by jellydonut25 » Sat May 17, 2014 1:35 pm
I have to admit I was wrong about Godzilla's name cachet. I remember saying, back in 2009 that the name carried a bit more infamy than notoriety and that it wasn't really enough on its own to get people into theaters.
Now, while the advertising campaign did show Bryan Cranston, and Aaron Taylor Johnson, and Elizabeth Olsen, it was never like:
"Bryan Cranston, Star of BREAKING BAD"
"Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Rising star from the Kick-Ass series"
"And Juliette Binoche, Academy Award Winning Actress"
It was just: "GODZILLA". So yeah, I stand corrected. Much to my delight.
I think the movie is doing so well because it really did have a solid ad campaign. You couldn't turn on the TV without seeing Godzilla ads. I know a bunch of people said they didn't see ads in theaters (I never did, but I don't got to the theaters often enough to know if there were no ads or it was just me), but in this day and age when its basically considered the golden age of television, maybe putting all the money into DOZENS of TV ads on DOZENS of stations was the right move.
There were also billboards placed in prominent movie billboard ad places like Times Square and around LA and stuff.
Last year, when I told people I was excited for Pacific Rim, the almost UNIVERSAL response I got was, "What's that?"
This year, when I told people I was excited for Godzilla, it was much more resoundingly, "Oh YEAH, I've been seeing the previews" Even if these people weren't actively excited, they were well aware of the movie's existence.