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| Adam and Eve (Public Domain) |
When Hollywood sets out to make a killing (either at the box office or within people’s psyches), there are certain tricks of the trade that are bound to win.
As New York Times
writers Brooks Barnes and Michael Cieply point out, moviegoers recently “turned out en masse to see the sadomasochistic love story ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.’” This was pronounced a mighty win for Universal Pictures, as it yielded approximately $90.7 million during the first four days of widespread release.
This also says far more about manipulating the public mindset than it does about film artistry. Universal’s chairwoman, Donna Langley, is apparently a master at predicting herd-stampeding patterns.
Langley started her campaign by aggressively wooing author E L James on board. Universal marketers then began casting their spell with these three provocative words: Are you
curious?
Although the allegedly-sophisticated target audience had sometimes “found Ms. James’s prose more laughable than titillating,” they nevertheless bought into this Universal bait (forgetting that such curiosity may have killed the cat, along with many catty individuals).
The clincher was a Valentine’s Day slam dunk. To destigmatize the film’s content, it was cleverly linked to hearts, flowers, and even saints. The film’s advertising kicked off on Saint Valentine’s Day 2014, culminating in a heavily-promoted grand opening one lovey-dovey year later.
So here we are, lining up knee- (or whatever-) deep to eat of that forbidden apple. This didn’t work so well for Adam and Eve, and it might not work so well for us either.
Resources
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/movies/fifty-shades-of-grey-leads-weekend-box-office-stirring-reflection-on-sex-films.html?_r=0
Copyright February 16, 2015 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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