How important is marketing to a films success or failure at the box office


How important is marketing to a films success or failure at the box office

Marketing within Hollywood has always been a key part to its initial success. It is the process of garnering research about the target audience and promoting products made through advertising to make an increase in sales and is used to keep the target audience happy. 
            A studio will often spend as much money on the marketing as on the film itself. A prime example of this is 2009’s Avatar, which cost over $237,000,000 to make, and the studio spent $223,000,000 on the marketing. A film can perform marketing through highlighting a films star (James Cameron) and give the audience a perception of the film i.e. what it is generally about and can then persuade a audience to go see the film.
Avatar’s massive marketing campaign was one of the pioneers of digital marketing, and gave it the title of the highest box office blockbuster of all time offered audiences more information and allows them to feel more involved with a film and in that sense closer to it, through things such as social media to promote their films or the films own webpage, which provides further background information than a poster. Avatars trailer gave the whole synopsis of what the film was about and highlights the star appeal to the audience (James Cameron). Avatars posters keep to the repetition on all it posters always showing an avatar and the same logo sending a consistent message. Avatars key success was how it allowed audiences to feel a part of the film, provided a new cinematic experience, provided people with a star director who constantly makes smash hits and sent out the same message which was that film is unique
On the opposite of avatar however is John Carter, the biggest box office flop of all time, spent more making the film itself but failed because of its boring story and awful marketing campaign behind it.
John Carters posters lacked the consistency of avatar’s posters, which made you realise what genre is it, that it is the same film as all the other posters due to the same logo actually looks intriguing whereas John Carter fails with the consistency of the title often changing it and throwing in a symbol here and there, its failure to establish what genre it is whether its sci-fi or a horror is unbeknownst to us a audience.
            Disney failed to capitalise on the businesses they run, compared to avatar, which on august 21st (unofficially known as avatar day) a trailer to the film was released, Mattel released a line of toys, which came to life on your webcam, and a trailer for an avatar game was released. Disney failed to do any of this on top of its already dreadful campaign, even though they own a huge chain of Disney stores no promotion was done in them and failed to even attempt to stop negative publicity of the film, saying a week after it came out that it will be the biggest flop of all time losing over $100,000,000 while avatar made $2,782,275,172 worldwide.
            This shows how massive marketing is to a films success as well as publicity

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