New York magazine tells us why Despicable Me came through like gangbusters.
... Despicable Me's giant opening is doubly shocking when you consider where it was just a month ago. Vulture obtained one firm's tracking numbers, and on June 16th, only 57% of people polled had general awareness of the film (when told the title, they recognized it), and only 26% expressed definite interest. These are not encouraging numbers for a big summer movie one month prior to opening, and some box office watchers started writing its obit early. But then Universal paired its trailer up with the behemoth Toy Story 3, and the numbers started rising. Posters ran everywhere, focusing less on the despicable main character (voiced by Steve Carell) and more on his little green minions.
It was a wise move; these little guys not only made a far better hook than Carell's hook-nosed Gru, but they also likely created a positive connection in people's minds with the tiny three-eyed green martians in Toy Story 3. Soon, kids recognized them on sight, and the tracking numbers quickly began to climb ...
When in doubt, hitch your wagon to Pixar. (Genius, I tells ya. Pure genius.)
Added to which, thick-witted news outlets were calling Despicable Me "the new Disney feature." That was probably useful ....
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But then Universal paired its trailer up with the behemoth Toy Story 3, and the numbers started rising.
That would coincidentally be a month or so after the third trailer adopted the refreshing strategy of telling the audience what the story was actually ABOUT--
A marked improvement over the marathon "Pyramid" teaser that had been showing with 3D features for six solid months, which accounted for the low audience interest. (And only marginally improved by the "Spy vs. spy" trailer, that was at least funnier, but still left things as clear as mud.)
Like DW, Illumination adopted the strategy of A) promoting the Ice Age connection and selling a house brand name, and B) thinking that isolated comedy-short teasers would work as well as they had for Ice Age.
In the end, successful numbers proved audiences flocked to see it because...there really wasn't anything better that week.
"Posters ran everywhere, focusing less on the despicable main character (voiced by Steve Carell) and more on his little green minions."
Yellow minions, actually, but I guess the writer had "green" stuff on his mind as that's the color that really mattered for Despicable Me this weekend.
Congrats to all involved.
You've just got to love it when some "expert" writing for a high-profile magazine offers his expert analysis on why a movie's ad campaign was successful, but in the example the expert offers (the posters and trailers featuring the "green" minions) he apparently didn't see the trailers and posters he's referring to, because the prominently featured minions are YELLOW , not green. Makes me think the writer was repeating something he overheard or read elsewhere , but he himself didn't actually see the minion ads referenced . (although you'd have to be under a rock to have not seen those yellow minions someplace in the last month or so)
Personally, I think the "Superbad. Superdad" posters were incredibly effective. A bad guy with a heart of gold is kind of irresistible to people. The picture of Gru cradling the little girl in his arms was very appealing. Kudos to the shill at Universal who thought that up. I know it caught MY eye.
We can all sit around and jaw on what "worked" to bring people into the movie theaters.
I've talked to one mother who took her family over the weekend and they all LOVED the movie, thought it was hysterical. ANd that the audience thought the movie was hysterical too.
Having not seen the feature, I defer to a movie-goer who has actually seen the thing.
The sudden switch to Those Darn Minions seems to be a pretty common practice now for the B-team studios:
Recall most of the release ads for "Planet 51" taking more of the emphasis off the leads, and selling the cute little silent-expressive comedy-relief robot on wheels, hoping he would remind audiences of a certain breakout Pixar character that year.
You can rebelliously cry "It's not just about the Lamp!" all you want, but when it comes down to trying to grab those audience hearts and minds, it's time to bring out the hugs and the Lasseter-esque side characters...
"You can rebelliously cry "It's not just about the Lamp!" all you want, but when it comes down to trying to grab those audience hearts and minds, it's time to bring out the hugs and the Lasseter-esque side characters..."
Embarrassing.
"I've talked to one mother who took her family over the weekend and they all LOVED the movie, thought it was hysterical. ANd that the audience thought the movie was hysterical too."
The original post should have started and ended with that. It holds more weight than all that other industry echo-chamber gibberish.
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