by Jonathan Klotz
| Updated
2024 has been an incredible year for Hollywood after the debacle that was 2023, with Disney releasing one hit after another, Universal not far behind, but the success was uneven. Which is probably why Sony and Warner Bros. this week released eight minutes of their upcoming movies on YouTube, in a bold new marketing move so desperate and attention-seeking that it just might work. After all, for both Requirements and The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrimthe pre-sale of tickets has looked so bad that at this point, any attempt to get seats into seats is better than nothing.
Another Spider-Man villain
Kraven the Hunterstarring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the latest D-rated villain to get a movie from Sony, has been delayed for years, thanks in part to reshoots and a writer's strike, but it's finally coming on December 13. Craven's greatest story is the one in which he kills himself. Craven's last huntwhich left fans confused as to how Sony could get a full R-rated feature film out of the big game hunter. That's why the release of the opening eight minutes makes perfect sense: it tells the story of an entire mini-movie that introduces the audience to a classic villain.
In the first eight minutes, with no words spoken in English, we see Craven entering prison, encountering colored prisoners, meeting the local crime boss, brutally murdering him, and escaping into a storm where it is revealed that this was an elaborate “hunt.” “I was on the fence about the film beforehand, and while I still have serious doubts about the final product, it feels more like Poison from Morbiusif nothing else, it'll be a fun, mindless superhero movie. Plus, I want to see how they made Rhino, the villain that the new heroes beat up in the comics to show how strong they are, into the big bad.
War of the Rohirrim
Within 24 hours after Sony released the first eight minutes of the film RequirementsWarner Bros. has released a video showcasing the first eight minutes of the film the Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. It doesn't work well, not only because of the uneven animation but also because the story is difficult to understand from the beginning, with no explanation of who's at war, why the orcs are there, and why Helm Hammerhand, the king, is behaving the way he is. There are answers, and Tolkien fans already know the story of Helm Hammerhand, but as an attempt to get people to watch a contractually obligated film, it fails miserably.
I love fantasy, and I love anime, so you would think I would be the target audience, but while Requirements Made me want to see more, War of the Rohirrim Makes me want to wait for it to premiere Top. A bad story in the eight-minute trailer is one thing, but terrible lip syncing and poor animation, especially after… mysterious He recently showed us all just how great this is, making it look like a direct cash deposit on DVD. In a way, it actually is, since sticking around Lord of the Rings licensing, a studio has to make a movie every few years, and that's what they chose to do.
It will be fascinating to see how each film's box office fares after the bold eight-minute release of footage. I expect Kraven to get an uptick in interest and good word of mouth along the way War of the Rohirrim He'll be lucky to quit My hero academy:You're next numbers. However, if this experiment is successful, and even one of these films starts making money, expect more studios to follow suit with extended trailer releases a week before release as a last-ditch effort to drum up interest.
