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Author Topic: Anyone else sick of the Hulk yet? Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 06-14-2003 11:03 AM                     I cannot believe how much advertising and marketing this movie is getting. The commericals are all over the TV and radio. Also has anyone else been to a place that they sell toys recently? The Hulk junk is everywhere. It is like Godzilla all over again. I half expect to see a commercial where a chihuahua start hunting down the Hulk. It is almost to the point where I am going to take some pleasure if the movie does become a Godzilla and bombs.  |  IP: Logged Andrew Duggan Expert Film Handler Posts: 127 From: Albany, NY, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 06-14-2003 11:13 AM                        I agree, this has gone beyond the point of absurdity. I can't wipe my ass without finding five new Incredible Hulk cereals, a dozen Hulk toys, etc. After the first Austin Powers movie came out and every college age male within my earshot was yelling "Yeah, baby! Yeah!", I came up with a useful promotional item for the movie, that I think would work well for the Hulk, too. May I present "The Incredible Hulk Reverse-Firing Shotgun!" The basic premise? Very simple. Buy it because it says "The Hulk" and it's a terrible shade of green. Aim it at something. Pull the trigger. It will shoot you in the face. The debatable upside to this whole Hulk craze: 20 to 1, they will start selling the old Ghostbusters "Ecto-Cooler", renamed "Hulk Juice" or something equally as revolting. Me smash advertising.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 06-14-2003 11:30 AM                     Mark my words, The Hulk will be godawful.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 06-14-2003 01:16 PM                        I am very curious. How can you dislike a movie before it is released? Most of you work in the motion picture exhibition industry either as theatre owners,vendors or employees and I would think you would be happy if the studio promoted products that your livelhood depends on such as a major release as the "HULK". I know the studio will take a big chunk of the box office receipts during the first weeks of the film's run but the profits from the concession sales will be all yours. I think it will be an all win situation when the studio's hyped up promotion will bring a lot of people to your theatre. Just my opinion -Claude  |  IP: Logged Mike Olpin Chop Chop! Posts: 1852 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Jan 2002 posted 06-14-2003 01:20 PM                     quote: "Ecto-Cooler", renamed "Hulk Juice" or something equally as revolting. Hey! Hi-C Ecto Cooler was one of my favorate flavors back in grade school! I'd love them to bring that back!  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 06-14-2003 01:30 PM                     Claude, Let's say that millions of people storm the theatres, expecting that with all the hype that this must be the best movie ever (and believe me, I know lots of people who believe hype MUST mean great, otherwise, why hype?). They leave the theatre with frozen "shocked" looks on their faces. They will feel burned and it will take them a bit longer to return to the theatre the next time one of these "hyped" films make the rounds. Also, the very quick drop-off at the boxoffice after opening weekend guarantees the theatre won't make much off ticket sales (as their slice of the percentage only benefits the studios in the first few weeks. In the long run, this will damage the theatre industry. So theatres in the LONG RUN have a vested interest in showing movies that there customers not only want to see opening weekend, but will also create good word of mouth that will help sustain a longer run. Theatres would actually love to make money off concessions AND the box-office. Current release strategies rarely allow this to happen. Titanic was a rare example of a blockbuster staying at the top of the charts for months, allowing theatres to actually make big money off ticket sales alone (not to mention concessions).  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 06-14-2003 03:02 PM                        Paul, I understand your point and I do agree with what you say. There is no question that the people in the motion picture production industry are greedy bastards but if they keep producing over hyped pictures, they will also eventually feel the wrath of movie goers. Take George Lucas, for example. He would have been much better off if he never bothered to continue the "STAR WARS"saga with three new prequel episodes that disapointed many of his fans. His original "Star Wars" films has been winning tons of awards including several oscars but Episodes one and two I think has only won one. None of them for sound or sound editing. Not only has he lost a lot of credibility with his fans but I doubt the exhibition industry will take his 'No Digital-No Episode III for you' demand seriously as they should. I am willing to predict that Episode III will play mostly on film in theatres like Episode II did. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 06-14-2003 03:37 PM                     Claude, exactly right I do work for the theater business and I do understand that promotions brings people into the theater. That being said, if I am sick of the Green Hype, then you can bet there are average Joe customers who are also going to be sick of all this. Another point is if this does turn out to be a huge bomb, then it does serve the studio right because they obviously didn't learn their lesson from other hyped movies like Godzilla. Hopefully some day they will learn to make quality movies rather than by the numbers mindless action movies and hype the hell out of them. The sad thing is if this movie does bomb, you know that they are not going to blame themselves. Instead they are going to blame the audience and come to the wrong conclusion that people are just tired of comic book movies. Now all that aside, I really do hope that the movie turns out to be good. My expections are so low that it just has to be moderately decent and I will be happy. Though I never really got into the comic book, I was a huge fan of the TV show.  |  IP: Logged Michael Brown Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1522 From: Bradford, England Registered: May 2001 posted 06-14-2003 03:39 PM                     I suppose more publicity is better than little publicity. Remember 'Rollerball' last summer.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 06-14-2003 04:26 PM                     The marketing overload on "Hulk" is just a signal of how desperate things are over at Universal. The company has been losing lots of money ever since Steven Spielberg left and formed Dreamworks. Vivendi wants to unload the studio. Seeing how "Spiderman" raked in a ton of cash for Sony, Universal is hoping for the same thing. The trouble is "Spiderman" banked on convenient timing. There wasn't shit worth seeing in theaters when "Spiderman" was released on 5-2-2002. It was a wasteland at the box office. "Spiderman" was a mediocre movie, but the only one out at the time anyone wanted to watch. "Hulk" will have to be a much better film than "Spiderman" to even earn 1/3 of the Spidey gross. Why? June 20 is in the middle of the summer movie season where one over-hyped release after another debuts. And there's actually some good movies to watch too, such as "Finding Nemo" (a female coworker of mine called it the best animated movie she had ever seen, even claiming it was better than "The Lion King"). I hope "Hulk" is a good film. But I'm not going to set my hopes too high about it. It sure isn't going to gross $400 million in the US. One thing is certain, Universal is wasting a lot of money over-hyping the title and raising audience expectations too high.  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-14-2003 07:35 PM                        Usually it seems like they put the best scenes in the trailers. If that's the case here, this movie will suck much...everything  |  IP: Logged Charles Everett Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: New Jersey Registered: May 2001 posted 06-15-2003 01:32 PM                     X2 and The Matrix Reloaded were just as overhyped. When I saw the 50 percent second-weekend drop for The Matrix Reloaded -- on a holiday weekend! -- I decided not to see it. Bobby: Universal had a very quiet 2003 until Bruce Almighty and 2 Fast 2 Furious Also, Vivendi is trying to unload the studio because of Vivendi's own money problems.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 06-15-2003 02:31 PM                        While Claude is right in that you should not judge a movie before you have seen it, some projects make so little sense that you can say it is extremely unlikely that it will be a good movie. Of course, in some rare cases we are surprised by a movie which is far better than our expectations (e.g. The Mummy). But in this case it is so obvious that they just made this movie because they didn`t know what else to do. Because other cartoon hero movies did well at the box office, they hope this will too. That is entirely legitimate, and for our business I too hope that it will attract a big audience. But it is just not very likely that it will be an interesting movie to watch.  |  IP: Logged Christian Appelt Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 505 From: Frankfurt, Germany Registered: Dec 2001 posted 06-15-2003 05:11 PM                     I agree with Paul. Over-hyping "standard product" will damage the industry. Way too much money is spent on film marketing, and on many a production the money spent simply does not show up on the screen! Look at old films like GONE WITH THE WIND or BEN HUR, or let`s say a Joel Silver production from the 1990s - the money is on the screen. Then look at SPIDERMAN - it has the look of a nice little high school comedy, the usual CGI stuff (which looks more like a video game than a visual effect) and so-so actors (except Dafoe). There is no reason for that kind of mega budget! Why should we care about whether film production is inefficient? BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS TO PAY FOR THIS! The studios will have to spend MUCH MORE money to sell these overpriced productions. And they will take bigger and bigger shares out of the cake. What a perverse situation that exhibitors cannot make a living from simply showing films any more, especially at current ticket prices! When someone spends 120 million bucks on a film that doesn`t deliver, it bothers me. The marketing hype will keep smaller and maybe better films out of theatres, the exhibitors are often stuck with bad deals, and like the casino, studios can never lose because they have TV and DVD as a profitable outlet for even the worst stuff. To sum it up, surely every film has to be judged fairly, but there is a real danger in agressive marketing of (too often) mediocre films.  |  IP: Logged William Leland III Master Film Handler Posts: 336 From: Charleston, SC, Registered: Aug 2002 posted 06-15-2003 07:06 PM                        I remember when Congo was hyped up as well. Every cup and bag had the Congo logo. Congo was a bigger flop than Godzilla IMO. I agree with most of the people here over hyping and marketing movie is a bad idea. Good thing this crap only happens every few years.  |  IP: Logged

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