The possibility of travelling to the moon had long invigorated the dreams of storytellers.
On July 16th 1969 (50 year ago), Apollo 11 carrying three astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins began its flight to the moon. The historic journey to the moon – which made fantasy real, opened a new frontier for Hollywood films. It was a giant leap not just for mankind, but for filmmakers alike.
With the landing on the moon invigorating the dreams of storytellers, many of the foremost filmmakers (then coming of age) turned to space. George Lucas debuted Star Wars in 1977, the same year Steven Spielberg released Close Encounters of the Third Kind, followed by Ridley Scott’s Alien two years later.
Since then there have been numerous space themed Hollywood movies that has done relatively well at worldwide box office:
Star Wars franchise – US$9,307,186,202
Star Trek franchise – US$2,267,036,257
Avatar (2009) – US$2,789,705,275
Gravity (2013) – US$693,698,673
Interstellar (2014) – US$666,379,375
The Martian (2015) – US$655,271,443
First Man (2018) – US$105,212,037
Fun Fact – After The Martian, NASA had one of the largest recruiting application pools that they’ve ever had for the astronaut programme.
Upcoming Hollywood space movies in 2019 include:
Ad Astra
Release Date – 19th September 2019
Director – James Gray
Starring – Brad Pitt, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland and Tommy Lee Jones
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Release Date – 19th December 2019
Director – J.J. Abrams
Starring – Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver and Lupita Nyong’o
Bollywood joins this epic journey with the release of its first space movie this year – coinciding with the 73rd Independence Day of India:
Mission Mangal (Hindi)
Release Date – 15th August 2019
Director – Jagan Shakti
Starring – Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu and Vidya Balan
For us audiences, we go to the movies to escape our personal disappointments, dramas and emotional dissonances suddenly seem far more distant and diffused, and you can’t get any farther away than deep in space. It’s that dreamlike, otherworldly, heavenly, uncanny feeling that makes us gravitate toward space-themed screens, again and again.
For advertisers, here’s your chance to target Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and space-loving audiences over Q3 and Q4 2019. Contact us for cinema advertising opportunities alongside these movies.
Sources: Gulf News, Space.com, The Numbers, IMDB and YouTube
The Indian Titans – Akshay Kumar’s Mission Mangal, Saaho featuring Prabhas and John Abraham’s Batla House, will battle it out at box office when they release in cinema on 15th August 2019 – a special day for all Indian nationals as the date also marks the 73rd Independence Day of India. The release date of the three blockbusters also happens to fall on the weekend of Eid al-Adha – a weekend guaranteed to user in large cinema audiences.
From, fairytales to blockbusters, ‘the rule of three’ principle suggests things that come in threes are inherently more humorous, satisfying and effective than any other number of things.
With that being said, here’s a quick look at the three Indian Mega Blockbusters releasing on Indian Independence Day:
Mission Mangal (Hinid)
Saaho (Telugu, Tamil, Hindi)
Batla House (Hindi)
Here’s your chance to reach large Asian audiences over the Indian Independence Day weekend.
Don’t miss out on availing our special Indian Independence Day 2019 offer!
Contact us for more information on advertising alongside these blockbusters.
WARC recently launched a new white paper ‘Anatomy of Effectiveness’ at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2019
The white paper for brand marketers and advertising agencies alike, highlights five key priorities for brands seeking greater impact:
The report highlights that every element involves trade-offs and hard decisions on where to invest, and that insights and creative thinking are required to bring it all to life. But, it’s here that brands will drive better customer engagement.
It also looks at what is changing in a fast-moving industry, featuring expert comment from the likes of Les Binet, Peter Field and Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.
A key takeaways from the section ‘Plan for reach’; which Motivate Val Morgan continues to emphasize when in talks with clients, is the fact that multi-channel integrated campaigns are more effective than single-channel campaigns, particularly when they work together to increase reach.
One way to go about this would be to have longer-form ads in quality media placements such as cinema to build brand awareness, while shorter-form ads online and on TV for activations and promotions.
As per the white paper by WARC, a 2016 study conducted for the Advertising Research Foundation found that investing in cross-platform campaigns delivers a significantly higher ROI. Specifically, going from one platform to two increases marketing ROI by 19%.
Click here to download the white paper and learn how your brand could increase marketing effectiveness.
With an amazing line-up of blockbusters ahead: Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (August), Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (August), Mission Mangal (August), Saaho (August), IT Chapter Two (September), Rambo: Last Blood (September), The Joker (October), Gemini Man (October), Terminator: Dark Fate (October), War (October), Doctor Sleep (November), Frozen 2 (November), Jumanji: The Next Level (December); Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (December), Bramastra (December), Dabangg 3 (December) and much more, contact us to make cinema an integral part of your media plan.
Sources: WARC and Cannes Lions
