Film Industry: Marketing - Marvel Cinematic Universe

 Risky business

The creative industries are a risky business for companies - it costs a huge amount of money to create a media product like a film and there's no guarantee the audience will like it.

No brand loyalty
A new, original film has no established brand or audience - it has to generate all the interest through marketing. This is why film companies prefer to make sequels, reboots or films from an established franchise (like the Marvel Cinematic Universe) - there is an existing audience ready to buy the product. 

Star power
If the film isn't from an existing franchise, film studios use star actors or directors to help generate interest in the film and find an audience. Star directors like veteran political filmmaker Ken Loach have an established audience that will always watch his films regardless of subject matter.

A matter of timing
Marketing campaigns need to be carefully timed to create excitement about the film's release. Often, the first teaser trailers will drop up to a year before release - particularly for established franchise films like the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Social media marketing
Once the film is out, the marketing campaign has less power - because audience word-of-mouth will take over. In the digital age, people will post online about the film immediately after seeing it - which means word-of-mouth is more important than ever. 

Why does Hollywood keep making sequels?




Film Industry: Marvel Cinematic Universe blog tasks

Read this BBC article on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and answer the following questions based on the article:

1) How many films were there in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) at the time of this article?

21 movies had been released prior to this article.

2) How much money have the MCU films made in total according to this article?
$18.2bn (£13.7bn) to date.

3) Why did Marvel create the Avengers films?

To string together an over-arching plot to a franchise that was pioneered by Stan lee who wrote the comics, also  because franchises earn a lot of money due to returning audiences.

4) Who owns the rights to Spiderman and why is the character now appearing in Marvel films?

Spiderman had been sold off to Sony in the 90's when they were having financial troubles,  but Sony and Marvel agreed to a partnership to allow Spiderman to appear in MCU films.

5) Which company owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and the X-Men?
Fox owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and the X-men.

6) Look at the very end of the article. What has Disney announced regarding TV shows on their new streaming service Disney+?

Disney has announced plans for several new marvel TV series.

Grade 8/9 extension tasks

Read this Guardian review of Black Widow to prepare for studying our first CSP. What did the Guardian think of the film?

"Great fun is had in giving us the backstory to the assassin’s place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe", overall a good opinion with 4 stars however there are some nit-picks with plot holes and character development.

Read this BBC feature on Marvel at 80 years old. How has it survived so long and why is the Marvel Cinematic Universe so important to the recent success of the brand? The idea of "flawed heroes" is what stuck with audiences, and with the production of films the comic book readers had hyped up and spread through word-of-mouth.