Since my last trip to the movies was a success (see my last two blog posts), I thought I would get a jump on finding the next film to spark my interest. After watching a few trailers for movies coming out later this year, I noticed a common theme. Here’s a few trailers I watched: Captain America, Cowboys and Aliens, Green Lantern, Thor and X-Men.
All are action-packed blockbuster material, likely to feature explosions and rebellious characters with superpowers. At first I was confused to see a lack of dramas in the line up, but after our class discussion about the Angry Birds iphone App game, it all makes sense! Large studios keep pumping out these action sci-fi adventure movies because they have a huge opportunity for brand extension. Each one of these movies has the chance to make massive sales after the movie has left theatres. Action figures, video games, even rides at amusement parks have all extended from blockbuster films. As for the drama films that keep disappearing, have you ever played a pride and prejudice video game? Didn’t think so.
The key to marketing movies today, just like the Angry Birds App, is building a strong brand through unique, likeable characters and a simple story line. Its even better if those characters have supernatural abilities that people would want to test out in a video game.
So what does this mean for the movie industry? It’s likely that marketers will keep pushing films that have the possibility to expand into new markets, while low budget dramas will become increasingly more rare.