The character posters for upcoming Green Lantern movie were released recently at the San Diego Comic Con. You can see the images here: http://screenrant.com/green-lantern-character-posters-sandy-70401/
The movie is scheduled for release on June 17, 2011. Yes, that is almost a year from now. That leads to this question: Why promote a film so early? One reason is the cost associated with making a movie. According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the average cost of making a movie in 2006 was $65.8 million. That figure takes into account movies ranging from blockbusters to little independent films. As for the blockbusters, the cost for Avatar has been reported to be anywhere from $230 million to $500 million, Iron Man 2 costs about $170 million and those are just two recent films. Since the studios are spending this much money on a film, they obviously want a return on their investment.
Another reason, is that there is so much in the way of entertainment choices, namely cable, DVD’s and the Internet, that the powers that be at movie studios want their film to be top of mind when it comes to answering the question “What do you want to do tonight?” After all, one would hope that the more someone is reminded that a particular movie is coming out, the more likely he or she will go out to see it.
The trouble with promoting a film so early is people will ignore the hype and move on to something else. Some film franchises, like Star Wars, and Star Trek have huge fan bases, so just the mere mention of one of these films being in a pre-production phase will get the blogosphere and fanboys buzzing. Of course, not every film has such a fan base to draw on. When I first learned that a Green Lantern movie was going to be made, I had to look up who the Green Lantern is.[1] Since not all moviegoers write a blog, I wouldn’t be surprised if others didn’t bother to do research on the character.
Will this advanced publicity help or hurt the Green Lantern? That question will be answered in the summer of 2011. Of course, if it were up to me, I would start promoting a film six months before it is to be released. I feel that six months is just enough time to build up demand without people tuning out the publicity. Then again, I don’t run a studio, so my ideas don’t count.
[1] The Green Lantern is a superhero in the DC Comics universe. The origin story of the Green Lantern goes like this: A construction engineer, named Alan Scott, was the only survivor of a train accident. The reason he survived was because he was holding a magical lantern. He makes a ring out of part of the lantern and uses the power of the lantern to fight crime.
Sources:
http://screenrant.com/green-lantern-character-posters-sandy-70401/
http://www.cinematical.com/2007/03/08/mpaa-in-2006-an-average-movie-cost-65-8m-to-produce/
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/how-much-did-avatar-really-cost.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/movies/10box.html
451 “All American Comics” #16, The Green Lantern Origin and First Appearance, Very Rare 1940. Mastronet Americana Catalog, October 2001, pg. 153
Just Movie Posters Blog 