News
'Jennifer's Body': Sex Doesn't Sell?
By Robert Marich
Sept 21, 2009 – Through the first half of the year, there were few outright flops of big films at the boxoffice, but this weekend Fox’s Jennifer’s Body bombed, which BoxOfficeMojo analyst Brandon Gray blames the advertising for “going gaga for its hyped (and sexy newcomer) actress.”
The $16 million production (cheap by major studio standards!) generated just $6.8 million for its first three days at a sizeable 2,702 theater locations to rank a disappointing fifth among weekend films; the horror/comedy is rated R.
“Jennifer's Body’s advertising campaign ... pinned its hopes almost entirely on Megan Fox, an actress who was a small cog in the Transformers machine, at the expense of story or more relatable elements,” writes Gray.
“Ads could have appealed more to females, who have been known to drive horror business, through the picture's Mean Girls themes or the character played by Amanda Seyfried, who was minimized,” the BoxOfficeMojo analyst adds. “What’s more, if Megan Fox is such a fantasy for males, how is it attractive to them to see her as a man-eating demon? Besides, they can get their fix from pictures on the Internet. According to distributor 20th Century Fox, 70 percent of the audience was under 25 years old and 51 percent was female.”
In the first half of the year, box office revenue was running 11-14% ahead of a year ago, which is outstanding given the general economic malaise. Opening failures were few. But that year-over-year gain has narrowed to 7% as a few flops pile up and comparisons get tougher as the second half of 2008 was particularly strong.
While Jennifer’s Body ranked fifth, the debut of animated Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs was tops with $30.1 million.
For full text, click links below:
www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-1-creative-strategy-for-marketing/