Partner blog by John Turnbull (Creative Writing Consultant)
When Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy released back in 2004, the film was a moderate success in the US but a relative failure internationally. With a production budget of $26 million, the film made $28 million at the box office in opening weekend and went on to a lifetime domestic gross of $85 million. International revenues were far softer, adding just over $5 million to the gross – a measly 6% of the box office total. By comparison, Steve Carrell’s 40 Year Old Virgin made 38% of its revenue from international markets, helping the film to a lifetime international box office of $109 million.
Since that time Anchorman has built up a serious cult following on DVD, including the release of a second movie cut from out-takes from the first. While 'Wake Up, Ron Burgundy' isn’t up to the quality of the original, it’s somewhat remarkable that a director can cut two distinct full length films from a single shoot. It is this success in the home viewing market (along with unrelenting pressure from fans) that has led to the development of a sequel – announced in newsworthy fashion by an in-character Will Ferrell on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. This announcement was made in March 2013, a full 9 months before the release of the movie:
Standard film marketing campaigns tend to commence one to two weeks prior to release and run for a couple of weeks in-season (longer if the film is successful.) By comparison, blockbuster ‘tent-pole’ releases like Avatar and Transformers often start their marketing campaigns two to three months prior to release date, with promotional materials drip fed to a hopefully eager audience. Due to the way that movie distribution deals work, distributors make the most money on opening weekend, and exhibitors make progressively more money the longer the film stays on screen. This means that it is in distributors' best interests to maximise opening weekends rather than let films build an audience based on word of mouth. The result of this is that marketing costs often outstrip production budgets by a factor of 2 or 3 times – so if a film costs $50 million to make it’s not unusual for global marketing costs to exceed $150 million.
And that’s before you get the talent involved.
Promotional tours with A-list talent are not cheap. Promo tours with top-tier A-League talent like Will Ferrell and Steve Carrell (along with strong B-lister Paul Rudd and pretty-much-along-for-the-ride David Koechner) cost a fortune. On top of the business class airfares and 5 star hotels there is a phalanx of hangers-on and a list of celebrity demands as long as your arm – but from a publicity standpoint a good tour is priceless. Aside from generating extensive ‘free’ media coverage, talent tours can broaden the appeal of a film beyond core audiences. Ron Burgundy’s in-character media blitz culminated in appearance on Channel 10’s The Project opposite media icon Ray Martin, which undoubtedly attracted some older viewers to the film – as long as they don’t lose interest over the next three and a half weeks.
Since the March announcement we have been treated to multiple Ron Burgundy appearances - from the Australian election, to the Melbourne Cup, AFL Grand Final and even the announcement of the new Doctor. While the media campaign for Anchorman 2 has yet to truly hit, we can expect to see TV spots, outdoor posters and online ads aplenty, growing in weight and urgency as December 19th approaches.
It is in this point that the Anchorman 2 campaign runs into murky waters. Is there a chance that viewers could get tired of The News Team’s antics? With limited assets (unless they plan to spoil every joke in the movie) and a heavyweight media campaign still building momentum, there is a significant risk of message fatigue or even backlash. Add to this box office expectations in excess of $25 million and heavy Summer competition from films like The Hobbit, Frozen and Saving Mr Banks, Anchorman 2 faces an uphill battle to retain interest when the best part of the campaign has just flown out…
But I’m still planning to see it on opening weekend.
John Turnbull is a writer, editor and balloon pilot, and has spent 10 years working in film marketing
All box office figures are from Box Office Mojo
