I have no idea if we’ll actually get any major movie commercials during this year’s Super Bowl due to ever-fluctuating release dates. Nobody wants to spend $5.6 million on a 30-second spot for a movie that might get delayed, although there is still value in plugging a big movie, even one that might open later than hoped, in front of around 100 million viewers (in North America alone). The last several years of big-deal Christmas flicks (three Hobbit prequels, four Star Wars movies and Aquaman since 2012) has lessened the appeal of a “first look” preview during the big game. You can get oodles of captive eyeballs for blockbuster-friendly moviegoers seated for The Force Awakens or An Unexpected Journey.
Nonetheless, we’ve still had our fill of pre-game/in-game/post-game commercials hawking what every studio hopes will be among their biggest movies from the first half of the year. I can only speculate as to what might get advertised this Sunday night. Netflix is “anything goes,” WB hasn’t purchased Super Bowl ad time since I believe 2005, and Disney may choose to plug Disney+ content as opposed to theatrical releases. I’ll instead run down the best Super Bowl movie commercials of the last 25 years. And now, without further ado…
Independence Day (1996)
“Enjoy the Super Bowl. It could be your last.”
This wasn’t the first time a major movie sold itself during the big game. it wasn’t even the first look at Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s alien invasion epic. I distinctly remember seeing a teaser for this flick in theaters in December 1995 (Cutthroat Island?) or early 1996 (12 Monkeys?), but Fox spent $1.3 billion on this “aliens blow up the White House” teaser and kick started the era of big blockbusters shelling out for buzzy Super Bowl commercials. Thanks to decent reviews, a buzzy premise, an eclectic cast (Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bull Pullman) and a sense of scale unthinkable at the time outside of a Star Wars movie, Independence Day grossed $100 million domestic in the first six days, legging out to $306 million domestic (behind only E.T., Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump, The Lion King and Star Wars) and $821 million worldwide (behind just Jurassic Park). With $634 million in adjusted grosses, it remains the third-biggest “hawked on the Super Bowl” release behind only the last two Avengers movies.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
“If you see one movie this summer… see Star Wars!”
For whatever reason (mutually assured destruction?), movie studios don’t tend to call out or punk each other in terms of selling their respective movies and TV shows. There are some exceptions, like when Lucasfilm put out a Godzilla-ish teaser poster stating “Plot Does Matter” right after Godzilla debuted to lousy reviews and softer-than-hoped box office. That Episode One taunt is the exception rather than the rule. Speaking of The Phantom Menace, this quick commercial for Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me was bemusingly aware of the pecking order that summer. Framed as a Star Wars preview, this Dr. Evil-centric spot outright admitted that it was, at best, the second-most anticipated movie of the May-August frame. Mike Myers’ true-blue breakout sequel (it earned more on its opening weekend, $57 million, than International Man of Mystery’s $53 million domestic total) would have been the summer’s second-biggest grosser ($206 million) if not for the bat-out-of-hell success of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense ($292 million).
Note: Since I couldn’t find the Super Bowl spot, this is a theatrical trailer that expands upon the same joke. It’s the same gimmick, just a longer pitch.
Batman Begins (2005)
“This summer… evil fears the knight!”
Warner Bros.’ marketing for Chris Nolan's initial Dark Knight adventure had been muted and introspective, offering mere glimpses of Christian Bale’s world-weary Bruce Wayne and the Batman he would eventually become amid a real-world Gotham City. Comparatively, this 30-second Super Bowl commercial, the first and last time a Batman film would buy time during the big game, threw caution and subtlety to the wind. We got the first look at the Batmobile ("Does it come in black?"), a glimpse of Cillian Murphy’s burlap-sacked Scarecrow, and our first really good look at the Caped Crusader himself. Slim competition it may be, but this clip also features the best ever tagline for a Batman film (see above). This was an energetic and exciting shot in the arm to the marketing campaign, while promising that this new Batman movie still going to be an unapologetic popcorn adventure. That commitment to providing both high-toned thrills and gee-whiz blockbuster entertainment is a key combo too many would-be copycats missed while attempting to craft the next Batman Begins or Dark Knight.
Fast & Furious (2009)
“New model, old parts.”
In a skewed way, Universal’s campaign for Fast & Furious invented manufactured nostalgia as we now know it. This Super Bowl ad sold the prime variable, namely the reunion of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster from the first Fast & Furious after two follow-ups that played more like spin-offs than sequels. The quartet hadn’t exactly found mega-stardom in the eight years since The Fast & The Furious, so the idea of them reuniting could well have been an admission of defeat. Universal turned a proverbial tragedy into a marketing triumph, with the tag line "New Model, Old Parts" successfully creating a strange nostalgia even among moviegoers like myself who had (at the time) never actually seen any of the previous Fast/Furious films and had no strong feelings for Justin Lin or Sung Kang’s somehow resurrected Han Seoul-Oh. A $71 million opening weekend in early April proved you could convince quite a few people to clamor for something they didn't even know they wanted, which is the very definition of brilliant marketing.
Super 8 (2011)
“It arrives.”
How dominant was Paramount in 2011? They not only won the global market share, they had both almost all of the big blockbuster franchise movies (Captain America, Thor, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Kung Fu Panda 2) and they had the “anti-blockbuster counterprogramming” in the form of J.J. Abrams’ Amblin-era sci-fi/horror homage. As a surprise tease for the 1980’s-set alien invasion melodrama, the commercial for Super 8 stood out as a non-franchise film starring actual humans in a mostly real world, a film that stood out as an old-school summer movie amid superheroes, robots and wizards. Yes, Paramount was selling the disease and the cure, not unlike the plot of Paramount’s Mission: Impossible II. The film was ironically only a moderate hit ($260 million on a $50 million budget) partially because the first wave of conventional blockbusters (Fast Five, Bridesmaids, Kung Fu Panda 2, X-Men: First Class) turned out to be unusually good. Ten years later, it’s a reminder that Abrams doesn’t need the Cloverfield IP to weave a throwback tale of wonder.
Iron Man 3 (2013) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
“Oh boy…”
Yes, I’m cheating a little bit, but this feels like the last time that Marvel really had to hustle in terms of selling its big would-be blockbusters. That’s not a criticism, but rather that Shane Black’s unique and distinctive Iron Man 3 and the Russos’ “Tom Clancy meets Sydney Pollack in tights” action sequel, combined with that summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy, cemented the MCU as the dominant and most trusted brand in Hollywood. It’s not like the last two Avengers movies needed a hard sell. Both of these 30-second clips led into longer theatrical trailers which were immediately available online, but both short commercials got the job done. Iron Man 3 teased the film’s best sequence (the “barrel of moneys” mid-air rescue) in a “short scene as teaser” format reminiscent of The Lion King and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The Winter Soldier evocatively set a wordless action-filled tease to a minor-key variation of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Both were such strong spots that the respective full trailers (especially The Winter Soldier) were downright redundant.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
“A pirate’s life for me.”
Disney did have to do a slight “hard sell” in terms of its fifth Jack Sparrow adventure. On Stranger Tides grossed $1 billion worldwide but was, uh, very bad, and Johnny Depp had become (fairly or not) damaged goods following domestic abuse allegations the previous year. The first teaser for Dead Men Tell No Tales didn’t feature Sparrow at all, focusing instead of Javier Bardem’s diabolical Salazar. The Super Bowl ad sold a grim and perilous supernatural thriller set to Johnny Cash’s “Ain’t No Grave” (hey, if Cash worked for Logan…) and featuring only single scene of Sparrow ironically (or symbolically) covered head to toe in mud (or feces). Lacking the benefit of the doubt, the initial pitch was a thrilling and comparatively human-scaled big-budget pirate adventure fantasy that just happened to be another Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It kinda-sorta worked, earning $177 million domestic and $792 million worldwide. That was/is biggest total for any movie grossing under $200 million domestic and much better than Transformers: The Last Knight ($130 million/$605 million) that same summer.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
“I find it better not to look…”
The full teaser for this sixth Mission: Impossible movie, which debuted concurrently with the Super Bowl ad, was the best theatrical trailer of 2018. But it’s nonetheless impressive how much of the good stuff (Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt repeatedly hurting himself, Henry Cavill’s infamous “arm-cocking,” buzzy shots of Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby and Rebecca Ferguson, the climactic helicopter battle staged in a way that doesn’t quite spoil the second-act bad guy reveal) was included in just the 30 second commercial. That’s partially why it was the most popular spot of the night even during a game which included a buzzy (and also very good) commercial for Solo: A Star Wars Story (which was followed the next morning by a comparatively lackluster trailer) and Netflix announcing that The Cloverfield Paradox was going to debut immediately after the game. That led to the, uh, very lackluster Cloverfield Paradox, but I digress. Point being, even amid fantastical IP and streaming gimmicks, sometimes you can’t beat a trusted brand and a commercial for a movie that looks outright spectacular.
"movie" - Google News
February 02, 2021 at 10:01PM
https://ift.tt/2YC7BJV
Super Bowl: The Best Movie Previews From The Last 25 Years - Forbes
"movie" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35pMQUg
https://ift.tt/3fb7bBl
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Super Bowl: The Best Movie Previews From The Last 25 Years - Forbes"
Post a Comment