Get Out: Get Into The Marketing For This Movie

If you haven’t seen, “Get Out”, one of the most interesting movies in years you need to “Get Out” and go see it (get it? … “Get OUT”). The movie was released February 24, 2017 and has already made $150 million worldwide. This is an impressive accomplishment because it started with only a 4.5 million dollar budget. It also was one of only six films to ever receive a 99% from the review site Rotten Tomatoes.

On October 4, 2016 the trailer was released to the public and it was promoted as a horror film. It kind of popped out of nowhere and it took everyone by surprise. The trailer starts by showing Chris and Rose being nervous and preparing for a weekend getaway. However, viewers quickly realized that this wasn’t just a your typical “horror film”. This movie was built around race by showing the viewers what happened when a young white woman brought her black boyfriend to meet her family, and how scary and intimidating that could be.

The movie posters that were released to promote the movie still kept up with the theme that was used for the trailer, suspense. Posters are meant to create a sense of mystery for the public in order to get their interest in the movie. The poster was broken into sections that showed different pictures from the movie that would leave it up to the viewer figure out what the movie was about. Some pictures of the poster include the main character being introduced to his girlfriends all white family. Another showed Chris frightened with his eyes wide-open as if he saw something that he couldn’t believe. Most of the movie posters that were released also had the line “Just because you’re invited, doesn’t mean you’re welcome”.

There have been tons of movies built around the same premises like, the 1967 comedy-drama Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner or the 2005 comedy Guess Who. Both of those movies were about race with a comedy-drama premises to them but there has never been one built around horror.

Audience’s wondered how this movie would be different than the others, and after seeing it the first thing that audiences would say is that, its isn’t a horror movie at all. Universal Pictures did an amazing job at promoting the movie, they along with the director, Jordan Peele, used an unconventional move that would get people interested in seeing what the movie. They ultimately tricked the audience into thinking it would be something that it wasn’t. That was a good tactic to use to get people to purchase a ticket.

This might be a tactic that will be used for other movies, especially those whose premises might not be known by the trailer. As a viewer of this movie this is something that attracted me to want to see it. It made me appreciate the movie even more and pay attention to what the bigger message of the movie was.

Another interesting tactic that they used to market the movie was using art. If you went to the movies website there was an option that slowed you to see some artwork that created inspired by the movie. Some of the artwork was featured in a photo shoot with the director.

Overall, the elements of this movie campaign did exactly what the director and Universal wanted it to do, it drew in people to want to see the movie.

Galuppo, M. (2016, October 04). Jordan Peele’s Thriller ‘Get Out’ Gets Release Date, Trailer. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/jordan-peeles-thriller-get-release-935086

Marich, R. (2017, March 22). ‘Get Out’ Marketing Tapped Into Relationship Between Racism and Horror. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/jordan-peele-get-out-marketing-racism-horror-1202012833/

McNary, D. (2017, March 22). Jason Blum Revels in Micro-Budget Moviemaking for Horror Hits ‘Get Out,’ ‘Split’. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://variety.com/2017/film/news/jason-blum-horror-get-out-split-1202014499

Thilk, C. (2017, February 21). Movie Marketing Madness: Get Out. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from https://christhilk.com/2017/02/21/movie-marketing-madness-get-out/