How Will Paramount Market Iron Man?
Written on June 30, 2007 by Vic Holtreman
Over at Movie Patron where they put up a pic of the new Iron Man poster I showed here, contributor Andrew James made a comment that got me thinking:
"I gotta be honest, I still have no idea what the hell Iron Man is. Every site on the internet has been posting news and rumors about it for months. I’ve still never heard about Iron Man or even know who or what he is."
Outside of the comic book community, I'm finding that most people have no idea who Iron Man is in the world of superheroes.
I'm a big and long time fan of the character and with the movie coming within a year I've been bringing it up when the conversation turns to movies. When I mention the character I'm usually met with a blank stare, waiting for me to explain just who the heck Iron Man is.
This is not a good thing and I really hope that Paramount is aware of it.
Iron Man is not what you'd call a top tier superhero as far as the general public is concerned. Now for you comic freaks (like myself), don't get your panties in a bunch. In the Marvel comic book universe, he is very much a "heavy hitter." He's always been very powerful in terms of strength and ability, and with the recent Civil War storyline Tony Stark/Iron Man has come to the forefront of the Marvel Universe. Whether you love the character or hate him, there's no denying the truth of that.
However your average moviegoer has no clue who Shellhead is. Once you describe the character they may have some vague memory and say "Oh yeah, he's like Batman/Bruce Wayne, right?"
As I've seen time and time again, the promotion of a movie prior to release can often make or break the film's success at the box office. I know it's early, but Paramount needs to factor into the equation that most people do not know (or care about) Iron Man. Spider-Man, Batman, Superman... those all generate warm childhood fuzzy memories for the average moviegoer, but there's no such foundation for this movie.
Hopefully they are tuned in to this fact and that's why they've made the decisions they have up until this point:
- Bringing in Jon Favreau with his vision of the story as a Tom Clancy adventure with Tony Stark as an ultra-high tech James Bond.
- Writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, who do not come to the table with an "Iron Man fanboy" background and who co-wrote the excellent movie Children of Men.
- An A-List cast of "serious" actors including Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges along with possible appearances by Samuel L. Jackson and Hillary Swank.
- Industrial Light & Magic on the CGI effects.
- Stan Winston on the mechanical effects and suit design.
I'm no movie marketer, but it seems to me that they might want to try a two-tier effort: One aimed at the comic book crowd and another aimed at the action-adventure crowd. I have a feeling that Favreau wants to really ground the film in reality as much as possible within the constraints of this sort of movie, and if handled correctly that could end up bringing the James Bond/Bourne Identity/Tom Clancy crowd in to see Iron Man when it opens next May.
I agree, most of the kiddies (10-18 of age)don't have a clue about IM. I think that JFav/Marvel/Paramount and company have to really attack the moviegoers as aggressively as the proms for FF4 or Transformers. On the other hand, I've been exposing friends and family (mostly males)that don't know ANYTHING about IM by ways of images of the movie suits, animations, and comics. So far their excited!
Vic,
Why would Paramount market Iron Man??? They're the distributor and Marvel is the studio. Also the campaign is sure to start at the comic-con on a low scale and pick up speed in 2008. There's no need to market this film heavily in Summer 07. It would be wasted money.
You make some excellent points here. I think you should post these thoughts on Jon's Iron Man myspace so he can think about it. Marketing is soooooooo important. I am very excited about this movie but I only came to learn about it because I am a fan of Downey. I confess to not being a big comics fan.(to me the best movie like this was the first Batman but I only went to see that because I am a fan of Michael Keaton). I know there are a lot of long time Downey fans very excited and they are educating themselves about Iron Man. We are searching out the comics and learning all we can. And we will go and see this movie probably many times. So we are coming to it from that angle. But like I said at first... I would post these thoughts on Jon's IM myspace. Good food for thought. We all want this movie to be very successful! And I think it can be but intelligent marketing is crucial.
Yeah,most people I talk to don't give a crap about Iron Man. I've spent the last year explaining to my relatives and friends who Iron Man is,and it gets tiresome at times.
I think it would be a wise decision if they prepared a trailer for Transformers because most of the crowd that'll go to see that is going for the special FX. An Iron Man trailer would interest that particular audience because IM looks kinda like a robot in his own way. It can't be like the Simpsons' movie trailer;it has to be good. Show some of Iron Man slugging it out with Iron Monger and him battlin' them fighter planes. That'll get the audience's attention big time. In my opinion,while he's admittedly a little better known than Iron Man,people weren't really that familiar with Spider-Man before the movies came out,and the first film did very well. I think Marvel really needs to put together a good cartoon series,maybe an Iron Man Classics line of action figures,and stop treating him like crap in their comic books,and this film could be pretty big.
Vic,you mentioned that now that filming is done they might shoot for an earlier release date. How much earlier could they put this film out? Like February or January maybe? Wouldn't that be sweet!!
"Why would Paramount market Iron Man??? They're the distributor and Marvel is the studio."
Call me whacky, but doesn't the distributor usually do the marketing of a movie?
Vic
Kel,
There won't be a trailer with Transformers, but no doubt there will be something in a month at the Comic-con. It's probably too early anyway (that applies to AD's comment as well - I didn't mean they needed to start right NOW). :-)
And any release date moves would be pure speculation on my part, so I won't.
Vic
Judy,
Great idea and done. :-)
Vic
you just mentioned the use of ILM as a good thing, but right now i think ILM and i think of the star wars prequels and i was not that impressed the work that went on there.
ps in the uk and on the whole enjoy what your doing.
I think the fact Iron Man is like a perfect amalgamation of Batman and James Bond - particularly with the perfect cast, appealing costume and war theme - will go a long way toward making this film a reasonably easy sell.
Besides, it won't take long for people to get a sense of how important a character he is... with a bit of well-written publicity.
Hey Vic,
G4's "Attack of the Show" TV crew will be at the Comic Con,see if you can get on TV,you celebrity,you!! I'll be watching and taping the comic convention special and hopefully they'll show the IM trailer on the show.
LOL, I'm not good-looking enough for TV. :-)
Vic
Kane,
That's what I'm hoping! On this film I am unabashedly NOT objective. :-D
Vic
"I'm not good-looking enough for TV"
Neither are the guys on "Attack of the Show".
guys it don't matter who ironman is or what he does. because at the end the movie setting, character, and movie storyline is different and better than the one on the comics. iron man, indeed, is a must watch movie period.
