The Dark Knight Rises. Reasons Behind Movies Commercial Success - Essay Example

? The Dark Knight Rises Reasons Behind Movie’s Commercial Success Submitted [Pick the During the past two decades or so marketing and promotional activities in film industry has gained dramatic significance. So much so that budgets worth billions are spent, sometimes it’s even more than the production cost of the movie itself. Despite all these expenditures on marketing, sometimes the persona or perception of the movie also plays an essential role in attracting hoards of audiences. This was precisely the case with The Dark Knight Rises, the last episode of the Batman saga. It has been claimed that the movie did not fulfill the expectations in terms of revenues and quality of its predecessors. However, despite multiple claims, the movie is a big commercial hit earning revenues over US$ 1 billion. The Dark Knight trilogy has been a significant source of revenues for Warner Brothers. Analysis of the commercial factors underlying The Dark Knight Rises’ success indicates that more than effective marketing, it was the legacy of the movie that gave it a grand opening despite various daunting events like the shooting incident. The Dark Knight Rises brought ticket revenues worth US$ 1.075 billion to Warner Brothers and movie maker Christopher Nolan (Hughes, 2012a). The question arises that despite having receiving its fair share of criticism from experts and general public, what are the factors that made this movie join the elite group of over 1 billion group. A critical analysis of the movie’s progress indicated that a perception of a product being sold has a greater impact on its sales. This is precisely the reason why manufacturers and producers play special attention to product placement phenomenon while marketing a product. Same stands true for Batman movie franchise as well. The legacy, fan base and historical characters with success of all previous Batman movies provides this franchise a lot of credibility amongst the viewers. Besides the huge success of previous Batman movie ‘The Dark Night’ and the phenomenal success of Joker followed by the untimely death of Heath Ledger, what drove the masses to the theaters was perception that this would be the last Batman movie. The legacy of the Batman Series was a substantial factor that would have been enough to draw masses to movie cinemas. Like other studios, Warner Brothers capitalizes on brand equity of its strong franchises and The Dark Knight Rises is a simple example of this trend. For a franchise that was showing a downturn after Batman and Robin in 1997, Nolan-Warner partnership turned out to be the last resort. Arrival of Nolan in Warner Brothers has made Batman into a character which is not only adored by comic fans but also by those who have a greater liking for more realistic action movies. The Batman trilogy has managed to bring overall box office receipts worth over 3 billion with box office sales being the indicator of franchise’s performance (Hughes, 2012b). It is important to note that other than the movie itself, Nolan’s brand equity is also another major factor that brought fans to the cinemas. In the recent years, Hollywood has focused more on ‘going big’ in terms of marketing and Warner Brothers’ technique is no different. Aggressive marketing campaign through TC, radio, social media, billboards and print media manage to engage public and create the desired anticipation for the brand launch (Eliashberg, Elbrese, and Leenders, 2004). Before the movie launch, there was a well-orchestrated series of movie’s official website launch, tease trailers containing original six minutes of the movie, page-length advertisements in newspaper etc. In addition to that, an interesting product placement strategy used by Warner Brothers was to attach the movie’s trailers with other successful ventures like The Avengers and Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol. Another important part of this marketing campaign was movie’s viral marketing strategy that was highly complex yet interesting enough to engage millions of fans across the globe. Fans attempting to view the website received a notification that they have to find out Batman’s whereabouts in order to save Gotham City (The Week, 2012). For every addition of graffiti by fans on social media, the franchise unlocked a frame of the trailer. The technique proved highly effective and engaged millions of fans worldwide for hours (The Week, 2012). A value chain of motion picture industry consists of three important stages- production, distribution and exhibition (Eliashberg, Elbrese, and Leenders, 2004). A careful analysis of this value chain illustrates that distribution and marketing strategies have played a vital role in the success of this movie. Buzz marketing techniques like previews, media gatherings, cast interviews etc also play a vital role in making movie eminent in viewers’ mind before actual release. Furthermore, character familiarization through iconography allows audience to relate to the movie and its cast. In the Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan has managed to provide a sensible chronological sequence that audience is aware of whereas characters are relatively less heroic and more humanly for them. Other than just the motion pictures, the franchise has managed to capitalize the brand value through other channels as well. The movie is followed by animated versions for teenagers along with direct-to-videos (Kerrigan, 2010, pp. 103-127). Furthermore, the franchise has also launched quite a few video games as well with Bat Man being the lead character. Along with that, action figures and items belonging to Bat Man series used as theme park attractions are also effective in reviving Batman’s persona in the minds of its fans. A careful analysis of the movie indicates that The Dark Knight Rises was launched in the shadows of the earlier movies of this series. Where earlier parts were a big commercial success, this movie was assumed to follow the footsteps of The Batman Returns and the Dark Knight. Other than that, the idea that this movie was a finale also managed to create a necessary hype that attracted masses to the cinemas. Thirdly, the director Christopher Nolan had his own brand equity which was well-utilized during marketing of the movie. Lastly, the marketing strategies used were highly provocative and managed to engage Batman fans months before the actual launch of the movie. These factors altogether led to a highly encouraging movie opening followed by a huge revenue generation which made The Dark Knight Rises join the group of movies that grossed over 1 billion on box office ticket sales. More than a critically acclaimed movie, this movie was a commercial success because of effective distribution and marketing campaign. References Eliashberg, J., Elbrese, A. and Leenders, M.A., 2004. The Motion Picture Industry: Critical Issues In Practice, Current research &New Research Directions. [online] Available at: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/05-059.pdf [Accessed 2 July 2013]. Hoad, P., 2012. The Dark Knight and Marvel: The Blockbuster Franchise Comes of Age. [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/nov/14/dark-knight-marvel-blockbuster-franchise [Accessed 2 July 2013]. Hughes, M., 2012a. The Dark Knight Rises' Tops $1 Billion, Surpasses 'The Dark Knight'. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2012/09/05/the-dark-knight-rises-tops-1-billion-surpasses-the-dark-knight/ [Accessed 2 July 2013]. Hughes, M., 2012 b. 'The Dark Knight Rises' Raises Christopher Nolan's Warner Bros. Gross To $3.5 Billion. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2012/09/30/the-dark-knight-rises-raises-christopher-nolans-warner-bros-gross-to-3-5-billion/ [Accessed 2 July 2013]. Kerrigan, F., 2010. Film Marketing. Routledge. The Week., 2012. The Dark Knight Rises' awesomely complex viral marketing campaign. [online] Available at: http://theweek.com/article/index/227422/the-dark-knight-rises-awesomely-complex-viral-marketing-campaign [Accessed 2 July 2013]. Read More