"Edge of Tomorrow (2014) isn't a generic sci-fi vehicle for Tom Cruise's invincible action star persona, but a high-concept film that instead comically subverts it, casting the actor as a coward fated to perish over and over and over in a Groundhog Day-like time loop. Not that the film's marketing made any of this clear. Likewise, Jennifer's Body (2009) isn't a trashy horny fantasy, as the film's promotional materials built around Megan Fox's pinup status would have you believe, but an incisive feminist thriller that preceded the #MeToo movement. And Drive (2011) isn't a Fast & Furious-style action thriller, as one Michigan resident suing the distributor for its "misleading trailer" found out the hard way, but a neon-noir with a near-silent Ryan Gosling."
"Okay, that last one is a bit silly but it gets at the self-defeating end result of misleading movie marketing - who among us can't relate to the bait-and-switch frustration of the movie you were expecting to see versus the movie you ended up getting? Even a great film can seem lackluster at the time just by virtue of it not being the one you were promised. It's a feeling filmmaker Guillermo del Toro knows well, having said that in his 30-year career, he's had "three wonderful films hampered and hobbled by misguided marketing.""
"One of them is Crimson Peak, a lavish gothic romance which, mismarketed as a straightforward horror movie, ended up a commercial flop. Pretty much every ghostly sequence in the two-hour-long film was edited into its three-minute-long trailer, crafted as a relentless onslaught of high-strung tension and nervy jumpscares, an impression bolstered by a Stephen King endorsement describing the film as "terrifying." Earning $74 million worldwide against its $55 million budget, it became del Toro's worst wide opening since his 1997 sci-fi horror Mimic."
Misleading marketing commonly repositions films into genres or tones they do not actually embody, creating audience disappointment and box-office damage. High-concept or tonal films like Edge of Tomorrow, Jennifer's Body and Drive were presented as conventional genre pieces, obscuring their actual themes and styles. Bait-and-switch trailers and promotions can make even quality films seem lackluster when viewer expectations do not match the final product. Guillermo del Toro experienced this effect with Crimson Peak, whose horror-focused marketing and trailer editing magnified spectral moments, generated a false impression and contributed to weak commercial performance despite substantial production values.
Read at Inverse
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