Is Deadpool a Social Media Cinderella Story?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two weeks, Marvel Comics’ property, DEADPOOL is making a ton of money. Its road to release been bumpy as hell, but let’s briefly run down its history:
- Fan favorite Deadpool appears in the first Wolverine solo movie
- A script is green lit
- Due to a number of factors (R-rating, the failure of star’s Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern) it stayed in development hell
- A leaked pitch trailer shows up online
- The internet goes wild and basically forces Fox’s hand to create and release the movie
- Off a $50m budget, it’s now on track to be the biggest R-rated movie, with an expected billion dollars come its way
From a social media perspective, the buzz for DEADPOOL began online, rallied fans across social platforms, and was heavily featured on said platforms. It’s the little film that could — it had everything against it and now we’re seeing the rippling effect. As I write this, Fox is reportedly mulling over an R-rated Wolverine solo movie and Warner Bros announced an R-rated version of BATMAN V SUPERMAN.
There are many films that have used the internet as their springboard for buzz, this isn’t new, but the fact that DEADPOOL had been resurrected on fan demand alone speaks volumes to the power of collective social media. The marketing also matched this. While DEADPOOL had its fair share of TV spots, they coincided with releases on YouTube. The red band trailer received plays up to the millions.
This is a case study that we can discuss for months to come, particularly as the box office numbers continue to climb and its brilliant social marketing on the superhero genre has its effects. I’d also like to suggest that this is, indeed, lightning in a bottle.
Deadpool is very much a niche character. He’s crass, violent, and appeals to a particular audience, albeit with expendable money. The marketing behind the film was clever enough to attract the casual comic fan or non-comic reader who wanted to see a dumb action movie. DEADPOOL works because it’s not serious and, therefore, has very little to lose, particularly on a small budget (especially compared to larger franchises such as Avengers, Superman, et al). I can’t imagine this social marketing working with EVERY comic property because the want isn’t there. None of those other franchises are cartoony enough to match the silliness of Deadpool. He’s the hero of people who share memes, retweet stuff from satirical sites, and spend a good amount of time on comic book subreddits. It could be replicated with a possible DEADPOOL sequel, but for now, it’s really a one-shot.
