If you are living in the UK, Australia, Western Europe and some other international locations, then you will be able to watch the latest Marvel movie this week. However, if you happen to be in the US, Canada, and few other countries, then you need to wait until November 3 to watch Thor: Ragnarok.
It is not a first time as Marvel has been following this practice since 2010 when they let Iron Man 2 out in select international markets, and it has been their SOP since then. Only a couple of times, they deviated from the new rule, first for Captain America: The First Avenger which was released simultaneously all over the world so that it doesn’t get branded as jingoistic and then for Spider-Man: Homecoming which released globally (minus China) because Sony handled distribution instead of Marvel.
Kevin Feige had earlier responded about this pattern at a Reddit Q&A event, and he said that the Iron Man 2 and Thor release were pretty much an experiment. Several global markets see holidays at April end. Therefore, he wanted to test if this extra free time could be converted into extra ticket sales. Since it didn’t hurt, that’s why it stayed on. However, we don’t think that is all about it. Why should something that succeeded with Iron Man 2 become a standard practice?
IT IS ALL ABOUT GENERATING HYPE ABOUT MARVEL FILMS
The most obvious answer is that this creates greater hype. Marvel was a struggling comic book producer before it became the leading force in Hollywood. In the course of time, Marvel Studios got morphed into a specialist hype machine, which dominates the publicity world several weeks before a film’s release. They release footage, reviews, chats and much more. The actual release also happens to be a part of this promotional hype mechanism. The details vary for each film. However, the general rule is that MCU reveals its films much sooner than its rivals.
In fact, media screenings take place as soon as a month ahead of the release and restrictions on reviews are taken out soon after that.
By letting the viewers in various important territories only ramps up the hype about the film. Marvel’s films have never been subjected to a terrible critical response (Thor: The Dark World with 66% is the least rated Marvel film on Rotten Tomatoes which also happened to be the only other film apart from The Incredible Hulk which failed to get Fresh Certification). Therefore, there is not much of a cause for concern (although things are entirely different when it comes to TV), however, to see actual audiences praise a movie is a great icing on the hype cake.
Although, honestly speaking, hype doesn’t necessarily translate into financial success about the early releases.
EARLY RELEASES MAKE MARVEL FILMS APPEAR BIGGER BLOCKBUSTERS THAN THEY ACTUALLY ARE
By releasing a week earlier provides them with an option of having a significant preview window. Previews are important for various reasons, but, their biggest impact is that they hype the box-office image of a film. If a film releases midweek instead of Friday, then it gives much more screening time and lets more people watch it. The sooner a film releases, the longer its opening “weekend” becomes and it gets rated as a bigger blockbuster. The early global release will ensure that the film has massive previews, while it may not add to the opening weekend figures, it jacks up the movie’s overall collections (which are aided by the film releasing even earlier than a week in certain areas – Thor: Ragnarok hits UK cinemas on Tuesday, October 24).
The biggest benefit of this strategy is that the Marvel films are already deemed as box office successes when they enter their opening weekend. Not only does a film gets much larger projections, it already banks over $100 million and a few “worldwide #1” headlines, right at the outset. However, the real boon happens on the Sunday by when certain areas have seen the film run for ten days and when the closing numbers come in, the global totals normally round up, and they include a full week of ticket sales from several territories. No wonder that looks mightily impressive in comparison to the rivals.
HOW THIS HIKES MARVEL’S PERCEIVED BOX OFFICE
There is no doubt that this box office bonanza is a huge add-on and it often doubles the total: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 sat pretty at $428 million globally after its first weekend, but, had made only $252 million from the actual ticket sales at the box office; similarly $172 million of the $325 million made by Doctor Strange came from global previews; The Captain America: Civil War made a mighty $379.5 million globally in its starting week, and it led to a cumulative total of $678 million. Although accounting analysis might be needed since the film was already running for its second weekend in various international markets when it debuted in the US, especially in territories such as UK and Australia made less money. However, there is no doubt that this pattern gives a great boost.
The psychological footprint of this strategy can be seen when you compare it to the films with a more universal release pattern such as the opening of $228 million by Wonder Woman which looks petty compared to the collections of Guardians 2 and Doctor Strange, although if we count only the weekend amounts then Diana wasn’t so strongly outperformed by the Star-Lord and was well ahead of numbers for the Doctor Strange and the $422 million of Batman v Superman beats Civil War hands down. What’s surprising is that Spider-Man: Homecoming, which as discussed earlier released in a standard format globally and was said to be an okay performer whereas it had a better opening than Guardians when we take into account the $256 million (it is still rated as the biggest superhero of the film globally).
This approach has no fault. It works well, audiences love it, and it doesn’t affect the exemplified numbers of the MCU movies. However, it suggests that the actual box office performance of the MCU movies is not being reported accurately (same with all the previews). If we analyze deeply then the truth about all the films will be revealed, however, at a cursory glance, Marvel Studios seems to be the reigning king of the box office with a bit of wordplay.
THE FLIPSIDE – DIVIDED FANBASE
Nothing can be perfect, and even this strategy has a downside as it causes an imbalance among the fandom. Earlier during Phase 1 when Marvel Cinematic Universe was in a nascent stage, preserving the spoilers wasn’t really a cause for concern, but, now this is a gap that has widened. Now Marvel is leading the pop culture and a seven days gap between various fan populations where half of the fans get to see the film whereas the other half wait, could be risky.
While the real world is divided by oceans, the internet has united everyone in real time and brought them onboard the same discussion. Therefore, those who have seen the film much before the other fans might reveal spoilers to the dismay of others, and by the time the film releases in the US, the rest of the world has already enjoyed the moment.
That could be the reason behind similar strategy being adopted by other franchise such as Star Wars which always get an international release a day or two prior to the films releasing in the domestic market because of the stretched preview scenario; they don’t release their films one week in advance. The staggered release thing works only as a component of the extended roll-out strategy of Marvel. If they also restricted previews much longer, then their hype mechanism won’t work so well. The divide among fans is just a small portion of the overall Marvel audiences and apparently not sizeable enough to make them worried about the $12 billion that they have made so far on the box-office.
Throughout the majority of Hollywood history, it took several months for films to be shown outside the US domestic market. Therefore, it is a sign of changing times that now the US and Canada are the last territories where the mightiest franchise of Earth comes calling.
