Has any movie ever actually flopped solely because of a bad marketing campaign?
I often hear stories about the legends of John Carte flopping because of a terrible title and marketing campaign that made people not even understand what it was. But I do wonder if it’s just because nobody wanted it to begin with.
It is based on a series of books that are more than a century old and most people alive today have never even heard of. It also had a massively inflated budget and mediocre reviews.
People say the title hurt it since it leaves out the Mars setting and just tells you it’s about some random guy named John, while forgetting that John Wick was a huge success. Would a different title and marketing really be enough for it to go from sub-$300 million to $700 million+?
Realistically, does this sub actually think general audiences are too lazy to google details about a movie if they don’t understand what it’s supposed to be from just a trailer?
Has any movie ever genuinely been hurt by a poor marketing campaign alone and would have been a hit otherwise, or does this sub overestimate it?
Posted Aug 8, 2025, 9:03 PM UTC