My full recap of the marketing for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is up at The Hollywood Reporter.
To launch the animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony has built a campaign around getting fans talking about its most unusual and unexpected Spider-Man project to date. Screenings, fan Q&A sessions and convention appearances have generated some of the franchise’s most positive reviews to date and has the movie tracking to land in the $30-35 million opening weekend range.
Online and Social
There’s little beyond the usual assortment of trailers, synopses and a photo gallery on the movie’s official website. The most interesting feature is a section offering brief introductions to the characters in the story. Not found there are links to the official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles. There was also an official collection of GIFs shared on Tenor.
Media and Publicity
Entertainment Weekly’s San Diego Comic-Con issue had an interview with Moore where he talked about Morales’ journey in the story along with comments from Lord and Miller about how they really wanted to bring a comic book feel to the movie.
Later on a look at some of the classic Spidey costumes that would be seen in the film was released, followed by another new photo and additional comments. Cage spoke briefly about how he approached his version of the character.
The crew, including a Sony executive or two, was interviewed about the efforts to make the movie’s cast and characters more diverse and inclusive and what that means for the story and audience.
At the same time the Spider-Ham clip was released there were a couple stories like this that offered readers more of an introduction to the offbeat character. Moore was interviewed separately about taking on the role, at least in terms of voice, of Morales.
On the movie’s premiere red carpet the cast was interviewed about the movie and how much fun it is.
Mulaney appeared on “The Tonight Show” to talk about Spider-Ham and share some outtakes from his character.
One last clip showed Morales working up the courage and embracing the support of others before making his first big leap as Spider-Man.
Adweek offered more details on the promotional partnership with Synchrony Bank.
Overall
In addition to what I said at THR, the overriding theme of the campaign is that Sony makes the best Spider-Man movies when it ignores all its previous instincts. That’s the only logical conclusion after this and last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, made in conjunction with Marvel Studios, are the best-reviewed movies featuring the character.
Picking Up the Spare
A bunch of new short TV spots came out including mentions of how positively reviewed the movie was and offering an additional promotion at the end for the new PS4 game.
Johnson was interviewed again about the themes of the movie and production while the crew spoke about the emphasis they placed on inclusion and representation among the characters on screen. That was also the focus of an interview with Kimiko Glenn, who voices Peni Parker.
Henry appeared on “Kimmel” to talk about the movie.
Sony finally, about a week after release, made a five-song EP of Christmas songs available on streaming and download services. You can watch the video for one of the tracks here.
General Mills promoted its cobranded packaging with paid posts on Twitter. And the story of how Air Jordan 1s got into the movie was recounted.
The visual look of the film was the subject of a couple profiles with the animators and filmmakers.
Cinematic Slant 