Movie Marketing: 2 Movies That Made The Best Out of It, and 2 Movies That Failed

 While the quality of a film may speak for itself when watched, the marketing speaks for a movie before anyone has seen it. A movie’s marketing campaign is not only meant to sell a movie but to convince people that this story is worth tuning in to. 

Without marketing, nobody would know about the release of a movie. But this raises the question, does all publicity mean that it's good publicity? 

Worst Movie Marketing Campaigns

Let’s start by diving head-first into some of the worst movie marketing campaigns where the marketing team completely missed the mark.

It Ends With Us (2024)

Premise of the Movie

Adapted from the 2016 romance novel by Colleen Hoover, the story follows a young florist, Lily Bloom, and her budding relationship with Ryle. Lily had a traumatic childhood, growing up with a father who was physically abusive to her mother. In the present day, as Lily and Ryle’s relationship develops, he becomes physically and emotionally abusive towards her.

The story explores serious themes of domestic violence and breaking cycles of abuse within families, with the book being based on Hoover’s childhood and her parents’ relationship. 

Mismatched Tones and Subject Matters 

When the movie’s marketing campaign first launched, it stirred up controversy instantly. From the beginning, the film was advertised with florals and a focus on the film’s lead actress and co-producer, Blake Lively.

Innovation consultant and writer, Becks Collins, pointed out the marketing team's failed attempt to brandify It Ends with Us like Barbie, drawing parallels with fashion trends (florals instead of pink) and an attempted Barbenheimer-style rivalry with Deadpool & Wolverine.

In an infamous video shared on the It Ends With Us TikTok and Instagram, Lively encouraged potential viewers to “Grab your friends, wear your florals…” when promoting the release of the movie. This fun and lighthearted attitude faced instant backlash on social media, with many people calling out the tone-deaf marketing. 

Throughout the marketing phase, the public continuously criticized the promotional style, expressing that it felt more like promoting a romantic comedy. 

The carefree tone of the movie marketing strategy was grossly misaligned with the tone of the heavy topics covered in the novel. As a result, viewers who were unfamiliar with the story of It Ends With Us were misled and exposed to triggering subject matters that they were not prepared for.

Meanwhile, fans of the novel who held a deep connection to the story felt betrayed and disappointed by the upbeat tone of the marketing. 

This campaign failing to align its marketing tone with the content of the film ended up alienating its core audience and undermined the impact of the original story.

Although the film was still a commercial success despite its controversy, this doesn’t necessarily mean that any press is good press. When it comes to serious topics like intimate partner violence, there is still a social responsibility to handle this type of material with tact and respect for the viewers and survivors.

The whole It Ends With Us movie marketing disaster serves as a warning to future projects of the ethical obligations behind dramatizing trauma. 

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Premise of the Movie

Jennifer’s Body is a horror comedy movie that follows high school students and childhood best friends, Jennifer (played by Megan Fox) and Anita AKA “Needy” (played by Amanda Seyfried). Jennifer is a popular cheerleader and Needy is the “plain Jane” bookworm best friend who is often belittled and mistreated by Jennifer.

Jennifer becomes demonically possessed and begins killing male classmates to eat their flesh in order to survive and Needy must find a way to stop Jennifer’s killing spree. 

Marketing to the Wrong Audience 

From its conception, Jennifer’s Body was very much a film written by women for young women. The movie contains feminist themes that explore female rage, revenge, the complexities of female friendships, and queerness.

Director Karyn Kusama and screenwriter Diablo Cody made a movie targeted at teen girls. However, Kusama and Cody revealed in a Buzzfeed interview that during the marketing phase, the campaign's primary focus was on Jennifer’s sex appeal. 

Promotional materials like posters and trailers revolved around Jennifer being hot and sultry. Needy is the actual main character of the film, but if you watched any of the initial trailers, you would have no clue. 

The advertising was misleading, Cody, herself, said “Because of the way the film was marketed, people wanted to see the movie as a cheap, trashy, exploitative vehicle for the hot girl from Transformers…”

The marketing team and production studio pushed for the movie marketing campaign to target a younger male audience, attempting to capitalize off Megan Fox’s emerging sex symbol status post Transformers (2007). Ironically losing the plot while doing so.

Because of its distastefully misguided marketing campaign, Jennifer’s Body disappointed the young male audience who went into the film thinking the story was going to be something else and turned off potential female viewers who might have enjoyed the movie, all while undermining the feminist values and intent of the movie. 

Upon release, Jennifer’s Body was not a box office success, grossing only $31.6 million against a $16 million budget. Despite its underwhelming performance at the box office, the movie has since gained a newfound appreciation and cult following in the horror movie community. 

Best Movie Marketing Campaigns

Now that I’ve gone over some of the worst movie marketing campaigns, I’ve saved some of the best for last. 

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Premise of the Movie

A“found footage” psychological horror movie filmed in a pseudo-documentary style that tells the story of three film students who traveled to a small town to film a documentary about a dangerous urban legend, the Blair Witch.

The students have gone missing and the film is implied to be recovered footage showing the events leading up to their disappearance. 

Blurring the Line Between Reality and Fiction 

Being released in 1999, The Blair Witch Project is considered one of the most revolutionary movie marketing campaigns even to this day.

Its innovative strategy leveraged the potential of the internet (which was still fairly new at the time) resulting in a viral campaign.

Every aspect of the marketing strategy was meant to build uncertainty amongst the public and generate discourse. The marketing team planted fictional missing person posters, police reports, news articles, and interviews, and started rumors in online chatrooms to get people talking about the validity of the story.

There was also a fully functional Blair Witch Project website (blairwitchproject.com – which has since been archived) that was visited around 100,000 times before the release of the film.

It included a historical timeline of the Blair Witch, information on the missing students, journals, and articles. The site was simple and had a homemade feel to it, further playing into the idea that students could have made it. 

All these things weren’t made with the angle of explicitly selling the movie, but to fuel interest and stir fear amongst potential viewers, adding to its mystery and making people wonder, “Is this actually real?” Moreover, it served as an extension of the storyline.

While the movie itself may not have the most impressive reviews, the overwhelming publicity set up The Blair Witch Project to be one of the most profitable horror movies. With a humble budget of $60,000, it ended up grossing nearly $250 million worldwide.

Due to its tremendous success, it goes without saying that other horror movies will be inspired by the likes of The Blair Witch Project’s marketing strategy. With famous examples like Paranormal Activity (2007) and Smile (2022) taking their spin on creating viral social stunts to get people talking about their movie.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Premise of the Movie

A sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight is about the vigilante superhero Batman, who works together with police lieutenant James Gordon, and new district attorney Harvey Dent to stop organized crime in Gotham City.

Anarchistic criminal mastermind, The Joker, unleashes chaos upon the city to see how far Batman will go to save the city.

Immersing Fans Into the World of Gotham

To this day, the “Why So Serious?” campaign lives on as one of the most memorable and iconic movie marketing campaigns in Hollywood history. In addition to the countless other awards won by The Dark Knight, the campaign even earned a Cannes Lion Grand Prix Award for its creativity and impact.

What made this campaign so special was the creation of the “Why So Serious?” alternate reality game (ARG) – where the real world is used as the game platform.

The unique joy of an ARG gives fans the ability to break through the traditional barrier that separates a franchise from its fandom and feel like they’ve actually entered the story. 

The game was extremely elaborate, combining in-person and online experiential marketing techniques. It went beyond the typical trailers and posters, it included print, mobile, direct mail, video, audio, and user-generated content, all made to enhance the experience of the players.

With over 11 million people in 75 countries that participated in this ARG, this campaign produced an insane amount of hype for the release of The Dark Knight. 

The ARG was an invitation for fans to participate in the world of Gotham.

From Joker-fied dollar bills, mock election campaigns, birthday cakes with cell phones hidden inside them, scavenger hunts, and “kidnapping” a fan, to the Bat Signal projected across several urban skylines, all of these stunts challenged traditional movie marketing strategies and enriched the world of Gotham, stirring up excitement for The Joker and the movie.

This out-of-the-box movie marketing campaign gave participants a rewarding and immersive experience. Ultimately, it gave fans ownership of the story.

Alex Lieu (Chief Creative Officer and Director/Experience for “Why So Serious?”) said “What we’re trying to do is say, ‘You’re part of this world. Play with us.

What you do matters. And your story – your participation in what we do – is actually part of the story.’” 

In 2008, there was already a large and dedicated fanbase for the Batman franchise. The Nolan brothers could have easily gone with the bare minimum marketing route and probably still see a successful release.

But the “Why So Serious?” initiative helped set them up to be a highly anticipated blockbuster. This fun and creative tactic made passionate fans ecstatic for the movie, making the release feel like a true cinematic event.

 In retrospect, this campaign strategy was extremely unconventional and not something that could be easily replicated. It worked for its time, but it’s unlikely that something of this caliber could be pulled off today. 

This campaign not only tapped into the existing fanbase but it went above and beyond. In terms of marketing, what made this campaign distinct was its creativity, incredible storytelling, and fearlessness in challenging the status quo.

Conclusion

While the marketing strategy may not completely make or break the success of a movie (as seen with the infamous It Ends With Us and the redemption of Jennifer’s Body), strong marketing lays the groundwork for a movie to shine.

In the case of The Blair Witch Project, although the reception of the movie itself was mixed, the marketing hype gave it a chance to speak to viewers.

With an iconic film like The Dark Knight, the quality of the movie speaks for itself. But when set up with groundbreaking marketing tactics, it harnesses the potential to become culturally significant.

Good movie marketing will get people talking leading up to its release, but great movie marketing will have people talking about it for years to come. 

✍️ Written by Bea Zhu