Why 'Avengers Infinity War' Was So Successful (No Spoilers)

Currently Marvel studios has two movies in theaters that are producing a lot of money in the box office. Infinity War brought in $1.8 Billion. Deadpool 2 was able to move Infinity War out of the number one spot for the past 3 weeks. The reason Infinity War was so successful was because of the mystery behind the plot till it came out. Many of the trailers did not give away much of what the movie was showing. Comedy is always alluring to younger and older crowds especially if that comedy is able to cause a few out loud laughing in the theater while the movie’s end was very sad. (No spoilers.) It had the combination of many different Marvel characters from all of our favorite movies; Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Black Panther (which just came out in February of 2016) and the original Avengers. This combination of movies that also just recently came out made it more attractive to super hero fans of all types even if you only had seen one movie. Since Marvel has released 3 major box office movies in the past few months, their ability to captivate the audience grew creating a reminding factor to the consumer. While we all hate how expensive the movie theaters are, we still go to see our favorite releases and different movies that have sequels can bring in a lot of money. Why write another storyline when we can continue with the one we have? The separation and elongating of the story line will cause huge amounts of people to go see the new movie that just came out all at once. The first few days a movie is released is when they will receive a fair majority of their proceeds. As a Marvel fan, for many years seeing a new Marvel movie became something to look forward to for months. You hear the movie is coming out and you almost always plan on seeing it the first week or two of its release. The same type of commitment goes with Harry Potter fans; all 8 movies came out far enough apart to create that urgency when they are released. The marketing model behind this is to bring in the four P’s: Product (the movie), Price (varies between theater), Promotion (little is needed when you already have a massive fan base), and Place (has to do with timing of releasing each movie).

Understanding a marketing model can be straightforward even if you have not attended a marketing class at a college or university, marketing is all over the place, every ad you see, promotion you receive, and email you get for a product or service is in one way or another marketing. For movies that bring in large amounts of box office revenue many people will plan on seeing a sequel without even watching a trailer, this comes from a sense of urgency to see your favorite story line. Whether you wanted to see all 8 or 9 Fast and Furious movies or if you wanted to see every Marvel movie the same pull strategy to get you to spend money at the movie theaters exists. Decades ago going to the movies was an inexpensive outing, you could take your children or friends and family and go home without spending more than $20. Now for a family of 4 to go to the movies getting tickets, snacks, and drinks it could cost upwards of $60-$80. So why do we still go? Everyone complains about the high prices but we still go see movies when they come out in theaters because of the producers pull strategy. For a marketing team to convince you to see a squeal of a movie you saw the original for, over a new movie is much easier and costs less. Advertising costs can drop due to the existing need or wants of your customers. Expanding on a product line is always more cost effective than launching a new one, no matter the industry.