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'Spectre' Marketing Is Rooted In 007 Nostalgia, Yet James Bond Is More Popular Than Ever
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/09/04/why-is-spectre-being-sold-with-007-nostalgia-when-james-bond-is-more-popular-than-ever/
Sure, why not, but too many would call that uninspired and would trash it before it even goes into production.
Well, that's funny, I think I liked the other one better. Not much better as it is far too generic, but I thought the one with Craig lying down shooting just looks like ... I don't know. Far too generic?
Great article :-). Trust me, "SPECTRE" will bring in more than $1.2 Billion globally :-).
And there are those 'old' fans who don't care about the references either and would rather a new/different look. It certainly wouldn't effect the 'new' breed as they're oblivious anyway.
SPECTRE gets onto Variety's list of the 30 most anticipated films of the Oscar season...
http://variety.com/gallery/the-30-most-anticipated-films-of-oscar-season/#!3/28-spectre-sony/
I know a few have mentioned Andrew Scott's (and Jesper Christensen's) absence from the poster - similarly Whishaw wasn't in the Skyfall poster billing block. Looking back at the previous Craig films billings - the CR one had 5 names, QoS had 6, SF had 7 and SP has 8.
He has his facts wrong:
1. Pierce Brosnan did not star in LTK
2. He is confusing inflation adjusted box office with ticket sales (something which many members on here do as well)
3. He claims the franchise has been doing 'better than ever' since 1995. That is plainly not true on an inflation adjusted basis, on a ticket sale basis, or on a net profitability basis (ignoring video sales).
4. He claims DAD sold more tickets than TSWLM, which is beyond laughable
5. He claims that QoS was obscenely more successful than OHMSS, which it was not.
6. He is disappointed that the nostalgia is rooted primarily in the Sean Connery/Roger Moore years, and also the first 15 years of the franchise. Well, what does he want? Nostalgia rooted in the Timothy Dalton years (hardly box office gold) or the Pierce Brosnan years (which were derivative of the Connery/Moore years, but inferior in many ways)?
What this guy doesn't realize is that SF was also (and maybe very much so) a success due to the fact that it pulled in the older audience, many of whom don't even visit theatres any more. Both my parents went to see SF in a theatre, something they haven't done since Roger Moore was Bond. It is that audience that takes Bond over the top in terms of box office in 2015 imho, not the Kingsman audience as he suggests. That audience will likely appreciate these marketing 'throwbacks', and EON likely realizes that.
EON is correct to inject some nostalgia into the proceedings. That is a different discussion from whether the recent poster is a good one or a creative one.
I'm not disputing anything you said, but do you have sources for the ticket sales, because I know for instance in the German-language region that since 1995 ticket sales numbers were higher than ever for the Bond movies, some Brosnan movies did even better than CR or QOS and only Skyfall really has rocket to new heights.
GE-QOS were roughly between 5 to 6 million, and Skyfall exceeded 7.5 million tickets sold in that region.
Unfortunately I can't find the statistic at the moment but I gladly will give them later.
They are nothing in comparison to the first 15 yrs, and that is my point. Ticket sales had been declining over the yrs, particularly in the 80s. GE arrested the fall a bit then it started again until SF. I have seen stats somewhere and will try to locate. Nevertheless, inflation adjusted box office should not be used as a proxy for ticket sales without a huge qualifier.
This is what counts. The finished film (and he only saw an somewhat unfinished version) And if this early word is any indication then it sounds like SPECTRE will be a great Bond film! Best thing I've read or heard since the film was announced in December.
Not saying we will all agree with him, just that we need to keep the movie itself in mind, and not get overly get crazy about pieces of it like posters, trailers, title song and artist.
Another fact concerning DAD and TSWLM
In Germany TSWLM sold 7.6 million tickets which is just short of what Skyfall did.
DAD had something over 5 million tickets sold which was about the average that the Bond movies did from GE to QOS.
The German-language-region results are a good indicator of which a movie does internationally, it works most of the time.
Ticket sales is the only way to really measure the success of movies. Sadly, in most regions that gets totally ignored and the money taken in is the way they measure success.
That's like we would only look at the revenue from a music album and not individual sales. Nobody would do that, but with movies it gets done, strange really.
I think we can all agree that the movie is what counts. However, I'd take any quotes from those affiliated with the film with a pinch of salt.
I agree. But then what else should a Sony exec tell?
Until it is actually done and screened for an audience, everything is speculation, but I just see it as a good sign that makes me hopeful that perhaps all the time, effort, money put into the film might pay off.
Exactly right. It's a Hollywood marketing trick to focus on inflated box office numbers (which also do not account for larger, pricier theatres with IMAX etc. and higher prices) and we've all fallen for it.
The record companies were not smart enough to switch things up earlier, so we still focus on record sales, which have been falling through the years (compensated by downloads etc...which is why Apple is the poster boy for so many companies, industries and the media....because they found a way to monetize via downloads and also via apps so, 'old' companies could still make money fleecing the public in a new age).
Bottom line - it's a misleading and poorly researched article. The nostalgia marketing element should be used imho, sparingly. It is a James Bond (a huge, reputable brand, unlike Man From Uncle for example) differentiator. Look at what nostalgia did for Jurassic World this year.....so it definitely works.
Honestly I don't get all this fuss about the poster at all. It doesn't affect the movie, so who cares if it sucks.
I'm struggling to see what else he would've said.
Probably nothing if he didn't like it. Marketto seems pretty reliable so I do trust that this opinion is for real and may be what the exec actually thought. Maybe it did turn out great. Why not?
I've read many early word "reviews" of film screened for execs that were enthusiastic for films that did indeed turn out very successful. Just saying it is a good sign.
But of course, we don't know anything for sure now.
For franchises such as Bond, I think creativity for posters is almost counter-productive. The very expected is maybe what they should aim for. Like I said earlier, the SW poster was absolutely un-creative: it could not be more conventionally Star Warsian. I think people react to posters where they can easily identify the franchise they belong to. Maybe that's why we've had a SF poster that was basically a gunbarrel with Bond in it. It was beyond generic, beyond expected, yet it was Bondian and very easily identifiable.
I agree to a degree. The gunbarrel is definitely iconic, and after a long 4 yr gap between QoS and SF, perhaps was the right approach. Having said that, they could have done the gunbarrel in so many better ways for SF imho. Having DC turning and shooting through the barrel (rather than standing in front of it) would have been brilliant.
Personally, I'd like to see Bond doing something (he is a man of action after all) rather than just looking at us. That's why I like the SF one where he's on the ground shooting. I remember the first time I saw it....my first thoughts were, 'well at least this is different'.
The best one they've done so far for SP is the bullet through glass. I love how they used that at the end of the trailer as well.
It certainly will be better than the mediocre Skyfall which was only that well received because of the overhype and marketing campaign.
Spectre can stand on its own without artificial hype. If the product is actually as good as CR it will make its money and satisfy anyone involved.
Next will be the theme song artist. I hope for someone that will make headlines for weeks. Radiohead most certainly would not, younger people even don't know what Radiohead is. They were big in the nineties and the last time they did something that really made headlines was in 2007.
Lady Gaga would be in the news for months, so would Adele.
Goulding or Smith would appeal to the young audience and make quite a wave in the social media.
The song of course has to be good and typical Bond. We had enough of that artificially "innovative" crap with Madonna, Cornell (although a good rock/pop song) and especially the horrid White/Keys noise.
NSNA worked very fine despite being a remake of the "biggest Bond ever" (and arguably one of the more formulaic), Thunderball. It shows how different a remake could be. Goldfinger could trade plutonium in a remake, I mean.
I think you give too much credence to the "lovers"/"bashers". Heck, imagine SPECTRE does only $700M, I'm sure you will witness a 180°-turn from many on the same facts :)
For instance, when Logan was announced, it was said to be a genius move from EON to have him for many here, there was "NO WAY" he could disappoint !
That's almost what a design pro who is not specifically a Bond fan told me (I reported it earlier).
It was a great teaser poster. My bet is that we will see more and more minimalistic posters, not only for Bond, but for other movie franchises as well. Unless they do space opera like SW, or similar stuff. And if they keep doing it, there must be a reason for it.