From confusing trailers to unsystematic marketing teams, a new theme is becoming prominent in the film advertising industry: not promoting movie musicals as musicals.
Multiple movies this year have been receiving backlash from the media due to a lack of honesty throughout press tours, trailers, and promotions for the films. The media have been disappointed by the movies as they have not lived up to their promotional hype. As a result, people are becoming more cautious in their movie choices and are demanding a higher level of transparency and honesty from the movie industry.
Many believe this uprising trend is a tactic to raise box office sales. A vast majority of movie-goers tend to avoid musicals, as the nonstop breaking into song is not appealing to the general audience.
Director Paul King’s new film, Wonka, faced a lot of controversy in the media due to the lack of advertisements stating that it was a musical adaptation of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and not just a remake. With Wonka topping the box office charts and generating five hundred million dollars within the first few weeks in theaters, it is safe to say that this strategy is working.
Across social media, many viewers have made it apparent that they would not have seen Wonka if it had been advertised as a musical. However, in this case, many viewers were pleased with the soundtrack and pleasantly surprised with Timothée Chalamet’s harmonious musical debut; although, this was not the case for other musical adaptations such as Mean Girls.
With a strong cast of talented actors, this movie was set up for success. With a rotten tomato score of 70%, it is clear this was not the commercial triumph that Paramount Studios hoped for. Musicians such as Reneé Rapp were showcased brilliantly throughout the musical but not one trailer showed the ex-Broadway star singing or the impressive talent she brought to production.
Musicals in the past, such as La La Land and West Side Story were extremely successful even though they were not disguised as non-musical movies. So what has shifted to make such a phenomenon necessary?
Some contend that the appreciation for musicals is dimming, as more extravagant films are being made with visual effects and CGI, instead of purely songs and dance numbers. The target audience for musicals is much slimmer than the broad audience for action or romance movies. To play it safe, many studios stay far from producing a musical, let alone proudly advertise it, due to the lack of devotees and fans. With upcoming Broadway adaptations releasing later this year such as Wicked, it will be interesting to see which way filmmakers choose to advertise their movie musicals. Will audiences continue to be pleasantly surprised or led into deception once again? Only time will tell whether this strategy will continue to be effective or whether studios will return to promoting musicals for what they truly are.
