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Movie Marketing: The Great Mess Hollywood Can't Quit

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Movie marketing should be the irresistible magnet pulling people into theaters. Instead, marketing has become the embodiment of magnetic repulsion, actively creating a barrier between the film and those would enjoy it. At this point, not even filmmakers are happy with the outcome. In a new interview, Terminator: Genisys director Alan Taylor expressed his frustration over the film’s problematic marketing, which has become the latest brick in a growing wall between movies and audiences.

Unease over the reboot exploded in 2014, when a much-maligned photoshoot (but not official marketing) for EW was published, invoking descriptions that ranged from “cheap and wrong” to “photos that look like they were taken at a mall during a festival for cosplayers on a budget.” Matters became more complicated when the official trailers hit, not only setting up the dynamics of the film, but spoiling a key surprise within it.

“I certainly directed those scenes with the intention that no one would know,” Taylor told Uproxx. “I know there was kind of a challenging calculus going on in the heads of those who marketed this thing to decide that this was the right thing to do. I think they felt like they had to send a strong message to a very wary audience.” Taylor stayed relatively diplomatic about this decision, but his unhappiness was clear, and not uncommon.

Though marketing is, as Forbes contributor Alan McGlade called, “a critical part of the filmmaking ecosystem,” it has, ironically, become an increasingly lazy practice. While studios spend billions marketing to the audiences that are shrinking — a lament that has, quite frankly, been going on for at least twenty years — the output appears like a DIY project made with mediocre scraps, thrown together by someone whose ambition stretches way beyond their abilities.

Often, this manifests in weak Photoshop images that at best, are missing cohesive lighting and shadows, and at worst, mess with the dimensions, lengths, and elements of the human body. Posters for films like Takers and About Alex feature heads that are mismatched to the bodies they’ve been attached to. A poster for The Heat wildly blurred and slimmed star Melissa McCarthy’s face, while Rider Strong lost part of his torso on the poster for The Penthouse. Actress Keira Knightley even agreed to go topless for a magazine spread, because she wanted to show her real body after the controversial enhancements she received on a poster for King Arthur.

Obvious misses often turn movie marketing into mockery. It seemed like Professor Xavier Charles was sitting on a wheelchair of flaming flatulence in one of the many missteps on the poster for X-Men: Days of Future Past. One can only guess why the marketing team for Legion thought Paul Bettany must carry a gun, even if it ruined an otherwise cohesive image.

Yet cohesiveness seems to drive the other major part of movie marketing — the trailer. As Alan Taylor lamented, Paramount showed so much of the film that they spoiled a major twist well before the film’s release. This isn’t uncommon; a majority of today’s trailers will outline the entire movie, from the less egregious glimpses of happiness in a film you know will have a happy ending, to knowing a big twist originally intended to knock your socks off. The practice is so prevalent that “Trailers Always Spoil” has its own section on TVTropes. It may be something that’s been around for years — a 2012 list of spoiler trailers included 1948’s Rope — but it’s an odd practice to hold onto in a world that loudly demands spoiler warnings for everything.

Though one can argue that spoiler-filled trailers are a desperate attempt to tantalize an increasingly apathetic populace, the reasoning doesn’t hold for the tradition of misleading trailers. Is it good to lure people into seats and have them be disappointed because the film is nothing like what was advertised? Cold Creek Manor is not a supernatural horror movie. Rules of Attraction is not an upbeat sex comedy; Lost in Translation is not a wacky Bill Murray comedy; and Kangaroo Jack is not about a kangaroo, and certainly not a family comedy.

Any seasoned moviegoer will be prepared for at least some embellishment. Sometimes it is for the element of surprise, like Steven Seagal in Executive Decision or Drew Barrymore in Scream. Sometimes, it’s an understandable studio attempt to lure viewers with recognizable faces. If an unknown actor (in a bit part, on a small film) later becomes famous, the film will certainly be re-released with their face on the cover. This is a last-ditch effort for sales well after the film’s release. But making the audience anticipate an entirely different movie will not help a new film’s box office take, and might even turn audiences off a movie they might have otherwise enjoyed. On at least one occasion, it actually provoked a moviegoer to take a film to court.

There are countless examples of marketing alienating the very audiences who would enjoy the feature. The haze-filtered materials for Very Good Girls suggest a sentimental tear-jerker, until viewing reveals an indie that feels like a prequel to Lena Dunham’s Girls. The updated poster and trailer for Secretary might align it with the oft-maligned 50 Shades of Grey, but the movie and previous marketing reveal a clever comedy that has almost nothing in common with the fanfic phenomenon. Dane Cook apologized to fans after the poster for My Best Friend's Girl hit, writing: "One poster stinking up the joint isn't the end of the world. Yet it sends the wrong message about our movie and I just wanted you to know, that I feel the pain."

Poor marketing efforts have proven to keep moviegoers out of seats. Blackhat, Cloud Atlas, and The Green Lantern are among recent flops whose poor performance has been linked to the their marketing. On occasion, that attention is redirected away from the marketers and onto the influence of the director, like John Carter, but generally, it’s focused on the teams that sell the product to the audience.

And these are only the more superficial cases. At times, marketing concerns speak to passé and reductive attitudes. George Lucas, of all directors, struggled to get funding for Red Tails “because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all. […] I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don’t know how to market a movie like this.” Other films dare to downplay inclusivity, catering to (and ultimately offending) the ignorant, while also offending the audiences that love the film. The DVD cover for The Sapphires created an instant backlash when white, supporting actor Chris O’Dowd was featured prominently, instead of the Aboriginal women the film focused on. On the disc for the charming indie Saving Face, the main lesbian angle was downplayed on the DVD, suggesting that the heterosexual side plot was the main focus.

“For every two dollars spent making a film, studios spend another dollar on marketing or four billion dollars per year,“ Alan McGlade wrote in the previously linked piece. Billions of dollars, it seems, cannot even buy a well-crafted image that retains proper proportions, let alone marketing materials that truly capture the spirit of the film and make it irresistible to moviegoers. There is an ongoing, rampant carelessness that plagues the very relationship this industry relies on — the bond between the film and the audience. Studios lament dwindling audiences and piracy, yet fail to consider how they themselves are hurting this bond. (This problem is further complicated by the careless licensing studios okay, alienating fans.)

What’s so staggering about cinema’s marketing failure is that so many of its problems are simple to solve, and need no Herculean effort or knowledge. 

Plan press materials so poster makers don’t have a series of mismatched photos that need a lot of manipulation to combine them. Dare to shoot a few images that include all of the main players on the same stage, or plan a high-definition, static version of an exciting scene. 

If a plug-and-play collection of images is necessary, find a way to showcase them that doesn’t make them into human-resembling alien creatures. 

Test the materials like one would the movie and title — see how people react to the poster, and what mistakes they might notice. Test the trailer alongside the film at test screenings to see if audiences think it is appropriate for the feature.

If the demographics of the desired audience differ from the marketing team, hire consultants from the desired demographics to make sure the marketing is engaging, rather than offending, the audience. 

At the very least, hire a couple keen eyes to examine the materials and insure they will do what they are intended to do — tantalize audiences into seats.