interview with EW, Trevorrow talked about why he felt motivated to return for the series’ final installment and what he thought fans could look forward to.

Neill talked more about shooting the movie, including the Covid accommodations that had to be made, here.

The final day of filming was announced once again by Trevorrow, with details coming out later that over 40,000 Covid tests were used during production along with a raft of other safety protocols and challenges.

the marketing campaign phase one: we spared no expense

Universal announced in June 2021 that a special sneak preview of the movie would screen in from of IMAX showings of F9, giving it what was expected to be a massive platform. Trevorrow was interviewed about that footage, promising this movie would be the culmination of everything that had come in the five previous installments.

A commercial promoting that footage’s IMAX-only availability was released as F9 was hitting theaters.

Around the same time there were promotions of the new “VelociCoaster” ride at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure theme park, including revelations there would be easter eggs from the new movie sprinkled around the ride that would hint at what fans could expect.

Universal gave CinemaCon attendees in August of last year a look at footage from this and other upcoming movies.

the marketing campaign phase two: it’s a unix system

Things got started again in November, 2021 when Universal released the five minute “prologue” footage that had earlier been shown in front of F9’s IMAX screenings. Trevorrow made it clear at that time that the footage had originally been intended to be this movie’s opening sequence but had been cut during the editing process.

There was also a poster to promote this video.

The director was interviewed about uniting the casts of the new and old trilogy while introducing some of the new dinosaurs in Total Film along with a couple of new photos. He also commented on the kind of story audiences could expect alongside another exclusive new photo.

In January U.S. ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin shared a Universal Pictures/Winter Olympics cross-promotional commercial showing her trying to outrun a velociraptor. Completing the corporate synergy trifecta, Shiffrin then talked about the commercial when she appeared on “Today.”

Another commercial featured Shaun White.

Marshall confirmed that, of course, this was not the end and that the franchise would continue after this trilogy finale.

the marketing campaign phase three: hold onto your butts

The campaign finally for real kicked off in February with the release of the first trailer (53.6m YouTube views). It starts off by showing how dinosaurs are now something people face in their everyday lives, though that has had disastrous consequences for them and the environment. After we see the reunion of Drs. Sattler and Grant we’re off to the races, with lots of running and escaping from various dinos until the end, when all the principles from the entire franchise are assembled in front of a T-rex.

The poster that came out at the same time puts the familiar franchise logo in a circle of amber while promising this is “The epic conclusion of the Jurassic era.”

Because the Super Bowl was broadcast on NBC it provided Universal with another chance at cross-promotion, so Pratt narrated a video introduction to the game that used the movie’s music, text style and more. Goldblum also appeared in a bit at Universal Studios.

An exhibit that mixed movie promotion with a little actual science opened at the National Western Center in Denver. It featured animatronic dinosaurs, a recreation of the lab from the first movie and more Instagrammable moments.

Both Pratt and Howard participated in the launch of a competition encouraging young artists to design a new ratings card for the British Board of Film Classification.

A pair of Empire covers featured both casts for an issue that contained a handful of new images, comments from the cast and director and more.

A featurette released in mid-April explores the legacy of the six-part series, with the cast talking about how things have progressed to this point and how this is them throwing everything against the wall to finish the story off.

the marketing campaign phase three: must go faster

In late April the next trailer (29.1m YouTube views) came out. This one starts off with Owen meeting Blue’s baby raptor, a baby that’s soon grabbed by hunters. From there the chaos starts as the heroes have to evade a series of bigger, more feathery and more dangerous dinosaurs because somehow riding a motorcycle will somehow save the world from disaster.

The same tagline is used on the next poster, but this time all seven of the primary cast members are shown, the new cast at the top and the older trio at the bottom.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar starred in a commercial that aired on ESPN.

In the first of many such pieces, Neill, Dern and Goldberg were jointly interviewed about reuniting and how easy it was for them to fall back into step after so many years, largely because they’ve remained friends.

Traditional TV advertising began around this time, with spots that hit all the main selling points seen in previous trailers and other material.

Barbasol announced it would release movie-branded cans of shaving cream in the payoff to a joke that’s almost 30 years old.

Additional promotional partners included:

  • Dr. Pepper, which offered movie tickets, a t-shirt and more to Rewards members who earned sufficient points.
  • General Mills, which put dinosaurs and other movie branding on packages of cereal, snacks and more.
  • Kinder, which did likewise.
  • Ferrara, which partnered with Fandango to offer movie cash and a chance to win other prizes in a sweepstakes requiring purchase of certain candy products.
  • Progressive, which used footage from the “Prologue” in a commercial assuring those having their cars destroyed that all the damage was covered.
  • China Glaze, which launched a line of movie-inspired cosmetics.
  • Carl’s Jr./Hardees, which offered a selection of items in movie-branded packaging for just $.93 to celebrate the 1993 release of the original film.

A T-rex is seen in the darkness on the IMAX poster released at the end of April. IMAX later announced a special live Q&A with “special guests” that was scheduled for just before the movie opened.

Howard and Goldblum appeared together at CinemaCon 2022 as part of Univeral’s presentation to exhibitors and other executives/press.

Pratt appeared on “Today” and “The Tonight Show” to start promoting the film around the time tickets went on sale. That “Today” spot included the unveiling of a giant LEGO T-rex statue.

He then introduced a featurette that explains the film’s premise, with Trevorrow and others weighing in as well.

The Dolby Cinemas poster features an image from the trailer of Owen motorcycling away from a pack of raptors.

A short behind-the-scenes video shows Pratt and Howard meeting and interacting with Neill and Dern for the first time on set.

the marketing campaign phase four: woman inherits the earth

Dern, Howard and Wise were interviewed about the importance of female characters to the franchise, a theme that would come up a number of times in the last bits of the campaign. Those three, along with Isabella Sermon, then appeared in a featurette all talking about the same thing and paying tribute to Dern’s original turn as Ellie Satler.

Trevorrow and some of the cast were in attendance at a premiere event in Mexico City. Howard, Dern and others later took part in a similar event in Germany.

Around this time there was an interview with Dern and Neill that highlighted something that didn’t register with a lot of people back in the day, which is that she’s 20 years younger than Neill but that despite that the two were established as a romantic couple in the first film.

In late May the movie was featured on the cover of Total Film, with exclusive interviews and photos in the issue.

The two casts squared off in a trivia quiz testing their knowledge of the series.

NowThis debuted exclusive footage that showed more of the real world implications of having dinosaurs roaming around.

Jeep once again signed on as a promotional partner, sharing a TV commercial showing how versatile a Jeep can be in a world overrun by dinosaurs.

A TikTok filter let people put themselves in a situation where they’re being chased by virtual dinos.

The cast appeared in an exclusive interview for AMC Theaters. Trevorrow talked about bringing the franchise to a close in an exclusive interview with Dolby.

Pratt, Goldblum and Neill were all interviewed about the importance of father figures to the story and how that’s reflected in their own families.

Finally everyone was out for the world premiere in Los Angeles earlier this week.

overall

Tracking has the movie opening with about $50 million this weekend, which might be enough to finally dethrone Top Gun: Maverick from its impressive showing.

But the paltry 42% Rotten Tomatoes rating hints that this one may not have the legs of that other sequel and may fall quickly to both the highly mixed reviews to date and what might not be great word of mouth from opening weekend audiences.

Despite all that, the campaign has been some fun, especially in seeing the easy rapport of Dern, Goldblum and Neill. The problem is that it stands in marked contrast to the forced chemistry of the other stars.

So you have a campaign that leans heavily on nostalgia but doesn’t do much to alleviate the concerns of those who thought the second World movie was a mess. But it did give us this moment, and that’s not nothing.

Lauradern GIF by Jurassic World - Find & Share on GIPHY

the tomorrow war – marketing recap

How Amazon Studios has sold its latest sci-fi action movie.

Chris Prat stars as Dan Forester in this week’s Amazon Studios release The Tomorrow War. Dan is a husband and father who retired from the military but is called back into service when time travelers from the future arrive seeking recruits for a battle against an invading alien army. Determined to save the future his young daughter will ultimately live in, Dan leaves his wife Emmy (Betty Gilpin) and teams up with his estranged father James (J.K. Simmons) and a scientist from the future (Yvonne Strahovski).

Reviews haven’t come in yet, but the movie — the feature debut of “Robot Chicken” director Chris McKay — has received a campaign that’s focused on the sci-fi action in hopes of getting people excited.

The Posters

Dan, Muri, Charlie (Sam Richardson) and Dorian (Edwin Hodge) are locked and loaded on the first poster (by marketing agency MOCEAN), released at the end of May. In the background is a city skyline that’s crumbling from the destruction of battle while in the sky a big portal has opened up. All of that offers some context as to the story, but the generic positioning of the characters is a bit over the top.

A second poster, released in mid-June, offers the same conceit but zooms in on Dan and Muri.

The Trailers

The movie’s futuristic setting, alien enemies and overall tone were conveyed in a teaser released in late April.

About a month later the full trailer (8.1 million views on YouTube) was released. When a mysterious army appears from the future seeking help in fighting an alien invasion Dan is drafted/volunteers so his wife won’t have to go. He and the other recruits are fighting with the very existence of humanity at stake, leading to lots of dramatic posturing in addition to the usual running and fighting.

The final trailer (6.5 million views on YouTube) opens with Dan reaching out to his dad for help before setting up the premise and showing how Dan decides to leave his family to take part in the fight. From there it’s lots of shooting and running and talk about the fate of humanity and such.

Online and Social

No standalone website but in addition to the Amazon Video landing page there were social outposts like this Twitter profile.

Advertising, Publicity and Promotions

Due to the massive shuffling of release dates by Paramount in 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the movie’s release was moved back several months. Reports emerged in early 2021 that Skydance Media, which produced the film, was shopping it around to streaming distributors. Those reports came to fruition in early April, when Amazon acquired it and set an official release date.

A handful of first-look stills were released a few weeks later.

Pratt and screenwriter Zach Dean were interviewed together about the story, how it’s different from other alien invasion flicks, with the rest of the cast and crew also commenting on the production and other topics, including Simmons’ buff physique.

Short promos like this pulled out different aspects of the movie’s action and/or humor to present slightly different messages to the audience.

A little behind the scenes video had Pratt hamming it up for the camera and leaning more to his comedic side instead of actually offering anything substantive.

An interview with Pratt had him extolling Strahovski’s stuntwork and talking more about the production.

Amazon exercised its monopoly powers engaged in some cross-divisional promotion by putting promotions for the movie on shipping boxes used for retail delivery, the first time it’s used that medium to sell an Amazon Studios release.

More commercials emphasized how Dan’s decision to join the fight is rooted in his desire to protect his daughter.

Late night talk show appearances included both Gilpin and later Pratt on “Kimmel.”

Online ads like this used elements of the key art to drive traffic to the Amazon landing page for the movie.

this ad, of course, appeared on the Amazon-owned IMDb.com

The Pocono Raceway recently hosted a booth devoted to the movie where visitors could find out more and enter a sweepstakes for a $5,000 Amazon gift card.

Amazon scheduled a watch party on Twitch (which it owns) for this Friday. There was also one planned for Amazon Video itself.

A clip given to Fandango’s MovieClips shows the moment the time travelers arrive in the present looking for help in the war they’re fighting.

JoBlo then got an exclusive featurette with the cast and crew talking about the story and the production of the film.

It also setup “The Tomorrow War Experience” at various spots around Los Angeles where people could come find out more and see one of the alien enemies.

Overall

It’s a fine campaign, but what seems to be missing is a clear definable brand for the movie. The visual identity of the film isn’t very strong or identifiable. Even Pratt’s presence for the most part is just kind of general and not centered around something specific. That could be part of what seems to be a general lack of buzz around the release.

What does seem to be clear is that Amazon’s acquisition of the movie is part of its broader strategy of focusing more on big, tentpole-type titles. Whether or not this particular tactic supports that strategy remains to be seen, but the campaign doesn’t make a very strong case for this being a contender for people’s time and attention.

Onward – Marketing Recap

Pixar returns with its first non-sequel in three years.

onward poster 11In the last 10 years, Pixar’s output has been dominated by sequels, a stark contrast to the studio’s first 15 years that was made up of solely original stories save for the Toy Story series.

This week Pixar gets back into non-sequel territory with Onward. Set in a world of magic and magical creatures, the story follows two elvish brothers – Ian (Tom Holland) and Barley (Chris Pratt) – who are given a way they can bring their late father back to life for a single day. When the spell goes wrong and only half the body is brought back the two set out on a quest for help so they can spend just a little more time with their dad.

Magic has been the central theme of the campaign, sometimes to the detriment of insights into the story. With little serious competition at the box office, tracking estimates an opening weekend of around $44 million and the movie currently has an 84 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it somewhere in the middle of Pixar’s releases.

The Posters

Two moons hang in the night sky above an imposing mountain range and a brightly lit city on the first poster (by marketing agency Logan Creative Group) from late May, Barley and Ian in the foreground hanging out on the roof of Ian’s van. In case the fantasy world of the story isn’t clear from all that, the audience is told at the bottom the movie “Cometh soon.”

The second poster (by marketing agency Concept Arts), released in August features a denim jacket adorned with all sorts of pins and patches, just the kind of thing a fairy tale character teenager would wear.

We’re finally given a look at a key part of the story on the third poster (by Logan Creative Group) from October. Ian and Barley, with mountains and unicorns in the background, are standing in the street flanking the half-reanimated body of their father. There’s no explanation as to what’s going on, exactly, but at least it shows there is some sort of problem the brothers are out to fix.

A series of character posters came out in December that show Ian and Barley, their mother Laurel (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and others the brothers encounter on their journey. All those were brought together on the theatrical poster that features a number of characters and locations from the story.

A special poster was released by Disney to celebrate Chinese New Year in January. The design is meant to invoke a tapestry and designed to promote the movie in a more subtle way while mostly being a unique work of art. It was one of several posters in this style put out by Disney on the Chinese social network Weibo for upcoming films.

Ian and Barley are standing on top of their van, which is perched in the crook of the magical staff that’s central to the story on the RealD 3D poster, a nicely minimal design that evokes the fantasy elements of the story even more strongly than some of the other, more overt efforts.

The Trailers

The first trailer (7.3 million views on YouTube) from May introduces us to a world still rooted in magic, with orcs, trolles, elves and other creatures living everyday suburban lives. We meet Barley and his older, less responsible brother Ian as they set out on what the latter has deemed a “quest” while the former wants to think of it as just an “errand,” though one he admits might be a little strange. It’s s nice bit of world establishment with hints about what’s to come in the story.

In October the second trailer (7.3 million views on YouTube) was released, offering a much fuller look at the characters and story. After introducing us to a modern world still inhabited by mythical creatures and dominated by magic, we see Barley and Ian have been given the chance to bring their late father back for one day. The spell doesn’t work as intended, though, and they have to race against the clock to finish the restoration before they miss their chance to see him again.

The next trailer (3.2 million views on YouTube), released in December, covers a lot of the same ground but introduces some new characters and new scenes from when Barley and Ian are already on their quest and getting into trouble.

Online and Social

You get some character descriptions on the movie’s official website but the rest is just the basic marketing content.

Advertising and Publicity

A recreation of the van driven by Ian and Barley – named Guinevere – was brought to Disney’s D23 Fan Expo in August of last year. Holland and Pratt also appeared on stage at the event to speak about the film, though Holland also addressed the split between Marvel and Sony that left Spider-Man’s future in the MCU up in the air.

Shortly after the second trailer came out, Disney released a video of Pratt and Holland watching and reacting to it, an attempt to tap into the kind of reaction videos created by fans and shared on YouTube.

The movie is one of many Disney brought to CCXP in December, with the cast and crew appearing on a panel there to show off footage and talk about the story.

A commercial released in late December eschews most all of the story, instead offering an extended look at Barley and Ian trying to use magic to deal with their van being out of gas. A similar approach is taken in a second spot that has them trying to walk across a ravine on an invisible bridge. Another commercial laid out the basic plot of the brothers going on an time-sensitive adventure to save their father.

At the end of January the movie was included on the list of screenings – out of competition – at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

The characters and story were introduced in a featurette released in early February that emphasized how it continues Pixar’s tradition of funny and emotional storytelling.

News came in mid-February that Brandi Carlisle was recording the end-credits theme song for the movie. The lyric video for that song, “Carried Me With You” came out later in the month.

The cast and crew attended the Hollywood premiere in mid-February, an event Disney livestreamed. They also appeared at the UK premiere shortly after that.

Later in February the first clip was released that showed Ian instructing Barley on proper spell-casting technique, though that goes a bit sideways.

TV advertising began about that same time with spots that sold the movie as a fun and magical adventure, putting the story aside to focus on the humor of the two brothers getting into all kinds of hijinks together.

Pratt and Holland along with others from the cast appeared in a short featurette that had them all explaining the premise of the story as well as how it goes wrong and what they need to do to fix it.

DisneyPixar used the bonus of Leap Day to hold advance screenings at select locations to attempt to build word of mouth leading up to opening day. The studio also held a sweepstakes that day to win a “birthday surprise.”

Earlier this week news broke that the movie would hit theaters with a new “The Simpsons” short, “Playdate with Destiny.” The combination of Pixar and “The Simpsons” might seem like an odd one but both hold a prominent place on the Disney+ streaming service. It’s largely a way to raise the profile of the long-running show among audiences that might be too young to have a nostalgic connection to it.

Promotional partners for the movie included:

  • Ashley Furniture, which ran a sweepstakes with a grand prize of a $4,000 store shopping spree and two tickets to see the movie.
  • Happy Socks, which offered special movie-inspired socks for adults and kids.
  • McDonald’s, which put toys featuring characters, vehicles and creatures from the movie in Happy Meals while also offering coloring pages and other activities online.
  • Mixtiles, but no information was available on this partnership.
  • Old Navy, which put shirts and other items featuring movie characters and more in stores.
  • Whirlpool, which ran a campaign including TV commercials like this to sell its line of smart appliances, which are so efficient they’re compared to magic.

Additional featurettes came from AMC Theaters, which put out a couple interviews with the stars. Pixar also put out another special look that had the three primary cast members talking about the story and more. Audiences were encouraged to see it on the big big screen in a promo video from IMAX.

Final TV spots from Pixar reminded people the movie was coming out immediately, including a commercial that featured footage from the red carpet premiere.

Media and Press

A set of stills was released at the same time the first trailer came out in early June. A little later Holland and Pratt were interviewed along with Dreyfuss, talking about the bond they formed during production.

There was a bit of controversy in January when an artist sued Disney over the design of the van, saying the studio copied her work without permission.

An appearance by Pratt on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” was crashed by Holland, who stopped by to give his costar a hard time.

The technical design team was interviewed about the process behind creating the visuals, including the rules they held to regarding magic spells.

At the movie’s Hollywood premiere Pratt and Holland along with the rest of the cast talked about working together on the film and what attracted them to the story.

An interview with cinematographer Sharon Calahan had her talking about how she and the other filmmakers tapped into action movies like Atomic Blonde and John Wick to choreograph some of the movie’s key sequences. The movie’s design team was also interviewed about how they put together the look and feel of the magical world.

One final joint interview with Holland and Pratt focused how they worked together and the emotional core of the movie’s story.

Overall

DisneyPixar has created a strong magic-themed brand for the movie that’s been communicated through all the trailers and posters as well as in promotions on social media and elsewhere. That aspect of the campaign has been fun and relatively lighthearted, showing the characters engaged in lots of fantastic adventures on their quest.

Only occasionally is the purpose of that quest actually shared with audiences, which indicates there may be more faith in that aspect of the movie to generate interest as opposed to the story about seeking closure with a deceased parent.

What will be key to the movie’s box office fate is how the last week’s developments regarding the Covid-19 coronavirus impacts people’s willingness to mass with lots of others in a theater for two hours. With reported cases on the rise in Washington state and elsewhere and companies cancelling or pulling out of events, it might be that the public is just not feeling overly social at the moment. More than that, it’s possible the movie’s level of success this weekend could be an indicator of how things will play out over the next several weeks.

Picking Up the Spare

Encountered this online ad from Ashley’s promoting its tie in with the movie.

onward ashley ad.png

The LEGO Movie: The Second Part – Marketing Recap

The bulk of my marketing recap for The LEGO Movie: The Second Part can be found at The Hollywood Reporter, with the rest below.

Online and Social

You get the second trailer playing as soon as the official website loads. After that finishes or is closed the landing page plays music from the soundtrack (which can be muted) and offers a rotating series of prompts to play games and engage in other activities along with links to the official Twitter, Facebook and Instagram profiles.

The menu on the left first offers you a complete list of the “Fun & Games” available, including some activity sheets to download along with games to play online or buy for playing at home. “Characters” lets you click on each character to open up a short video snippet of them in action.

Both trailers as well as the holiday video are available in the “Videos” section while a brief synopsis can be found in “Story.” Aside from information about release dates, the site finishes off with links to the movie’s promotional “Partners.”

Media and Publicity

With all eyes on her because of a well-reviewed documentary and a feature film starring Felicity Jones as her, Warner Bros. seized the opportunity in mid-January to reveal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would appear in the movie in minifig form.

Pratt, Banks, Arnett and others from the cast made the talk show rounds to engage in various hijinks and stunts as well as to talk up the movie in general.

One of the key elements of both movies is the way characters from franchises owned by other companies come together, a process that’s explained here.

Overall

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Picking Up the Spare

Pratt finally got in the publicity game, appearing on “The Late Show” to talk about the movie as well as other matters.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – Marketing Recap

jurassic world fallen kingdom posterI make this point at the end of the full marketing write-up for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom at The Hollywood Reporter, but it’s worth reiterating here just how much the campaign seems completely uninterested in conveying any information about the story. From the first teaser, which didn’t explain the “why” behind any of the mayhem ensuing on screen to posters that barely even included any of the human characters and more, there seems to have been an active effort to keep the story out of view.

Whether or not that’s because someone realized the story was the weakest selling point or they just decided the audience would be wooed by spectacle, it’s kind of extraordinary.

Here are the parts of the recap not included in the THR post.

Online and Social

The movie’s official web presence is as a section on the Jurassic franchise’s bigger site. That section has information like a story synopsis, all the trailers as well as some other videos, a gallery of stills and details on the cast and crew. There are also links to the general Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat profiles for the movies, all of which have been dedicated to this installment over the last year, though there have been occasional references to the previous films as well.

Media and Publicity

Treverrow shared the first glimpse at footage from the movie just before Thanksgiving last year, showing Pratt’s character sharing a tender moment with a baby dinosaur that doesn’t look at all dangerous.

As is par for the course now, the first trailer was teased a few days in advance both with new footage and with clip complications from the earlier films in the series. Some took a more meta approach, showing Pratt and Howard reviewing marketing materials before things get weird. Some were more along the lines of a behind-the-scenes featurette. All that work had the opposite impact of what the studio was intending. Instead of building anticipation there seemed to be an attitude of “Get on with it!”

An EW cover story containing new photos, interviews and other material came out a couple months out from release and was timed to hit at the same time as the second full trailer. Around the same time the movie was a big part of Universal’s presentation at CinemaCon, including cast appearances and the screening of additional footage. In a separate interview, designer Neal Scanlan talked about creating the looks of all the dinosaurs – both old and new – that show up in the story.

As the poster boy for the new non-star movie star, Pratt was given the MTV Generation Award at the MTV Movie and TV Awards.

The studio kept up a steady beat of featurettes like this one, which teased how there were going to be more dinosaurs than in any previous Jurassic movie. Pratt and Howard filmed a short “Funny Or Die” video as a different version of their characters trying to take Blue aboard a plane as a service animal, something that doesn’t go well. Along the same lines, Goldblum appeared as himself in a “don’t talk during the movie” video for the popular Alamo Drafthouse theater. Pratt showed up as a contestant on a popular YouTube-hosted game show.

Pratt, Howard and others shared their thoughts on how the movie fits in with the series as a whole at the premiere. Meanwhile B.D. Wong was interviewed as part of his involvement with the Dorito’s cross-promotional campaign mentioned above about how he views the evolution of his character Dr. Henry Wu.

Goldblum was finally uh given the star on the uh Hollywood Walk of Fame he uh so richly deserves, which gave him the chance to talk about the Jurassic movies, his career and his internet fame. At the same time Treverrow, Bayona and others involved spoke about how they wanted to approach the story and expand the world of the franchise a bit in this and the other “World” movies.

The “Jurassic World Week” NBCUniversal arranged on “The Tonight Show” culminated in appearances by both Pratt and Howard. A bit by host Jimmy Fallon was also used for a paid social media campaign by Dairy Queen, one of the movie’s promotional sponsors.

Overall

Aside from the complete lack of story on display throughout the campaign what’s most notable is how Universal just kept hammering on things despite widespread dislike. No one I saw was a fan of the week-long teaser campaigns run in advance of the trailers, yet the studio engaged in that tactic not once but twice. There seems to have almost been a concerted effort to defy public opinion, running a marketing push that was “for the fans, not the critics.”

PICKING UP THE SPARE

There’s been a wave of opinion pieces about whether or not the 1993 original Jurassic Park needed any sequels at all. That position is exemplified by Matt Singer’s thinking that a scene from the first movie negates any possibility of additional stories and Clara Wardlow’s take that there simply aren’t that many narrative threads in this universe to pull on.

More on the Kellogg’s promotion for the movie here.

The movie is the next release to get the AR treatment from Moviebill, which is once again handing out periodicals to Regal Cinemas audiences that can be scanned using the Regal app to unlock exclusive content, including interviews (in print and AR format) with star Bryce Dallas Howard and director J.A. Bayona, a welcome message from star Chris Pratt, an interactive “dino-lab” and a sample of the dinosaurs available in the Jurassic World Alive, the location-based AR mobile game developed by Ludia.

That game is built on location and other data from Google Maps, which is helping to promote both the game and the services behind it.

Daniella Pineda has received a few profiles like this after being identified as the breakout newcomer – or at least largely unknown – in the movie. That makes the reports that a scene clearly identifying her as LGBTQ was cut, the latest instance of that happening in a major studio franchise film, somewhat awkward.

There’s also a bit of extra attention coming to co-star Justice Smith.

Director J.A. Bayona was never the focus of much of the press in advance of the movie’s release, but there was an interview with him here and another one here.
Dave & Buster’s is touting how well the VR game based on the movie has performed.

The “Save the Dinos” campaign that accompanied the main marketing has become the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Goes 80s for Home Video Campaign

OK, this Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 music video with David Hasselhoff is kind of goofy. But I don’t get the sudden 1980s-themed campaign being taken in selling the movie’s home video release. It’s not just this video, a few weeks ago Marvel Studios released a commercial for the release that looks like an old-fashioned infomercial that looks like the kind of thing that would air at 2 am on basic cable.

The approach strikes me as odd because it’s so out of left field when measured against the movie’s theatrical marketing campaign. There was nothing there that harkened back particularly strongly to the eras of the Reagan or Clinton presidencies. Nor was there anything in the movie itself that really provided a strong nostalgic hook to those decades. The music of the soundtrack that was such a big part of the campaign was pulled more from the 70s than anything else. The running gag about Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) believing as a child that Hasselhoff was his father is about the only overt nod in that direction.

So what’s behind this unusual and out-of-context direction for the home video release? It may simply come down to doing something to break through the media clutter. Goofy videos with grainy footage and a mugging star best known for talking to his car and rescuing people off a beach will get the internet’s attention. That attention translates into sharing by individuals and coverage in trade press and fan sites, all of which aides awareness that the home video is about to drop, which hopefully translates into sales.

Notably, it’s not impacting how the actual disc is being sold. The cover for the DVD/Blu-ray/digital combo pack uses a variation on the established key art from theatrical campaign. It’s not quite exactly what was used on the posters, but it pulls different elements from different versions of that campaign and mashes them together.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun little campaign Marvel Studios has put together here. But it’s way out of the lane established in the lead up to theatrical release and so comes off as a bit off-brand. The studio obviously wanted to do something unique, though, and it’s got enough press coverage to call the campaign a success.