SPECULATION Lets talk about the worst...

I agree - Spain, Czech Republic - zero advertising. The only one who works hard is Lego. But nothing about the movie, nowhere....

 

Yes too late for a normal moviegoer. (their main "$" target)
TFA comes out in nearly 2 months! It's around the corner so to speak.
As example, we have already a full Superman vs. Batman trailer.
I informed my family about TFA but they don't really care.
Not everyone on this planet is a fan and to get this people into the cinema you need a good advertising campaign.
I'am not the only one who thinks that the advertising for TFA is lacking.
We have 2015 not 1977 anymore.
(Today it's common to have a big advertising campaign for a blockbuster movie and Star Wars is one of the biggest licence in the world.
I know that the marketing/advertising was very different back then. (not existing really) (it was more of a conversational viral marketing)
I'am not bashing the advertising, I only find it lacking and strange.
It will maybe backfire and reduce expected ticket sales, if Disney will not start a big advertising campaign at full blast very soon.

 

I think that the mindset for marketing this movie is to try and ease us into the holiday season. I have been a naysayer over the potential November release date of the trailer, but I don't think it is not possible. November was a nice and warm moment for trailer 1 last year and it worked out to their benefit. Not saying they will release it then, but I still think October is the more likely candidate between the two. We will definitely know either in a week and a half or as far out as five to six weeks from now. Just how it is going to be. Edge of your seat waiting and more waiting.

This is why they are trying to release during the "sweet spot" of times so that ticket sales are maxed, but also to where the trailer is still very much fresh and alive so people will remember to come see the movie. Had it been released in August, average moviegoers would have forgot about it a while ago.

 

They try to sell toys, but in my opinion they don't advertise the movie properly.

 

We will definitely see something in the next few weeks with a trailer followed by mid to late November TV spots. For sure I am expecting that to happen. We have to remember this movie is one of the biggest film secrets of all time so they are very stingy on how much they market to their audience too. We all want a great movie so they are hiding ALL the major details as much as they can. Do not be let down if the next trailer is not massive, but I can bet about 95% it will be one of the best trailers of all time. (Percentage subject to change)

 

Strange, we live in the same country, but everyone I know don't really care about TFA and is not excited.
I feel like a expelled in my circle, I hope this changes very soon.

If you're correct then the advertising will start very soon.
Your post sounds very plausible to me.
It's funny that you mentioned it above, I'am one of the persons who plan the cinema vistings months beforehand.

 

I think you're perfectly valid in starting this thread. To me having a lively debate where people disagree with you is all about what these boards are for. And besides I think if you get the odd negative rating once in a while you should wear it as a badge of honour. After all, you can't please all of the people all of the time.

For what it's worth I've got several concerns over these new movies. I'm from the generation that saw the OT first time round and got our fingers burnt with the prequels. If history teaches us nothing it's that we should learn from our past experiences and for that reason I'm not going to get too excited about these movies yet.

 

I think we all understand Star Wars was burnt out for quite some time, but with this new trilogy we can start a potential recovery again. I know that many people grumble about a trailer now, but it is the film that is timeless if it is done well. Not the trailer.

 

We’re addicts, and Disney/LFL knows it.

I saw Star Wars when I was two years old. EXACTLY two years old, as the movie and I share a birthday. I won’t go into my bonafides but I am a Day 1 fan.

The EU is 50% blast. Sorry. I bailed early. Kevin J. Anderson’s novels insulted my intelligence. Occasionally I’d revisit (many of the Rogue Squadron books were solid and occasionally Dark Horse had an interesting story to tell), but by and large I felt embarrassed to be reading them.

The prequels had some decent ideas. With a stronger producer and collaborator, they could have been great.

The Clone Wars was a fantastic TV show. The first couple of seasons were hit and miss, but they all upheld that most nebulous of ideas - the Star Wars spirit. I like Rebels too, mainly because I can watch it with my 4-year old daughter, talk about the moral, re-enact the battles, play Jedi. I think it’ll only get better.

The new Marvel comics are pretty solid too. Strangely Kanan is the best example, both in terms of art and writing, but Shattered Empire looks like it might turn out as what we hoped Aftermath would be, Darth Vader is also quite good month to month, Lando is fun and breezy, the flagship Star Wars book seems to be going for the horizon with many story and character threads to explore. The only miss for me has been Leia, and I know many people who loved it.

All that said, I didn’t love Aftermath, and I think the reason why portends not great things to come. DIsney/LFL seem to be so obsessed with hiding their most prized possessions - Luke, Leia, & Han - from anything related to the post-Jedi plot that it's damaging fan loyalty. Aftermath was a tease.

Now, you could say it was the fans who set themselves up for disappointment, because at no time was it even hinted this book would follow the Golden Trio, but it seemed obvious Wendig was cordoned off from exploring the REAL story.

This novel could have been great as an anthology. The interludes WERE the story for me. If the Akiva story had been compressed into a novella or short story, with maybe 5 or 6 other tales, it might have accomplished what we all had hoped it would.

I personally liked the writing style. Stylistically it matched the pace and editing of the original films. Quick. Unburdened. Rapid. “Verb oriented.” Wendig wasn’t the problem, as I see it. The problem was Disney/LFL producing something that was intentionally designed to not live up to its potential, and I’m worried that’ll be the case going forward. Lots of teasing, lots of innuendo, but always holding onto the big payoff in order to keep the audience returning. Take The Infinity Stones story and extrapolate something similar in the SW universe, but spread across a never-ending saga of films, comics, novels, games.

They’re treating us like addicts, and I think that’s their game.

 

While I'm an optimist about these films and the marketing to date, I don't want to get into a "dark side" debate about it... but I am genuinely curious about something.

How does the total volume of footage we have seen to date measure up to other major tentpole film franchises, like Avengers and Jurassic World? What I mean is, the teasers we got were actually mini-trailers from the sense that they were as much as 88 seconds long, and I thought a typical teaser was only 30 seconds. Between the teasers (3 of them really) and the behind-the-scenes footage, I feel like I have actually seen quite a bit about this new movie. No, we haven't received a "trailer" with a narrator describing what the story is about, but frankly I don't think we will get that (and I hope we don't) because on a soft reboot bringing back characters who have been largely unknown for the last 30 years, keeping that mysterious makes better sense to me.

Anyway, just curious if we are really as "deprived" as we think we are, or if the total volume of footage to date is on par with other films that have done more traditional full length "trailers"...

 

I think Disney is relying on word of mouth to launch this movie into the stratosphere. I don't ever remember other December releases (Titanic, Avatar) having particularly great advertising campaigns and they are the top two grossers in history.

 

I try to compare the marketing with the OT but I can't... people today just get angry quickly because they share everything so quickly and get all worked up about deserving so much. I can't imaging the pressure at Disney marketing. Anything they do will be wrong.

It's like even the hard-core fans are just too busy being angry. There's no more movie magic. The fun seems to be gone.

 

Even with the super hardcore fans, this has been a case I have seen in real life and on the Internet. The dynamic of marketing has shifted so dramatically just in the past 10 years. Marketing during RotS was way different than that of today's TFA. We can expect these changes to continue to adapt not just in the film industry but everywhere.

 

Anyone who believes that because there's no full-length theatrical trailer there is no marketing for Star Wars is myopic, bewildered and/or simply not paying attention to anything but that one single facet of a multi-media, multi-platform, global marketing campaign for Star Wars. In my 30+ years of paying careful attention to all things Star Wars I have NEVER seen as much related stuff as I see today. Even the pastor of our church knows there's a new movie coming out at Christmas - because she's afraid it'll mean a lapse in attendance.

 

I think there´s one more level you didn´t count - in different countries moust people are going to cinema in different time. For example holiday season (last 2 weeks of december and july-august) in Czech Republic and Slovakia the multiplex´s are almost empty. And people here are not that much into Star Wars as in the US. Nevertheless there´s no effort whatsoever to change the odds. People have seen those two mini trailers. They have seen since many other and very possibly more attractive to them. I would do a deep massage of advertising since september 1 so people remember that december 16 midnight they have to strike the nearest multiplex....also there is no preorder of tickets for Star Wars here. You can buy it 2 weeks in advance as any other movie, in case of IMAX it´s one week Really, no advertising at all here. And I came back from Spain in mid september and there the situation is the same. The fact the we the fanboys know about the movie and live with it every day doesn´t mean that the average moviegoer knows about it, even if he seen the teasers a long time ago...