Regardless of whether it’s a new poster or any other sort of news story, it seems that you can’t help but go onto an article about
Captain America: The First Avenger or
Thor without seeing almost entirely positive comments. It seems that we’ve already decided the two latest efforts from Marvel Studios will be the best comic book movies of 2011. And in all fairness, it’s not hard to see why. Over the past six months, Marvel have steadily released a series of interviews, images and trailers, building fan anticipation to an all-time high and getting us even more psyched to see every little thing that they tease us with no matter how minor or major it may be. Take the Red Skull for example. It’s fairly obvious that fans would be chomping at the bit to see him, and rather than reveal the characters big screen look immediately (the same also applies to Chris Evans being in the full Captain America costume) they instead released images of Hugo Weaving in his Johann Schmidt persona, a couple of his face hidden in shadow, some concept art, a glimpse in a teaser trailer and finally all of that culminated in an official image of the villain being unveiled yesterday. This is only ONE example of how Marvel Studios have built up the hype surrounding their films...and that was for just a single character. While non-comic book fans may not care as much as us about such a thing, the fact that they release such pictures such as these through major mainstream publications like Empire and Entertainment Weekly proves that they’re getting the message and hype out to more than just us.
However, when it comes to
Green Lantern, it’s far more likely that you’ll see a handful of positive comments, buried in a sea of negativity. I don’t need to use this editorial to rehash the brilliant points that
superdog made in his recent article here on CBM, but in comparison to Marvel Studios, DC and Warner Bros. have very much been lacking when it comes to building up the hype for their first major big screen adaptation that doesn’t focus on Batman or Superman. Yes, there’s plenty of time until its release and you can guarantee that they’ll start promoting the crap out of it before June, but are they risking losing the interest of fans and non-fans alike with such a strategy? What I would like to know is just how much a difference the two companies’ style of marketing makes to YOU. Captain America, Thor and Green Lantern aren’t really characters you’d expect the general movie going audience to know all that well in comparison to the likes of Spider-Man and the X-Men, and so should all have an equal chance at succeeding in the box office this summer. Will the two companies very different styles of promotion end up making a difference though? Going back to my above point about the Red Skull, let’s take a look at how DC revealed Sinestro. We saw him properly for the first time in the trailer, and this was followed by a still of that image appearing in the Green Lantern comic book. I would be willing to bet anything that if two separate articles were to be posted tonight, with one featuring a new image of Sinestro and the other with a new image of Loki, it’d be the latter you’d see shoot to the top of CBM’s ‘Most Active’ stories. Why? Because Marvel have so far only teased his appearance and despite us having seen even more images and footage of Loki than Sinestro, the mystery and excitement surrounding the character seems to be far more intriguing to fans than a picture of a character they already gave us a full blown look at months ago who we actually know very little about.
The “treat ‘em mean, and keep ‘em keen” approach that DC is taking seems to be turning fans against this movie more than anything else. Perhaps I’m wrong, and the fact we’ve seen so little WOULD in fact result in a new image of Sinestro (or any other character from the film) feeling like the arrival of the messiah to us comic fans. But it’s not us who help make or break these films at the box office now is it? Apart from a trailer and a reveal on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, what have regular moviegoers seen of
Green Lantern? Regardless of the amount of promotion they give the film nearer the time of its release, is it not a better idea to start laying the groundwork NOW and keeping people interested and excited over a longer period of time? Shouldn’t the non-comic book fan be just as hyped about seeing a character or plot point revealed as we are? While you could say that these same points apply to
X-Men: First Class, the difference is that is their fifth movie in the mutant franchise which is why instead of spending a pile of cash on a Super Bowl spot, they were able to build up over two million users on Facebook in anticipation of the trailers release. This same rule doesn’t apply to Marvel or DC, despite them have previous success with the likes of
Iron Man and
The Dark Knight. The movies being released in 2011 are all brand new properties and building them up in the hearts and minds of the audience is essential to success. Looking at this argument for a regular person’s point of view, they may have been cool with checking out a film about a guy kicking ass in a metal super suit, but will the same apply to a WWII period piece about a guy calling himself Captain America? And just who the hell are Green Lantern and Thor?
In my opinion, I have no doubt that
Captain America and
Thor will end up doing well at the box office, with the critics and amongst fans. Why? Well, I think that’s down to how they’ve been marketed to me so far. As for
Green Lantern, I like what I’ve seen up until this point, love the character and am hoping it’ll do well. I’m not quite so confident about it doing as well with what I’ve just mentioned though. A good trailer with some dodgy CGI and mixed tone in terms of dialogue and a few boring stills/concept art reveals has left me feeling concerned about the film. When I see another trailer and more, I’m sure I’ll feel the opposite. But not everyone is quite as open-minded as me. Many here on CBM have already written it off. Even hard-core fans of the character aren’t too happy with it. If that’s how THEY feel, has this already happened with the regular movie goers I’ve mentioned so many times above? Has the lack of news and pictures left them uninterested in a film they’ve barely heard about? Will a later onslaught of promotion do anything to change that? I’m not sure. What I do know is that Marvel Studios will be sitting back feeling very proud of themselves, as both Cap and Thor are already in the minds of people out there, while them already publicising the fact that these characters will all be in one epic movie together next year is bound to help. I’m basing this simply from what I’ve heard from people who don’t read the comics and who don’t follow the news on these movies as closely as I do. They know about
Captain America and
Thor and they’re looking forward to seeing them months in advance of their release. They know bugger all about
Green Lantern.
Will they see reviews and adverts nearer the time that convince them to check it out? Probably. I have a feeling though, that Marvel’s marketing strategy will have ensured they’re already the winners at the box office by that point. On the other hand, are Marvel releasing TOO much? I for one felt like I’d already seen
Iron Man 2 before heading off to the cinema. Thanks to the release of two revealing trailers, several clips and dozens of stills, there was very little in terms of surprise. Even now, I’m beginning to notice that an interview with Chris Evans or Chris Hemsworth is getting a lot less interest than they used to. Perhaps the oversaturation of on-going promotion will put people off or simply leave them feeling like they’ve seen enough to know that it’s not worth checking out. I know if I’d known and seen more of
Black Swan (the most recent example I can think of) I wouldn’t have bothered going to see it at the cinema. Regardless, the marketing of these films is being handled extremely differently, with Marvel so far appearing to be on top. Does too much become boring? Does not enough leave you frustrated or more excited? What do you guys think?