Mendelson's Memos: Captain America gets another Steve Rogers-centric poster. Paramount and Marvel are smartly selling the man, not the myth.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Captain America gets another Steve Rogers-centric poster. Paramount and Marvel are smartly selling the man, not the myth.

Only two real thoughts here (other than it's a nice colorful poster). A) It's nice that, at least in America, they are playing down that whole 'the first avenger' silliness. B) It's worth noting that Marvel and Paramount has been so far selling this less as a 'Captain America adventure' than as a 'Steve Rogers adventure'. It's a smart move, as we all know that once you have the audience caring about the man behind the mask, they'll care all the more about the larger-than-life theatrics that take place. This one allegedly screened last week to rapturous buzz, so we'll see if Paramount plans to truly long-lead this one, and if I can sneak into anything sooner than the All Media. And yes, even my wife is wondering why the hell Paramount isn't opening this thing next weekend. Why indeed... Share your thoughts below.

Scott Mendelson

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Isn't it obvious this isn't opening next week because of Transformers? I mean the second one was awful but the general audience still ate it up, so no indication it was gonna have depreciation in numbers.
I guess they could try to compete with Transformers but that's a huge gamble that could take away a lot of business. I'm just wondering how it'll be effected coming a week after HP7; Potter movies usually drop a good chunk in 2nd week but its the final film and any casual viewer can't say that trailer was boring.; June 23, 2011 at 11:49 AM
Scott Mendelson said...: It's a matter of strategic scheduling. Transformers 3 will open to $100 million+ no matter what weekend it opens. But Captain America could really use the patriotic boost and free publicity that opening over Independence Day could provide. Since Paramount distributes both, a swap (Transformers 3 opening July 22nd) would have been ideal.; June 23, 2011 at 12:34 PM
Liam H said...: You are correct, I forgot Paramount distributes both. I'm guessing they wanted Transformers to open over Independence Day weekend just like the first two did; but I agree with you that at this point it won't really matter for that franchise.

It would've been interesting to see Transformers come right after Potter, in BO terms.; June 23, 2011 at 12:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Isn't it obvious this isn't opening next week because of Transformers? I mean the second one was awful but the general audience still ate it up, so no indication it was gonna have depreciation in numbers.
I guess they could try to compete with Transformers but that's a huge gamble that could take away a lot of business. I'm just wondering how it'll be effected coming a week after HP7; Potter movies usually drop a good chunk in 2nd week but its the final film and any casual viewer can't say that trailer was boring.; July 13, 2011 at 11:04 AM