Movies that shattered box office with power of marketing in last 2 quarters
By Abimbola Mohammed
The last few months have been rocky in the movie industry globally. However, some movie production companies that were premiering since the beginning of the year 2023, driven by powerful marketing strategies, have hit the box office more than expected.
Despite crisis, inflation, writers’ strike, Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and other economic challenges the entertainment industry continues to soar high. Another challenge facing the industry is the issue of streaming. Audiences now prefer to stream movies live rather than going to the theater or cinemas.
Box office revenues have bounced back this year from the darkest days of the pandemic, but remain below what they were before the fear of COVID emptied theaters. Towards the end of 2022 till now the industry has recorded tremendous growth and here are some of the movies that made millions of dollars in sales with great marketing strategy from January- July 2023.
The Super Mario Bros. movie topped the list in terms of marketing strategy. Before now Super Mario used to be a game that almost everyone loved. People were already addicted to playing the game; so Universal Studio leverages the nostalgia of the popular game to reach the fans of the game. Before the movie was released there was a lot of buzz, building anticipation around the thriller. On the social media pages for the film, the marketing team actively shared content to keep up interest in the movie for six months and pushed lots of snippets in TV commercials. By the time the movie was out on 5th of April the gross income generated from the film as $574,144,495 and opened in 70 overseas territories, including Mexico ($27.4 million), the U.K. and Ireland ($19.6 million), Germany ($14 million), China ($12 million), France ($10.4 million), Spain ($8.6 million) and Australia with ($8.3 million) in the first 5 days.
Barbie the Movie boasted the biggest collective box office turnout of the pandemic era, as well as the fourth-biggest in history. Using marketing strategies, like digital marketing tools, press tour, partnership with other brands, magazine feature, billboards and experiential strategies for the premier party of Barbie made it one of the best selling movies in Box office.
The producer Warner bros. also deployed a power soundtrack for the movie, the soundtrack was produced by Mark Ronson and includes tracks from the likes of Dua Lipa, Tame Impala, and Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice who’ve combined to sample the original Barbie Girl by Aqua.
Another thing that boosted the viewership of the film were the posters, which people could edit themselves into and that “encouraged a lot of people to make their own”. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $823 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest grossing film of 2023.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures pulled a heroic record and swung to $506.6M global opening. This is extra remarkable as it marks Sony’s biggest animated launch of all time. The international box office debut was $88.1M, ahead of early projections and 2.8x Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in like-for-likes, excluding China.
Guardian of the Galaxy Vol 3. The movie performed well at the box office, earning $844.86 million worldwide. Considering the film’s marketing costs and revenue splits, it is likely that Marvel made a significant profit from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, making it a box office success. Marvel Studios poured huge resources into marketing the film. Disney used the power of collaboration, engaging storyline and relatable characters by personalizing the characters in the movie.
The Little Mermaid by Disney studio according to Wikipedia grossed over $564 million worldwide against a total production budget of $250 million, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2023. Amongst Disney’s live-action remakes, the film is the second-most-expensive and seventh-highest-grossing readaptation to date. The marketing strategy deployed by Disney using a young girl of color to eliminate the talk around racism, the brand also partnered with other brands like McDonald’s and Mattel. According to Lylle Breier, the studio’s senior VP of global marketing partnerships, promotions, synergy and special events Disney’s overall strategy was for its marketing to “be inviting to Black audiences and inclusive for everybody.”
Even though it might seem old school, Disney recognized the power of posters because a good old movie poster is irreplaceable. Disney and other media companies consistently value this trend. Therefore, ahead of every big movie, Disney releases the official poster on social media. Disney used its social media pages to share nostalgic content and engaging videos to keep its audience engaged, the band also used Disney-branded merchandise as a way to make fans feel closest to their favorite characters. Ahead of the release of The Little Mermaid, Disney also announced its merchandise line to celebrate the film. Not forgetting TV advertising as it continues to be the most trusted advertising form.
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