Introduction
A film that would end up launching one of the most profitable franchises had a rough beginning. Trapped in limbo for quite some time while being tossed around, from one company to the next, until it finally returned to Marvel Studios; bringing it (finally) to the big screen in 2008. Since then, a simple after-credit scene would unleash an entire universe leading up to the film-event that was the Avengers. Since that post-credit moment, the film industry has changed. Comic book movies are part of the forefront, and their biggest competition is trying their best hand (also) at a shared universe. At the time, no one suspected what this movie would unleash and also heralded a big return from Robert Downey Jr. onto the silver screen.
Iron Man’s marketing campaign was heavily inspired by 2007’s blockbuster, Transformers, in the hopes to achieve similar success. In the deal with Paramount Pictures they licensed various games across platforms, had promotions at Burger King, Audi, 7-Eleven, and LG; including publishing various action figures together with Hasbro. It was a pure below-the-line marketing strategy to promote the film towards children and teenagers. In the end, their marketing paid off with an international gross of $585,174,222, proving that the various promotions brought the attention towards the planned target audience.
Additionally, the after-credit scene was a brilliant way to lure people back into the cinema if they missed it the first time around to see if their friends were lying about it or not. It was a very small yet effective viral marketing technique for the film that helped improve its numbers. As every movie, it also had its fair share of posters scattered across cinemas; let’s take a closer look while comparing them to those of its original campaign inspiration.
Teaser Analysis
As a movie is slowly being developed there is always an effective way to build up anticipation. In the case of comic book movies there is always the option to create hype by approaching their fan base directly. In this world, there is no better place than San Diego Comic Con.
At the time when it was nothing more than an announcement, the studio made an interesting decision to draw the poster inspired greatly by the design of the Extremis arc, serving as the inspiration for the armors later design in the movies. Sadly, this approach wasn't used later on for other Marvel movies, adding a nice comic book feel, but it was still a great starting point.
I have to add, I love the fact that during the beginning of its production the studio was going through some issues with the title “Stark Industries Prototype” becoming quite fitting.
With the development of the film and finally having a true design down they took inspiration from the first Transformer teasers with the visual of a similar outward eye. The main focus of the movie is how Tony Stark slowly evolves his suits of armor into the classic Iron man armor, whose classic colors have always been gold and red. Trying to prove to their fans they are staying true to the design when bringing it to life. A very interesting choice is to avoid any taglines in the beginning and simply focusing on the character. Ironically, it would be the man behind the face-plate that would end up becoming the poster boy not only for his own franchise but also the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Stronger similarities to consist with the Transformer’s inspiration, especially with the glowing blue eyes and the dark background trying to create an ominous feel for whatever may come for the audience.
Poster Analysis
Interestingly enough the actual posters deviate much stronger from the inspiration as they swap the black background palette for a very dark blue. Additionally it seems to be a stronger inspiration to push their leads into the front with Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, and Terrence Howard pushed into the foreground. Still, the main draw of the movie is the titular character himself, who takes up most of the space, showing a duality between the characters.
An interesting choice was to push Gwyneth Paltrow to the sidelines making her feel like a stuck-on addition. We finally get our title in a nice metallic effect that deems to emphasize the evolution. On the side we also have two very distinct additional effects that show the original armor (Mark I) that Stark uses to flee from his captors, including the later model used in his encounter with fighter jets. Interestingly it shows two of the most prominent action sequences in the film while hiding exactly whom the big bad would turn out. The other posters are simple variations on this effect while slowly pushing Tony Stark more into the foreground. Slowly Downey Jr. was building up his reputation and comeback, which made his presence within the film much more prevalent. On a personal note, it is quite interesting to see that a well-known actor like Jeff Bridges is kept smaller trying to maybe underline what his intentions are even though he would have been the biggest draw at the time.
I live in a German speaking country, I thought it would be interesting to add the first poster I saw. the one that got me to go see the film. Next to the tagline “Heroes aren’t born. They are made!” the focus is mainly on Iron Man himself. At the time Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t the household name he is today and the marketers believed they wouldn’t be able to sell with his face on the posters. It was much closer to Transformers by marketing towards the more otherworldly part of the film, the superhero. It's interesting to see the development from this point on, where Stark is in his suit, but without the helmet.
I will focus more strongly that when I get around to its sequels.
Conclusion
Overall it's interesting to see how a poster starts with its original inspiration but develops its own design-life over the course of development. When the original Richard Donner’s Superman was produced the studio tried to get audiences to believe that a man could truly fly. Now with the development of special effects it isn’t something new on screen, but it is something entirely different to see an armor like this come to life.
One gets the same feeling through the course of the film you're seeing the development of the suit, from Stark building it in a cave surrounded by scraps, until he finally found his way to make the one everyone knows and loves today. The poster designs are strongly inspired by the tagline as it tries to evoke a sense of mystery with darker tones making the armor seem almost dark and mysterious; which is ironic, considering the more humorous construction of the film. It certainly managed to beat expectations and proved successful in the long run.
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