When I went to see The Dark Knight along with the masses a couple of weeks ago I noticed something interesting in the previews. Two, in particular, caught my attention: Watchmen and The Spirit. Both of them referenced people and literature well known in the comic book world, and rarely common knowledge to the general public.
The preview for The Spirit touts the film “From Frank Miller the creator of 300 and Sin City,” and “Based on the comic book series created by Will Eisner.” According to my comic book sources, these are both names commonly known to any real comic book fan.
Watchmen is a little less specific, noting the film is “From the visionary director of 300” and based on “the most celebrated graphic novel of all time.”
These previews got me thinking. Who are the studios talking to here? The general public, if they know who Frank Miller or Will Eisner are (the Spielberg and Tarantino of the comic book industry), certainly don’t appreciate them on the level that the comic book fans do. And to make such a deliberate statement about being associated with a graphic novel is pretty bold considering it’s a very specific type of person that reads graphic novels.
All this leads me to what many have long understood based on the increased production of comic book movies in recent years. Studios and marketers are honing in on the comic book world to take a piece of the consumer spending. It’s a stellar strategy considering this consumer set is extremely passionate and loyal. Not to mention they have no problem spending money on everything from actual comic books and graphic novels, to the toys and figures that go with them, to the movies made about them.
This isn’t a completely new revelation, the dozens of movies based on comic books probably clued most people into the trend by the second or third Spiderman movie. There is however something different about the promotion of these particular films. More to come on this….stay tuned.
