It wasn’t too long ago that I would see massive billboards advertising the latest DreamWorks or Disney animated films. Once, not long ago (I swear I’m not a boomer; I’m in my twenties), I would turn on my TV or watch a YouTube video, only to get inundated with commercials for new movies. Today, I realized movie advertising has changed without me noticing when I saw an ad for tie-in frozen yogurt with a new DreamWorks film titled Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.
It’s not that it’s strange for movies to partner with food chains — McDonald’s Happy Meals has famously done so for decades — but what is strange is the lack of traditional advertising; where are the billboards for Teenage Kraken? The commercials? The magazine print ads? That last one might be on its way to being obsolete, but movie ads do still exist.
DreamWorks isn’t the only animation studio not marketing its films; in recent years, Disney has released multiple movies and shows with very little marketing, including Strange World, which bombed at the box office after it was quietly released. Even more puzzling, Disney Plus just premiered a series starring multiple Oscar award-winning actors with barely any advertising. The series in question, American Born Chinese, has gotten positive reviews (from the people who actually know it exists) so it’s not that these projects are so bad that it’s not worth marketing them. So, what gives?
If I, someone who literally writes about film for a living, didn’t know about Teenage Kraken, general audiences are bound to be just as in the dark. Promoting the movie at Menchie’s does make sense as the target audience of a film like this probably overlaps with the key demographic of frozen yogurt shops (read: kids and their tired parents) but it is shocking to see little else in the way of advertising. Granted, there are two trailers for the new film, but people won’t know to watch them unless they’re promoted in some way. The fact that this is becoming an industry trend is concerning — do the studios believe these projects are obviously bound to be failures, to the point that there’s no need to market them?
While studios do still partake in heavily marketing films and TV shows, the ones with a higher marketing budget mostly have big names attached or are part of an existing IP. Disney’s live-action remakes, as polarizing as they may be, get a lot of love at the box office because people are already attached to the story; Disney obviously wants to capitalize on that nostalgia as much as possible, hence more marketing. DreamWorks released Puss in Boots: The Last Wish late last year, and they made sure I knew about it; there were a ton of commercials, billboards all over my city, and with a release date around Christmas, DreamWorks knew they had a hit on their hands.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, on the other hand, isn’t part of a franchise, doesn’t have any huge names attached, and is directly competing with the well-known Little Mermaid remake. When viewed in that light, it begins to make sense why DreamWorks wouldn’t want to invest more money in marketing the movie than it absolutely believes necessary, no matter how good the story may be. It’s sad to see original films given less marketing priority than their more well-known counterparts, but hopefully, Teenage Kraken can beat the odds to become a box-office smash.