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[Bobby Roberts]

Do you know what day Wonder Woman releases? Do you know what month even?

If your answer is (shrug), you're not alone. Warner Brothers isn't really selling their big summer tentpole. Like, at all

Donna Dickens at Uproxx breaks down this weird lack of marketing.

But if you didn't know Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot was coming out in 36 days as of today, no one could blame you. Warner Bros. has been weirdly reticent about the marketing campaign for one of the most iconic superheroes in the world. The hype should be off the charts. But, as Shana O'Neil points out over at SyfyWire, it isn't. When Suicide Squad came out, you couldn't escape the world's worst heroes. They were everywhere, despite the average audience-goer knowing only who Harley Quinn and the Joker were due to pop culture osmosis. Everyone knows who Wonder Woman is. Yet a quick look at the playlist for Suicide Squad vs. Wonder Woman on the official Warner Bros. YouTube page is as different as night and day.

The article acknowledges that there is some marketing, and the first comments (and the primary narrative in response to this in general) seem to think this is a calculated move by WB to clear out of Guardians of the Galaxy's way. Which... doesn't make any fucking sense. Giving a competing film space is what you do with release dates. Not with marketing. With marketing, you piggyback. You stick your commercials all over that other release, you make sure when people search for that movie, your ads pop up right next to it.

That's how marketing for these superhero films has worked for a very, very long time now. It just makes sense - if you're already looking at something in the same genre, you're probably gonna be interested in this similar thing.

So why is WB not selling this movie with just over a month to go? Is there a super-compressed press blitz coming? Are they still confused somehow as to how to sell a Wonder Woman movie? Is there something about the movie that makes it so inherently hard to sell that they're just... sitting on their hands?

(My personal worry: They know exactly what they have, and what they have is a Wonder Woman movie where Captain Kirk is the primary hero, and you can't really sell that and not drive the anticipation for your movie into the dirt).

edit: The comparison as used in the article is raising question marks, my post from later in the thread attempts to make a more direct comparison between single superhero films and their YouTube channel upload/updates, starting at the beginning of their campaigns and ending somewhere around three weeks before their release.

Wonder Woman
Release: June 2nd, 2017

Comic Con trailer - 6/23/2016
Trailer - 11/3/2016
Origin Trailer - 3/11
Art featurette - 4/4
Art featurette - 4/4
TV Spot - 4/27
TV Spot - 4/27

Doctor Strange
Release: Nov 4, 2016

Teaser - 4/12
Trailer - 7/23
Sneak Peek - 8/30
Featurette - 9/15
TV Spot - 9/27
TV Spot - 10/5
TV Spot - 10/5
Featurette - 10/10
TV Spot - 10/10
Featurette - 10/13

Man of Steel
Release: June 14, 2013

Teaser (Jor El) - 6/24/2012
Teaser (Jonathan) - 6/24/2012
Trailer 2 - 12/11/2012
TV Spot - 4/8
TV Spot (You are not alone) 4/14
Trailer 3 - 4/16
TV Spot - 5/1
TV Spot - 5/6
TV Spot - 5/12
TV Spot - 5/13
Zod Trailer - 5/21
TV Spot - 5/25
TV Spot - 5/26

Batman v. Superman
Release: March 25, 2016

Teaser - 4/17/2015
Comic-Con Trailer - 7/11/2015
Sneak (Kimmel) - 11/30/2015
Trailer 2 - 12/2/2015
TV Spot - 1/9
TV Spot - 1/9
TV Spot - 1/24
TV Spot - 1/24
Final Trailer - 2/14
Henry Cavill/Omaze - 2/22
Eisenberg/Omaze - 2/25
TV Spot - 2/29
TV Spot - 2/29
TV Spot - 2/29
TV Spot - 2/29
Affleck/Omaze - 3/1

Justice League
Release: November 17, 2017

Comic-Con trailer - 7/23/2016
Unite the League (Aquaman) - 3/23
Unite the League (Batman) - 3/23
Unite the League (Flash) - 3/23
Unite the League (Wonder Woman) - 3/24
Unite the League (Cyborg) -3/24
Trailer - 3/25

 

[studyguy]

For some reason I thought WW dropped next year. Hmm..

 

[TangoAlphaLima]

She's on Dr. Pepper cans. That's the extent of the marketing I've seen.

 

[Saya]

I thought it was a November release for some reason

 

[Divvy]

For some reason I thought it was going to be a November movie or something

EDIT: ^ lol

 

[kiri]

There's a Wonder Woman movie coming out?? /s

 

[Omegasquash]

I think I saw WW on a can of Diet Dr. Pepper at the office.

 

[HeisenbergWW62]

Didn't even realize it was out this soon

 

[shoreu]

It feels like jl is overshadowing it in this department

 

[BoogieWoogie]

Kind of amazing that they haven't actually shown an official picture of the villain yet.

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Back in February, I thought it was supposed to release in March or something.

 

[Emarv]

Yup. I keep up pretty well with blockbusters and I had no idea when this was coming out outside of "sometime this year".

 

[Sibersk Esto]

So why is WB not selling this movie with just over a month to go? Is there a super-compressed press blitz coming? Are they still confused somehow as to how to sell a Wonder Woman movie? Is there something about the movie that makes it so inherently hard to sell that they're just... sitting on their hands?

I'll go with this one Bobby. Always bet on the fact that no one really has a strong idea on what Wonder Woman *is*

 

[Betty]

The hype should be off the charts.

Should it? None of the trailers were amazing, Gal Gadot doesn't inspire confidence and DC has yet to make a good film in their universe.

This will probably be the best movie in the DCU to date but that's not saying much.

 

[Z3M0G]

When I saw the trailer for Justice League, saying it was releasing this November (was it?), I wondered if I had already missed this movie... what a cluster.

hings get even weirder if you hop over to the official YouTube page for the upcoming Justice League film. The movie, which comes out in November 2017, already has six videos: one trailer and five ”Meet the team" biographies. What is going on? How can a movie that is seven months away be getting more promotional attention than the one that is practically in theaters already?

On my...

 

[SpaceWolf]

It's coming out that soon?

Jesus!

 

[Inferno313]

I'm slowly starting to see stuff pop up. There's the aforementioned Dr. Pepper stuff. I think I've seen her on a box of cereal or two at the grocery store. I know that the toyline is starting to hit store shelves, there's a bunch of figures in the girl's toy aisle at Walmart.

But yeah, it doesn't feel like enough for Wonder Woman's first film. Maybe they'll kick into high-gear as we near a month out.

 

[mhayes86]

There's a Wonder Woman movie coming out?? /s

This, but I'm actually serious. I forgot that a WW movie was even being made, haha.

 

[gforguava]

Spoiler

The Dark Tower doesn't even warrant an article bemoaning its lack of advertising.

Yeah, I don't know what these people are thinking here. Regardless of how the studio actually feels this makes it look like they have absolutely no confidence in the film.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

It's because the last time a DC movie went straight up against a Marvel movie in the public forum it got its shit kicked in. And that was with their two biggest draws. They know better than to try and field Wonder Woman in direct opposition to Guardians 2 and will instead wait for it to drop and ride its wake to hopefully more optimistic results. Sort of a "you saw Guardians and want more super heroes? We've got you covered!"

 

[jrush64]

Or maybe they're waiting until Guardians is out first?

 

[x Power Pad Death Stomp x]

She's on Dr. Pepper cans. That's the extent of the marketing I've seen.

That's one piece of advertising, now, WARE ART DE OTTTERS?

 

[ArgyleReptile]

I thought it was supposed to come out in March awhile back and wondered where the ads were, but then learned it was coming out in June. Now it's damn near the end of April and I'm still not seeing much of anything.

 

[jwk94]

Isn't that image pretty misleading? Half of the Suicide Squad videos are related to each character in that ensemble cast. Then you have one about advance tickets and another about multiple TV spots. Does WW have TV spots to highlight yet?

 

[number11]

Having the Justice League trailer before the Wonder Woman release was a strange move. Did any of the Avengers trailers come out before a solo movie?

Edit: just realised JL is also releasing this year which I didn't even realise lol

 

[Bobby Roberts]

It's because the last time a DC movie went straight up against a Marvel movie in the public forum it got its shit kicked in. And that was with their two biggest draws. They know better than to try and field Wonder Woman in direct opposition to Guardians 2 and will instead wait for it to drop and ride its wake to hopefully more optimistic results. Sort of a "you saw Guardians and want more super heroes? We've got you covered!"

This bad argument was directly addressed in the OP already.

Isn't that image pretty misleading? Half of the Suicide Squad videos are related to each character in that ensemble cast. Then you have one about advance tickets and another about multiple TV spots. Does WW have TV spots to highlight yet?

How is that image misleading? It's not like Wonder Woman doesn't have multiple characters that could have their own videos. Kirk's got a whole squad with him. Hera's got an island of Themiscyrans.

The fact WW doesn't have TV spots to feature yet is part of the problem being highlighted.

 

[Lord Frieza]

Yeah, I thought it was pretty weird, too. There's the Dr. Pepper thing, which is decent sized marketing, but no TV spots at all? No actually markets TV shows either? I don't like it. It's already got several odds against it, if marketing is basically non-existent, I worry about how well it will actually do, especially in a crowded month.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

Should it? None of the trailers were amazing, Gal Gadot doesn't inspire confidence and DC has yet to make a good film in their universe.

This will probably be the best movie in the DCU to date but that's not saying much.

suicide squad looked like shit and the hype was "off the charts" for that

you CAN manufacture hype.

 

[kirblar]

The most likely explanations: They have a bad movie, they're waiting for Guardians to pass, or both.

 

[Emarv]

I don't get people thinking they're just gonna wait until after Guardians 2 comes out and then blitz. Marketing to the masses takes more time than that. There's so much more you have to do to penetrate the average person's attention. A month of TV blitz will help, sure, but every day they're not marketing isn't helping.

 

[Apharmd]

wait wonder woman is coming out this year?

 

[SpaceWolf]

suicide squad looked like shit and the hype was "off the charts" for that

you CAN manufacture hype.

See also: That incredible Man of Steel trailer.

 

[thehypocrite]

I see a lot of digital marketing, maybe these "journalists" that bitch and moan about adblockers should disable theirs?


🤔🤔🤔

 

[Pagusas]

I know of only 1 person who cares, and even they are expecting it to be horrible. It just does not look good and nothing about the current released media has anyone excited. And why would it? BvsS was horrible, Suicide Squad was horrible, MofS was the only devent one and even that is contested, and was a long time ago. This whole DC universe sucks. They want us to get excited over garbage.

 

[Platy]

But if they market how it will bomb so execs can blame female protags?

 

[badcrumble]

I'll go with this one Bobby. Always bet on the fact that no one really has a strong idea on what Wonder Woman *is*

Yep. Wonder Woman's got basic cultural awareness levels just below Superman/Batman/Spiderman/Hulk in the sense that people are aware that she exists and have a basic sense of her iconography, but very few people outside of the existing comics fandom could actually describe her backstory, name any of her villains, et cetera.

But also, we can't discount the fact that this is a female-led superhero film, WB's just seen Ghost in the Shell tank, and there's a lot of basic sexism in the industry and conventional wisdom that says that nobody wants to see a female action hero so it isn't worth spending money on.

I'm not expecting it to be fantastic and I think the DCEU has been pretty awful so far, but I think chalking it up to 'WB doesn't think it's very good' is missing the forest for the trees. They're demonstrably fine with spending huge marketing budgets on not-great movies. It's the woman factor.

 

[DJChuy]

I always have to check IMDB to remember what day it's releasing, but it never stays on my mind.

Guardians of the Galaxy has an insane amount of marketing. Kind of weird considering that's what you would expect for Wonder Woman but nope.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

This and The Dark Tower I've heard almost nothing about. To the point that if there were smaller films, I'd just naturally assume the date was being pushed back.

 

[azyless]

And when it bombs they can all look at each other and say : "Guess female leads just don't sell".

 

[SlimySnake]

Maybe these studios have realized that you cannot market a movie for over $150 million and still make a decent profit. The marketing budgets of these movies are almost as much as the production budgets. Thats fucking ridiculous.

Movies used to sell well just fine before this insane barrage of ads months before the release. People know the movie is coming out. they have seen like three trailers.

A couple of weeks from the movie's release they will start releasing tv and youtube ads and that should do the same thing. it will tell people exactly when it's coming out. And they would do it for a fraction of the $150 million they spent marketing Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad.

 

[Ridley327]

I get the sinking suspicion that the marketing department is overthinking how to sell a female-led superhero film and can't decide on the best course of action to take, which leads to no action being taken at all.

 

[Diprosalic]

maybe they wait until GOTG hype died down.

or maybe it sucks.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I don't get people thinking they're just gonna wait until after Guardians 2 comes out and then blitz. Marketing to the masses takes more time than that. There's so much more you have to do to penetrate the average person's attention. A month of TV blitz will help, sure, but every day they're not marketing isn't helping.

And like I said in the OP, you don't move your marketing away from the thing everyone's looking at - you put your marketing in that field of view.

This "strategy" isn't a strategy. It doesn't happen. Studios pay to put commercials for their upcoming film right next to highly anticipated films in the same genre. They attach their trailers to DCPs of movies in the same genre. Superhero films often have reels filled with ads for other studios superhero films preceding their movies.

The idea WB is trying to get out of the way of Guardians of the Galaxy's advertising doesn't make any sense. Either they'd piggyback on that attention, or they'd shout louder.

Doing nothing isn't a strategy. It's ineptitude.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

When did WB start their 'Man of Steel' advertising push with Walmart?

 

[sphagnum]

I honestly thought it already came out.

 

[KingBroly]

I thought it was coming in March...then April...then May...

I kinda lost interest in late March

 

[Oersted]

I know of only 1 person who cares, and even they are expecting it to be horrible. It just does not look good and nothing about the current released media has anyone excited. And why would it? BvsS was horrible, Suicide Squad was horrible, MofS was the only devent one and even that is contested, and was a long time ago. This whole DC universe sucks. They want us to get excited over garbage.

When it comes to Wonder Woman, no they don't want you get excited.

Justice League, yes, but not Wonder Woman.

 

[Emarv]

But if they market how it will bomb so execs can blame female protags?

Not just execs, but comic movie "fans" too.

Yep. Wonder Woman's got basic cultural awareness levels just below Superman/Batman/Spiderman/Hulk in the sense that people are aware that she exists and have a basic sense of her iconography, but very few people outside of the existing comics fandom could actually describe her backstory, name any of her villains, et cetera.

It's pretty easy. Treat her like female Thor. Warrior with a fish out of water vibe. Nobody knew Thor all that well or his villains. Marketing helped alleviate that.

 

[Lord Frieza]

I get the sinking suspicion that the marketing department is overthinking how to sell a female-led superhero film and can't decide on the best course of action to take, which leads to no action being taken at all.

I feel like this is probably a large part of it. Which is a shame. Just show the action with a ting of the comedy bits, like any other super hero movie marketing.

 

[Z3M0G]

Having the Justice League trailer before the Wonder Woman release was a strange move. Did any of the Avengers trailers come out before a solo movie?

Edit: just realised JL is also releasing this year which I didn't even realise lol

Movie business is weird...

Was JL filming before we ever even saw a trailer for WW?
Was JL filming before BvS released??

Don't films take at least a year to make?