Deadpool crushed it at the box office. But he wasn’t supposed too.
The movie was produced for just 58 million and took in over 132 million in its opening week in February, which is typically the doldrums for releases and is usually reserved for movies that the studio deems a flop or potential bust to burn off before the summer blockbusters come along. Second week box office numbers look like it will hold on to the number one spot again and pass over 200 million.
The character itself isn’t the typical mainstream character that comic fans are faced with. He doesn’t have the history of Superman or Batman, the star power of the X-Men or the Avengers. He is aniche character who murders people (a lot), wears a goofy red-suited costume, makes obscene jokes and is physically repulsive. The film was R-rated as well which limits the reach the movie can have with its audience.
The character had already been introduced in the first Wolverine movie as well and was generally loathed by hardcore comic fans because they had deviated so much from who the actual character was (which was also referenced in the film as a joke). So what was different this time? Well first thing is the stuck to who the character was and what made him beloved to comic book fans. This was a true Deadpool movie, one that fans of his since his first appearance in New Mutants # 50 in the 90’s. It was important the tone and the costume were right.
Those items were important to the core audience, but how did the studio expand it to reach people who weren’t familiar with the character? It was through a really smart and aggressive viral campaign.
Before the movie was even made, it helped that “leaked” test footage online, creating a viral buzz for fans and was shared across social media and blogs. Fans responded positively and this served as the first stepping stone for the movie campaign. The studio also aggressively promoted the star of the movie, Ryan Reynolds, everywhere they could. He pushed and promoted how much of a labor of love the movie was for him as he had been trying to get it made for over a decade. The initial promos they made clearly demonstrated this was a different kind of comic book movie as they infused humor as the main introduction to the character – a completely different take to comic book characters that are usually positioned to demonstrate their powers or abilities. They even used an April 1 prank around the movie being PG-13 during interviews only to have the character come on screen and declare who it would be an R-Rated movie, making the rating a positive as opposed to a negative. The humor theme continued a video of Deadpool spending Halloween with costumed kids, appearances at ComicCon, the Conan O’Brien show with the final build up to the trailer which clocked 14 million views after it was released.
This movie shouldn’t have worked but it did for the following reason:
- The studio knew its audience. The product had to match the fans expectations and it created a good base of people who were going to promote it if they saw that they got that right (see the latest Fantastic Four for how to get characters wrong)
- The used star power to promote the campaign. Reynolds was front and center and is fairly savvy on social media. He demonstrated how much he loved the character and making the film
- It was a multi-faceted campaign that was heavy on the visuals and branding and then used multiple channels like video, social and billboards to promote the movie
- It owned the humor part of it. Deadpool is a violent film, but the humor element of the campaign helped soften that somewhat and opened the audience to the idea that this was more comedic than just a lot of blood and gore.
The result – the film is now being looked at as a franchise with another film in the works and potentially expanding the brand to an X-Force movie, which is a subset of the X-Men.
References
http://screenrant.com/best-deadpool-marketing-stunts/?view=all
http://whatculture.com/film/8-most-genius-moments-in-deadpools-marketing-campaign.php/9
http://screencrush.com/deadpool-reynolds-x-force/
http://deadline.com/2016/02/deadpool-risen-the-witch-race-weekend-box-office-1201705730/
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