Scenario: As a freelance writer you have been assigned by a national film journal to write an article on the production and marketing of a blockbuster movie. They have requested that the article cover:
- How the producer considered the target audience during production.
- The publicity and marketing strategy for the film.
The film they would like you to cover is Deadpool (2016, Dir. Tim Miller).
Task
You must write an article on the production and marketing of Tim Miller’s Deadpool (2016). The article must cover how the producer considered the target audience during production, and the subsequent publicity and marketing strategy for the film. The article must provide ample evidence that you have comprehensively explained the relationship between producers and film audiences. This must be supported with elucidated examples and consistent use of correct subject terminology. Conclusions drawn will be persuasive.
Production Aspects – You may consider:
- External industry factors that may influence types of genre production
- Potential target audiences and how they are derived
- Pre-production choices that target these specific audiences
- Use of terminology and theory where appropriate and clear supporting evidence
Publicity and Marketing - You may consider:
- The format and purpose of various publicity campaigns
- Who they are intended for/how they attract audiences
- How audiences may interact/respond
- Reaction to these campaigns
- Use of terminology and theory where appropriate and clear supporting evidence
Include the following:
- Theory – the relationship between audience and films, and spectatorship
- Media Literacy
- Intertextuality
- Fandom
- Marketing
- Social Networking
- Reception
- Distribution (cinema and BR/DVD)
Bums on Seats
Deadpool is a Marvel movie produced by Marvel Entertainment (along with Kinberg Genre, The Donners’ Company and TSG Entertainment). Released in 2016, the film stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular character, Deadpool a.k.a. Wade Wilson, who hunts the man who gave him mutant abilities, but also a scarred physical appearance, as the anti hero Deadpool. The film was made on a budget of $58 million, grossing $783.1 million at the box office, making it a huge success. In addition, the film was met critical acclaim from fans and critics alike. Audiences on Rotten Tomatoes finalized it’s score at an 84% approval rating, with the Metacritic score attaining a 65/100, based off of 49 critics. Already the critical acclaim is sure to make movie buffs raise an eyebrow and want to see the product, be it in cinema, DVD, Blu-ray or stream.
So what made this movie such a success? How did Tim Miller and crew, director of the movie (and this being his feature-film directing debut), manage to create a buzz around the movie that saw too it that this became the highest grossing rated-R movie of all time? To answer this we have to discuss the marketing strategy of the movie, as well as explain the context of production.
You can trace the start of Deadpool gaining ground in the mainstream following leaked test footage courtesy of the director. You can view that here. The leaked footage gained considerable attention, with articles and online discussion ensuring. It would later be in September that year that Fox would greenlight the movie and set a release date of February 12th, 2016.
One of the driving forces behind the movie was the films star, Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds had previously been in Green Lantern, as well as playing the character of Deadpool in the movie X-Men: Wolverine Origins. Both movies garnered negative reviews, particularly the latter in which the character of Deadpool, a notorious 4th wall breaking loudmouth (known in comic books as the ‘merc with a mouth’) was made mute. This disappointed fans of the character and comics. However, Reynolds performance early in the movie saw much promise, and he was praised for his performance in Green Lantern. Both movies in the 2016 Deadpool movie would be humorously referenced too, most famously the horrible CGI of Green Lantern in one of the movie’s trailers.
Reynolds had expressed interest in the role of Deadpool since as early as 2004, having found that that Deadpool refers to his own appearance in the comics as "Ryan Reynolds crossed with a Shar-Pei". His passion and dedication to play the role had been noticed by fans, who had high hopes for the actor to do the character justice. Indeed, there was much enthusiasm to how the Deadpool character would be handled by Reynolds, with fans and critics alike believing he was born to play the character. Writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese described Reynolds as "the keeper of the Deadpool flame for many years ... if we ever do something that is off the Deadpool path, or if it doesn’t feel like Deadpool, he catches it.” With his passion and dedication shown, fans would flock to Deadpool and his performance in the movie would guarantee positive reviews, as well as endear other movie goers to check out the movie.
So then, fans had a leading actor who they knew had an investment in the project, so they too could also be invested in the upcoming movie; however, the leading star alone is not the only thing that contributed to the movie becoming a success. Part of the marketing campaign the movie undertook was pulled from multiple genres, as emphasised by posters, referenced below.
(From left to right) The first photo has the antagonist making a love heart shape their hands with the text “FEEL THE LOVE VALENTINE’S DAY”, giving a day of celebration for the marketing to capitalize on. The 2nd poster is akin to a typical 70s or 80s action movie, with fear and sketch characters surrounding the landscape, and two opponents fighting in the forefront. Meanwhile the 3rd one is simply a poster of Deadpool wearing a Christmas sweater. And finally you the most unconventional of all the Deadpool movie posters. The poster is ironically akin to that of a romantic drama, with the leads (both playing love interest) promptly featured. These posters all give off a silly feel for the movie because the movie is about a super soldier who breaks the 4th wall. Yet the marketing campaign pokes fun at this and plays on traditional tropes to help further elevate the movie. Indeed, Deadpool can be categorized as a superhero action-comedy.
But how does the audience know this? Well that all depends on trusting the intelligence of your audience. They know these posters are silly and ironic because they know the nature of the titular character. And the with the marketing campaign reflecting that, fans and moviegoers are no doubt somewhat reassured when they go into the movie. In addition, consumers of media are very well used too and are embedded with the typical tropes of movie or genre. When they see the 4th poster they know it is a play on romantic dramas, based off of the leads, the posture, color etc. But because this is Deadpool, they also know this meant in a humorous way.
This talk of the fanbase ought to bridge in discussion of fandom and how it played its role in the marketing of the movie. The campaign was viral in part due to the widespread discussion and word to mouth by fans and movie buffs alike, discussing the trailers and posters, as well as what they are looking forward too in the movie. A good example of this would be Reddit, an online discussion forum that serve various different “subreddits” that each their own topic/theme of content.
In r/movies (a subreddit on the topic of movies), the forum held a discussion thread on the movie Deadpool after it was released, discussing spoilers and all. In fact, their is even a Deadpool subreddit dedicated to the films, comics and character, where the fandom can share and discuss content as they like. But was it solely due to the fandom which garnered the movie its box office success? Well that is, in all honesty, quite hard to say.
In an AdAge article, the author had this to say following the movies release: “Much of the campaign centered around introducing Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds, to a national audience, which allowed Fox to distribute a plethora of content without revealing key plot points of the film.” This ‘plethora of content’ can be linked to the synergy in which the marketing campaign committed, as the author goes on to mention. “This included an April Fools Day interview on "Extra," where Deadpool confirmed the movie would be rated R. That video has since received over 8 million views. Deadpool counted down the days to Christmas with "12 Days of Deadpool," with new pieces of content being distributed daily, culminating in the release of the second movie trailer.”
However, this does not tell us anything of the demographic or audience, only reinforcing the idea of the viral marketing success the movie engineered. Scott Mendelson of Forbes, who describes the movie as an “unabashed crowd pleaser”, writes how he believes the diversity of the movies demographics may have Hollywood take “the worst possible lesson” from the movie, wanting to create another movie just like it.
“It is (a pretty successful) bawdy and hyper-violent action comedy aimed at the Id of the stereotypical fifteen-year-old Caucasian male, be it literal or an older male indulging in a teenage mentality (47% of the audience was under-25 years old). It’s a mostly mainstream action comedy, with enough quirk to set it apart from the pack, aimed at the same audience demographic that Hollywood always seems to be chasing.”
With the only knowledge of 47% of the audience being under-25 years old, there is not much to go off of. Indeed, Mendelson seems to perpetuate the idea that the movie had garnered a multitude of target audiences and demographics. The Hollywood Reporter seems to give us answers on the demographics:
“At least 62 percent of ticket buyers were males, says Fox. And 47 percent were under the age of 25, a higher share than any recent comic book movie, according to exit-polling service PostTrak. Nearly 37 percent of Deadpool's audience was between the ages of 18 and 24, a stellar turnout compared with just 19 percent for Guardians of the Galaxy and 19 percent for the more traditional X-Men: Days of Future Past (both of those films were rated PG-13).”
This will put to rest the discussion of audience and demographics. Deadpool’s marketing and viral campaign managed to transcend audiences in spite of its R rating, becoming the most profitable movie of that rating. The director, producer, writers and stars of the movie were all careful to pick up on the various tropes and appeal of numerous genres (action, romance, comedy) and mash them well with inside humor, 4th wall breaks and an actual cohesive movie. The cast and crew made a conscious decision to make a true and tried Deadpool movie that would not only appeal to fans of the character and comics, but audiences all over who were well informed due to the media hype surrounding the movie. Ryan Reynolds spoke of how it was important for him to do the character of Deadpool right. Unfortunately I could not find a source for the image below, as this was posted on r/Deadpool.
Reynolds was truly sincere in his dedication to Deadpool, working alongside Fox domestic marketing chief Marc Weinstock to use the internet to their advantage and come up with cheaper, "Deadpool-based" ways to market the film. Above and below the line costs of production saw his active hand, with him appearing in numerous ads as the character, as well as interviews and talk shows. Unconventional billboards such as this…
… were rumoured to have been his idea. Some of the best marketing stunts pulled by the movies team can be read here on Screen Rant. These diverse undertakings no doubt endeared multiple peoples of different backgrounds, be them ethnically or culturally.
As for distribution of the movie, the movie was world premiered at the Grand Rex in Paris on February 8, 2016, before beginning its release in Hong Kong the next day. This was followed by 49 other markets over the next few days, including North America on February 12. It was released in several formats, including IMAX, DLP, premium large formats and D-Box. This saturation of the market made sure the movie dominated with an opening weekend of $132,434,639, and eventually accumulate $783 million.
The impact the movie made on the industry is undeniable. Discussion on what Hollywood could learn from the movie, as well as made the movie a success makes it iconic. A Hollywood executive felt it succeeded because it "has a self-deprecating tone that’s riotous. It’s never been done before. It’s poking fun at Marvel. That label takes itself so seriously; can you imagine them making fun of themselves in a movie?" James Gunn, director of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, refuted this and said Deadpool was a success because "it’s original, it’s damn good ... and it wasn’t afraid to take risks".
There was even discussion of a possible DC R-rated expanded universe, and with the subsequent success of the movie Logan (another rated R movie inspired by the success of Deadpool), with Graeme McMillan writing “The real lesson from projects like the third Wolverine and 'Deadpool' is to take risks and grant more creative control to filmmakers… instead of pushing the mainstream genre toward the adult rating, why not take the freedom that comes from that rating and try to re-approach the mainstream genre with that attitude?”
This philosophy of implementing the thinking and ideas of the rating R could very well revolutionize the use of such a rating, and it could very well mean the legacy of Deadpool lives on. And with a sequel set to be released on June 1st 2018, it could very well skyrocket the rating R to new advantageous heights.
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