Summer movie season is one of my favorites. I always buy Entertainment Weekly's summer movie preview (and then forget to read it). I go to the movie theater every chance I get. And I always spend a little time thinking about past summers. Even though my parents didn't take me to the movies very often, back in the late 80's through the 90's it was impossible not to be painfully aware of the next blockbuster... in a way those not old enough to remember can hardly understand.
Everything started going crazy with 1989's Batman. The Bat-symbol designed for the movie became iconic, and you can still find it on coffee mugs and t-shirts today. But "Batmania" went well beyond that. People were shaving the logo into their hair. And I don't just mean random people you'd only see on the internet ("18 People Who Took Their Love of Batman Too Far - Number 5 Will Shock You"), because this was 1989, and no one had the internet. I mean random people in decidedly not-cool Lansing, MI.
At the time, estimates were made that the movie would sell over $300 million in merchandise. Even before the movie was released, the hype was building. The wildly popular trailer helped, but remember, back then you had to go see a movie to see a trailer, you only got see it once, and you couldn't pause it to analyze each frame. To keep the movie at the forefront of your mind, they had to merchandize the soul right out of it. Like this!
It must have worked, because Batman went well beyond the $300 million projected, with some estimates going as high as $750 million. You can see more of the merchandise here. It's also worth noting that the soundtrack is listed as a Prince album. Danny Elfman did the score, but Prince's 11th studio album is all about the Batman, with audio clips from the movie and the last song titled "Batdance." It was number one on the Billboard chart for six weeks.
Disney, the king of merchandizing, was not to be outdone by rival Warner Bros. The next summer saw them attempt to outdo Batman with another 1940's comic hero with gadgets and strong features: Dick Tracy.
You could be forgiven for not remembering that Dick Tracy exists. I saw it for the first time in college, and I barely remember it now. As disappointing as this movie is, what makes me really upset is that 2013's Gangster Squad had the perfect cast for a reboot... they just wasted it on making the wrong movie! But I digress...
Dick Tracy stuff was everywhere. Red, yellow, black and blue was the dominant color scheme of 1990, with the logo on pencil boxes, buttons, clothing and more. It was reported that Disney arranged for the biggest tie-in with a fast food chain in history, and I probably still have the collectable cups around here somewhere.
Like Batman, Danny Elfman did the score, but this time Madonna (who also starred in the movie) recorded an album to accompany the movie. Stephen Sondheim came on board to write five original songs for the movie. This would be like Taylor Swift starring in an action movie with Robert Downey Jr. and songs written by the couple that did the music for Frozen. Funny, it didn't seem quite so odd at the time. Eh, it was the 90s.
Unfortunately, Dick Tracy was kind of a dud, with evidence suggesting that after all the money they put into making and marketing it, Disney barely broke even. It's important to remember that while always a powerful force in Hollywood, Disney was still recovering from its low point in the 80's. The studio's big comeback, 1989's The Little Mermaid, was just the first step in their revival and more missteps like Dick Tracy could have been disastrous.
After that, everyone seemed to back off a little on the immersive marketing. Sure, in 1993 we had Demolition Man teaming up with Taco Bell...
And McDonald's Jurassic Park cups...
But nothing I can recall ever came close to recapturing Batmania. So what ultimately killed movie marketing blitzes and fast food tie-ins? Well, obviously the internet has changed everything. We can watch trailers whenever we want, and there's so much discussion going on about upcoming films that studios don't have to push them quite as hard.
The thing that really ruined it all, especially with the fast food companies? I'll just leave this ad from 1999 right here...
Thanks for reading all of this. If you remember things better than I do, feel free to share in the comments. As always, purchasing from any of the Amazon links gives me a small percentage of the sale and helps to keep me writing.
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