# So what film totally failed in marketing to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2012, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532 "2012-04-12T04:49:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/21 "2012-04-13T04:08:35Z")
Another vote for Fight Club. As mentioned above I just assumed it was about a bunch of guys that had a club and they had fights. I only watched it because I was heading out for the night with some friends and my roommates had it on. We stopped in their room to say bye. We were waiting for a lull in the movie so we could tell them we were leaving and 20 minutes later we all found ourselves sitting on the bed (coats still on) glued to the TV screen. The other one, off the top of my head, is Hot Tub Time Machine. I don’t remember the commercials for it, but I wrote it off as a stupid movie just based on the name. Netflix Instant kept bugging me to watch it and one night I just sort of wanted something ‘dumb’ to watch that didn’t involve any thinking. Holy Crap. I went in expecting Bill and Ted and got Back To The Future. To anyone that hasn’t seen HTTM, go rent it. The comedy is on par with The Hangover, but the story/plot is just shy of BTTF. If you’ve been ignoring it because of the stupid name I can almost guarantee that after you watch it you’ll be telling all your friends to watch it too. It’s not the kind of movie you can put on ‘in the background’ or expect to be able to keep up with if you wander in and out of the room a bunch of times (though the comedy will still hold up). Don’t get me wrong, it’s no Usual Suspects of Jackie Brown. You won’t be utterly lost if you blink, but it will stand up to the ‘intellectual crowd’ so to speak. (ETA…the intellectual crowd that’s looking for an easy to watch comedy). Also, an honorable mention to Sex Drive. Again, don’t remember any commercials for it, and I would have written if off based on the name. But it was just ‘on’ one day and I watched about 20 minutes of it before I looked at the name of it. This, unlike HTTB, is a good background movie, but it was still good overall. Another one I just thought of, Zombieland. I had seen the commercials and I knew I wasn’t the target demographic for it. Nothing about it appealed to me and I just sort of blew it off as another ‘teen romp’ style movie. I know, I know. It’s not really a teen romp, but it seemed to come from the same place. But then everyone was talking about it so I finally got around to watching it. Way better then I expected. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/22 "2012-04-13T05:13:34Z")
Slightly off topic but here’s a link to an article about “John Carter”, a movie that was a marketing fail for everybody. (that movie also gets my vote as worst title ever). > **[THE RANT: ‘JOHN CARTER’s’ MASSIVE FALLOUT: Who’s to blame for Disney’s...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/the-rant-john-carters-massive-fallout-whos-to-blame-for-disneys-200-million-bomb/2012/03/19/gIQAOKf6VS_blog.html)** > > Who’s to blame for Disney’s ‘$200-million’ bomb? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/23 "2012-04-13T05:48:13Z")
I’m kinda hazy on the details, since it wasn’t that memorable a movie, but the marketing for the dragon movie “Reign of Fire” seemed to use a lot of footage and dialogue that wasn’t actually in the film. The impression I got was that it was going to be a basic Godzilla type monster movie, with dragons attacking modern cities and fighting helicopters and stuff, instead it was a post-apocalyptic movie where a scrappy band of surviving humans have to fight a dragon. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/24 "2012-04-13T05:51:30Z")
I can’t really explain it, but **Tangled** had the worst trailers ever. If it wasn’t Disney’s 50th (in the animated canon) I would have avoided it like the plague. The movie? Excellent, nothing like the marketing at all. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/25 "2012-04-13T06:21:14Z")
> [@I'm Not Dennis Bergkamp](#): > > Fight Club. The trailers made it look like a straightforward action(ish) movie about guys beating each other up, with not even a hint at the deeper aspects of the plot. They actually made me actively avoid seeing it in theaters. When I eventually did see it, I loved it. Yep, that’s exactly my feeling about Fight Club. Although i sort of understand why they did it this way, and not just in terms of getting people to see the movie. I think that a considerable part of the movie’s attraction is that it reveals its depth as it goes along, and watching it all unfold in such an unexpected way was, for me, a big part of the pleasure i took in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/26 "2012-04-13T09:33:11Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > Slightly off topic but here’s a link to an article about “John Carter”, a movie that was a marketing fail for everybody. (that movie also gets my vote as worst title ever). > > [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/the-rant-john-carters-massive-fallout-whos-to-blame-for-disneys-200-million-bomb/2012/03/19/gIQAOKf6VS\_blog.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/the-rant-john-carters-massive-fallout-whos-to-blame-for-disneys-200-million-bomb/2012/03/19/gIQAOKf6VS_blog.html) I should have been their audience. I’m a chick who likes SF/F, but I haven’t read those books, so I wouldn’t be all judgey judgey if they got it “wrong” from the book, right? The first time I saw the trailer, I thought, “Huh, I wonder if that’s that John Carter of Mars book that people talk about. I’ll pay more attention next time I see the trailer.” So the second time, I was paying attention. Is this, or is this not, John Carter of Mars? And is that the right name? Wasn’t that from Terminator…no, no, that was Connor… Still couldn’t figure it out. Either I was distracted pondering whether or not I had the right name in my head, or there was no clear indication that the film was SF, much less that it was that particular story. It looked like, as the article says, “sword-and-sandals gladiator picture.” I figured I’d wait a bit to see it, since I still wasn’t clear on what it was, exactly. I guessed that if it was worth seeing, I’d hear the buzz. Been pretty much crickets ever since. Maybe I’ll catch it on Redbox. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/27 "2012-04-13T10:28:17Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > I’m kinda hazy on the details, since it wasn’t that memorable a movie, but the marketing for the dragon movie “Reign of Fire” seemed to use a lot of footage and dialogue that wasn’t actually in the film. The impression I got was that it was going to be a basic Godzilla type monster movie, with dragons attacking modern cities and fighting helicopters and stuff, instead it was a post-apocalyptic movie where a scrappy band of surviving humans have to fight a dragon. That’s entirely right and the reviews at the time were quite scathing of the marketing. I mean, look at the poster: > **[File:Reign of Fire movie.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reign_of_Fire_movie.jpg)** > > Reign of Fire movie poster > Though this image is subject to copyright, its use is covered by the U.S. fair use laws because: > Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. > You cannot overwrite this file. Dragons over London, fighting army helicoptors. BAD ASS. But as you say, what we got was a completely different film and all that action happened in voiceover, drawings and newspaper headlines: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/PSjjZfPVoo8/hqdefault.jpg "Reign of Fire Part2") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSjjZfPVoo8) I still liked the film (I saw it in the cinema on release) but it just wasn’t what it was hyped as. I’m surprised that no one has mentioned The Phantom Menace. Trailer for that looked pretty good. Remember? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/sYkHD9y8EqI/hqdefault.jpg "Star Wars The Phantom Menace Teaser HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYkHD9y8EqI) ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/28 "2012-04-13T10:32:36Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > Slightly off topic but here’s a link to an article about “John Carter”, a movie that was a marketing fail for everybody. (that movie also gets my vote as worst title ever). > > [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/the-rant-john-carters-massive-fallout-whos-to-blame-for-disneys-200-million-bomb/2012/03/19/gIQAOKf6VS\_blog.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/the-rant-john-carters-massive-fallout-whos-to-blame-for-disneys-200-million-bomb/2012/03/19/gIQAOKf6VS_blog.html) To be honest, I think where it went wrong is that Disney assumed everyone knew about the John Carter of Mars books. They were wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/29 "2012-04-13T10:42:56Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Wouldn’t that be the exact opposite of the OP? The marketing told you you would not be interested in this movie, and it was correct. > > The OP asks what movies did such a bad/inaccurate job of marketing themselves, that you were lead to expect a different movie based on what was advertised (for good or for bad). The OP talks about such a case, but the question you mention is not explicited. The explicit question was “what film totally failed in marketing to you” and that movie did: it failed to get my money, despite being, on paper, a movie that I would have gone to watch on opening day. If their ads hadn’t shown one itty bitty piece which told me they’d shredded the parts of the book which drove me to tears of laughter, the movie would still have gotten my money, shredding notwithstanding. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/30 "2012-04-14T12:18:53Z")
I have to say _Hugo_ is not at all the movie the trailers painted it as. It seems to have a completely different agenda than what I was expecting. It’s like watching _The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles_, and expecting _Raiders of the Lost Ark_, but instead getting a unique and only mildly entertaining history lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/31 "2012-04-14T13:42:02Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > To be honest, I think where it went wrong is that Disney assumed everyone knew about the John Carter of Mars books. They were wrong. I didn’t like the trailers for this as it made it look like Starship Troopers. However, I dragged my daughter to it because I love Michael Chabon’s books and he wrote the screenplay. We both really enjoyed the film. In fact, she had me load the books on her Kindle and she loathes most scifi. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/32 "2012-04-14T13:56:48Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > They lost me with their [soap logo on the poster](http://www.angryyoungandpoor.com/store/pc/catalog/products/misc/fightclubpr.jpg) which only works if you’ve already seen the movie. I didn’t realize it was soap on the movie poster; I thought it was the Club Card you used to get into Fight Club. :rolleyes: I only ever gave it a glance; I didn’t sit in front of it and deconstruct the picture, as the trailer running on TV made the movie look asinine. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/33 "2012-04-14T19:53:07Z")
> [@](#): > > I figured I’d wait a bit to see it [John Carter], since I still wasn’t clear on what it was, exactly. I guessed that if it was worth seeing, I’d hear the buzz. Go ahead and see it, if you can still find it in the theaters. The basic premise is that John Carter, civil war veteran, finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars. Due to the lower gravity, he basically has superpowers, and ends up saving the world and getting the girl. And the visuals are spectacular, so it really would benefit from seeing it on the big screen (and in 3D, if you go for that). It’s not “oh-my-god-epic-that-was-amazing”, but it is a good movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/34 "2012-04-14T23:07:42Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > Slightly off topic but here’s a link to an article about “John Carter”, a movie that was a marketing fail for everybody. (that movie also gets my vote as worst title ever). Indeed—I actually liked the first trailer (with the [Peter Gabriel song n’all](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmXX4FpZU80&feature=fvst)), 'thought it was a pretty good introduction to the story, aside from the title…but later on, I realized that’s probably because I was _at least vaguely aware_ of what the story _was_, even if I hadn’t read it yet. Having at least enough knowledge of Latin to make a guess of what an inscription featured in one shot (as well as guessing what the inscription was on, which is plot relevant!) probably helped, too. :smack: My inner huckster also can’t help wondering if they’d have gotten more interest by not only leaving “of Mars” in the title, but by digitally correcting the color of the soil in the “Mars” scenes to be red, or even just filming in Arizona. 'Make it look a little more “alien world” and less “Conan knockoff”-ey. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/35 "2012-04-15T06:03:11Z")
I wonder how many people thought John Carter was about Noah Wyle fighting aliens and skipped it. Noah Wyle fighting aliens, what a silly idea… (Great post about Last Action Hero up there. Couldn’t agree more) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/36 "2012-04-15T12:12:01Z")
I really liked _Creator_ but the marketing of it was terrible and I remember missing it in the theaters because I couldn’t imagine how it would be good. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/37 "2012-04-15T13:20:01Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Definitely watch the Tarantino version. The Merchant-Ivory version wasn’t that great. > > I’m guessing the trailers for **Bridge to Terabithia** and **Marley and Me** left out a few details. I came in to say Bridge to Terabithia. The trailers left out more than a few details , it was basically advertised as a Narnia ripoff. Worst trailer I’ve ever seen vis a vis the content of the actual movie, which was much much better than I expected. I almost didin’t go see it. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/38 "2012-04-15T13:36:09Z")
The trailer for _Shawshank Redemption_, with Morgan Freeman voiceover, and the convict feeding a bird hidden in his pocket, and shots of the star, Tim Robbins, made me sure the movie was entirely a " all imprisonment is unfair" type movie. That is part of the movie, but not all of it. And I wouldn’t have avoided the film if they just said … “Stephen King wrote a story. It doesn’t contain the supernatural. We made it into a movie.” ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/39 "2012-04-15T15:39:32Z")
> [@janis\_and\_c0](#): > > I came in to say Bridge to Terabithia. The trailers left out more than a few details , it was basically advertised as a Narnia ripoff. Worst trailer I’ve ever seen vis a vis the content of the actual movie, which was much much better than I expected. I almost didin’t go see it. I didn’t see it because the advertising made it look like they’d butchered the book and basically just kept the title. I later heard the movie was reasonably faithful to the book, which must have come as a surprise to people who went in _expecting_ a _Chronicles of Narnia_-esque fantasy about children transported to a magical realm. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532/40 "2012-04-15T16:12:00Z")
_Boiling Point_, starring Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper. It was advertised an an action film, but it was more of a character drama. A friend and I rented it looking for some mindless action films, and we were disappointed as we were thoroughly entertained. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-film-totally-failed-in-marketing-to-you/618532.md?page=3)