Wentworth AS Film: Marketing Hollywood Films

Below are a number of examples of posters for recent Hollywood films. As I pointed out in the previous post on British posters, Hollywood films use stars and genre to market their films. Having globally recognisable a-list stars in a film OR making a film that largely conforms to recognisable genre conventions makes the film much easier to market.

Feel free to choose any of the films below for your own case study on a big-budget Hollywood movie - I have included useful links where you can gather any necessary information.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Official Website

Wiki Site for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Poster Campaign for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Facebook Page for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Good Example of Viral Marketing

As you can see, the poster for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is dominated by the film's a-list star, Jennifer Lawrence. Typical of Hollywood productions, the film is part of a franchise and was based on existing source material (a series of best-selling novels) - both factors make it much easier to market the film as the brand has an existing fanbase. Look at the poster campaign link and you will see just how many different posters were produced for the film - big-budget Hollywood productions are able to produce a lengthy poster campaign to include teaser posters well in advance of the film's release and other posters at various different stages of the marketing campaign. Many of the posters feature different characters and are designed to appeal to the different demographics the film is targeting. Below is a teaser for the third film in the franchise (which will be split into two parts!) which is not due out until November 2014. It is enough that the poster just uses the logo of the mockingjay pin as audiences will instantly recognise it as being a prop from the film.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Wiki Site for Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 - Official Website

Poster Campaign for Iron Man 3

Facebook Page for The Iron Man Franchise

Tony Stark's Twitter Feed

Again, Iron Man 3 is part of a long-running franchise and is based on existing source material (in this case, comic books). The film is also instantly recognisable as belonging to a genre (the currently popular superhero genre), which is referenced on the poster's mise-en-scene (costume, heroic pose, image of villain, action scenes in the background, love interest). The poster, typical of Hollywood productions, is dominated by images of the film's a-list stars (Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow) and the names of the stars feature prominently at the top of the poster. Typical of posters for large budget Hollywood genre blockbusters, there is reference to the fact that the film is also showing in 3D format at the IMAX. Check out the facebook page for the film and Tony Stark's Twitter feed - obviously social media and viral marketing are important for low-budget films (where they are almost a necessity) but these elements also form part of the marketing campaign for bigger budget Hollywood movies. If you look at the link for the poster campaign for the film, you will notice a number of teaser posters containing only the number 3 and an image of Iron Man - often films based on instantly recognisable source material or ones which are part of a franchise, are able to launch successful teaser campaigns well in advance of the movie's release, creating a huge buzz many months before the film comes out. These options are just simply not available to most low-budget British films.

Below are more posters (and links) for a number of mainstream, big-budget Hollywood films released over the last few years. Please look at the posters and choose some to use as examples in your exam. Don't forget to look at the links AND make sure you choose one of them for your case study!