Article Text:
Directed by Tim Miller.
Released on the 21st of January 2016.
Starring:
For those of you who are unaware, the film Deadpool is the origin story of mercenary Wayde Wilson, an ex special forces operative. After being subjected to an experiment which left him psychically unrecognisable with greatly accelerated healing abilities, he adopted the persona of Deadpool and tasked himself with seeking out revenge.
20th Century Fox is both the main distribution and production company for the film Deadpool, which is ultimately owned by the conglomerate Walt Disney Studios.
Deadpool was provided an estimated budget of $58 million, despite the reasonably minimal budget 20th Century Fox was able to implement visually appealing special effects into the film, such as CGI. During the opening weekend in the USA the film made roughly $135 million and currently has a cumulative worldwide gross of roughly $783.1 million.
Deadpool has a specific target demographic due to a few factors: for one the language within the film is explicit and not necessarily appropriate for a younger audience; in addition to this there is an abundance of violence and gore, hence the R-rating. The company 20th Century Fox has a vast number of loyal fans ranging from ages 16 and upwards, because of this the target demographic lies within the age range of 16-25 and falls under the social classes of A, B, C1 and C2.
Due to the budget, there was a less than ideal amount of money invested into the marketing aspect of the film. The majority of the film’s marketing took place on websites such as YouTube and Twitter; the Twitter accounts @deadpoolmovie and @vancityreynolds were used as promotional tools to create anticipation for the film’s upcoming release. Another extremely effective method of marketing used was #12DaysOfDeadpool, which was where between the 14th and 25th of december, as part of the advertising campaign, a new promotional item was released each day. On christmas day, the second full-length trailer was released to the public. Each promotional item was extremely humorous and an excellent method of creating hype for the upcoming film. By reverting back to a more old-school form of advertising, billboards were used to generate hype for the upcoming Deadpool film. This billboard had the word ‘Deadpool’ written out in a creative manner with the use of emojis; beneath it was the date of the film’s release. The use of emojis appeals to a younger audience which is the films target demographic. In addition to all this, a section of the script, annotated by the character Deadpool himself, was released on Twitter by the account @deadpoolmovie to build up hype and anticipation for the film’s release. This was a unique method of advertising and due to the crude language and drawings, will naturally appeal to a younger audience. In regards to YouTube, the teaser trailer were released in August of 2015. In the video the main character ‘Deadpool’ speaks directly to the camera and therefore the audience, which is an example of a direct mode of address. A more comedic approach to marketing was also demonstrated by 20th Century Fox with the video ‘How Deadpool Spent Halloween’. This comedic video conveys the Deadpool's dislike for the X-Men franchise (due to the character’s poor portrayal by (at the time) 20th Century Fox) and relates directly towards the other characters within the film such as Colossus. This was an attempt to generate anticipation for the upcoming film in a comedic and entertaining manner; due to the video being posted on YouTube it was a free source of advertising and is easily accessible to the film’s target audience.
Cross media convergence was also a massive aspect of the film’s marketing campaign and made an enormous impact on the anticipation for the film by the target demographic. An example of this is: Ryan Reynolds appeared both in and out of character on the television show CONAN. This would have engaged with the show’s audience of adults and therefore engaged with an alternative audience than those within YouTube and social media such as Twitter. In addition to this the marketing team took an interesting approach by hiring actress Betty White, who is most renown for her role in ‘The Golden Girls’, to give her opinion on the film. The review begins in a calm and passive manner, however her language and mannerisms abruptly change; this appeals more to the target audience of the film.
Released on the 21st of January 2016.
Starring:
- Ryan Reynolds - Deadpool / Wade Wilson
- Morena Baccarin - Vanessa
- T.J. Miller - Weasel
- Ed Skrein - Ajax
- Brianna Hildebrand - Negasonic Teenage Warhead
- Stefan Kapicic - Voice of Colossus
For those of you who are unaware, the film Deadpool is the origin story of mercenary Wayde Wilson, an ex special forces operative. After being subjected to an experiment which left him psychically unrecognisable with greatly accelerated healing abilities, he adopted the persona of Deadpool and tasked himself with seeking out revenge.
20th Century Fox is both the main distribution and production company for the film Deadpool, which is ultimately owned by the conglomerate Walt Disney Studios.
Deadpool was provided an estimated budget of $58 million, despite the reasonably minimal budget 20th Century Fox was able to implement visually appealing special effects into the film, such as CGI. During the opening weekend in the USA the film made roughly $135 million and currently has a cumulative worldwide gross of roughly $783.1 million.
Deadpool has a specific target demographic due to a few factors: for one the language within the film is explicit and not necessarily appropriate for a younger audience; in addition to this there is an abundance of violence and gore, hence the R-rating. The company 20th Century Fox has a vast number of loyal fans ranging from ages 16 and upwards, because of this the target demographic lies within the age range of 16-25 and falls under the social classes of A, B, C1 and C2.
Due to the budget, there was a less than ideal amount of money invested into the marketing aspect of the film. The majority of the film’s marketing took place on websites such as YouTube and Twitter; the Twitter accounts @deadpoolmovie and @vancityreynolds were used as promotional tools to create anticipation for the film’s upcoming release. Another extremely effective method of marketing used was #12DaysOfDeadpool, which was where between the 14th and 25th of december, as part of the advertising campaign, a new promotional item was released each day. On christmas day, the second full-length trailer was released to the public. Each promotional item was extremely humorous and an excellent method of creating hype for the upcoming film. By reverting back to a more old-school form of advertising, billboards were used to generate hype for the upcoming Deadpool film. This billboard had the word ‘Deadpool’ written out in a creative manner with the use of emojis; beneath it was the date of the film’s release. The use of emojis appeals to a younger audience which is the films target demographic. In addition to all this, a section of the script, annotated by the character Deadpool himself, was released on Twitter by the account @deadpoolmovie to build up hype and anticipation for the film’s release. This was a unique method of advertising and due to the crude language and drawings, will naturally appeal to a younger audience. In regards to YouTube, the teaser trailer were released in August of 2015. In the video the main character ‘Deadpool’ speaks directly to the camera and therefore the audience, which is an example of a direct mode of address. A more comedic approach to marketing was also demonstrated by 20th Century Fox with the video ‘How Deadpool Spent Halloween’. This comedic video conveys the Deadpool's dislike for the X-Men franchise (due to the character’s poor portrayal by (at the time) 20th Century Fox) and relates directly towards the other characters within the film such as Colossus. This was an attempt to generate anticipation for the upcoming film in a comedic and entertaining manner; due to the video being posted on YouTube it was a free source of advertising and is easily accessible to the film’s target audience.
Cross media convergence was also a massive aspect of the film’s marketing campaign and made an enormous impact on the anticipation for the film by the target demographic. An example of this is: Ryan Reynolds appeared both in and out of character on the television show CONAN. This would have engaged with the show’s audience of adults and therefore engaged with an alternative audience than those within YouTube and social media such as Twitter. In addition to this the marketing team took an interesting approach by hiring actress Betty White, who is most renown for her role in ‘The Golden Girls’, to give her opinion on the film. The review begins in a calm and passive manner, however her language and mannerisms abruptly change; this appeals more to the target audience of the film.