So far, WB?s Marketing of Legend of Tarzan is Far More Frugal Than Disney?s John Carter Rollout
http://thetarzanfiles.com/2016/05/0...more-frugal-than-disneys-john-carter-rollout/
This headline made me laugh. (I just re-read that, and it sounds flippant, but I mean laugh in a very good way).
I think the article is well thought and written, but I don't think it's entirely possible to clock online follow-though as a direct comparison, even for something as recent as 4 years ago. Not only that, but prior to any advertising of either movie, it would seem like the Q of Tarzan would probably be many many times higher than John Carter.
Those things aside, it's interesting to compare two Edgar Rice Burroughs properties, because they both are potentially old-fashioned properties. John Carter was a bit of that, I thought, and wonderfully so; but clearly did not strike a chord with the public at large. John Carter was not helped by having some of its innovations copied by so many other science fiction stories over the years that they have become well-trod sci-fi clich?s, and neither will Tarzan be. However, there are probably many more such sci-fi examples than there are "jungle man" examples.
The Legend of Tarzan, having the example of John Carter before it for both content and marketing, should do better, hopefully; but there are no guarantees in any direction when it comes to movies, as the author points out?
The number one piece of wisdom in the movie business is ? ?nobody knows nuthin'? ? and the WB Tarzan promotional rollout is an example. If it works, WB will be considered a genius. If it doesn?t work, they?ll be criticized. My sense of it is that they have generally been pretty shrewd thus far. They?ve turned around a negative situation that existed before the first trailer came out, and they?ve almost (not quite) gotten the film into territory where it is considered to be cool and promising, rather than dumb and destined to flop. Just avoiding that ?massive flop? narrative is an accomplishment.
If the opening box-office predicted in the article is right: $23.5M opening weekend for Tarzan, that would be worse even in real dollars than John Carter's opening weekend. Beyond the opening weekend will likely have more to do with the film's substance than marketing, so I think it's hard to compare beyond that. I think the author, might possibly argue that a solid picture and strong word of mouth is what they're going for, so the numbers beyond could matter; and I think that's a fair argument as well.
Based on the trailer, I'm personally taking a wait and see attitude with Tarzan. I wonder if this is the desired effect?