Why Movie Marketers Have It Wrong

One more word on the Weather Man--and this applies to a number of films recently: The marketing is what failed this film. Every ad or promo I saw made this movie out to be a whimsical comedy of sorts and downplayed the wonderful dramatic moments and moral dilemas that were key elements in the film. It was advertised much like the Family Stone which, as most of us know, was misrepresented as comedy but turned out to be reprehensible drivel and blunt modern day political correctness lessons. I have 2 problems with marketing a movie like this:

1. Doing this naturally assumes that there is no audience to be found for intellectual and dramatic films. It makes it seem as though a movie that was moving and intelligent could never succeed and so the audience must be tricked into thinking it's just funny fluff. Otherwise, they'll never watch it! That's rubbish. There are plenty of movie goers out there that appreciate an intellectual movie that inspires thought and not just mindless laughter. Movies are supposed to have something to say, there supposed to provoke introspection and conversation. Not all of us are looking for a feature length sitcom.

2. As a result of number one, audiences are dissapointed and the movie suffers bad word of mouth. This should be obvious to these genius marketers but somehow they continue doing it. Audiences buy a ticket for something like the Weather Man, which they think is a whimsical comedy, and instead see something much more in line with a dramatic and somewhat depressing film that they were not in the mood for. They then tell all their friends that is sucked. They feel cheated and ripped off. Why? Because it wasn't a laugh riot. I wonder what Gore Verbinski would say if asked to comment on that advertising effort for that film? Might he say that the movie wasn't supposed to be entirely a comedy? That the film was missrepresented?

It's a cheap tactic to fill as many seats as possible in the opening weekend and it ignores the fact that word of mouth will kill it in a week. It's unfortunate becase quality films like this one are lost and discarded when they don't deserve to be while disgraceful garbage like the Family Stone gets way more attention than it should.

Memo to Hollywood: Just be honest with us. Tell us what the movie is about and what it is. So you miss out on a few tickets from the 20 and under crowd. You have to realize that there is an audience for smart, intellectual and moving films! Any other approach is simply insulting.