Task 3

1
Task 3 Promotion and Distribution

• By Luca Munro

2
Distribution

• The way X-Men Days of Future Past was
  distributed to its audience was via cinematic
  release on May 23rd, which was expected for a
  superhero blockbuster. Fox released this Marvel
  product alongside Sonys own The Amazing Spider
  Man 2 and Marvel Studios Captain America The
  Winter Soldier along with later in the year
  Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy. A blockbuster
  franchise such as X-Men, Spiderman and any Marvel
  Cinematic product along with so much more often
  get released in the summer during the height of
  the summer holidays where everyone has a lot of
  spare time.
• DOFP was released to home DVD and Blu-Ray on
  October 14th 2014, with an extended cut of the
  film expected to be released in early 2015 with
  extra scenes which heavily supports a secondary
  storyline involving Anna Paquins character
  Rogue. This version is expected to be released
  worldwide on DVD and Blu-Ray in early 2015, with
  no confirmed as of yet release date but at least
  ten minutes of extra scenes including the older
  Xavier and Magento attempting to break Rogue out
  of a mutant experimentation facility and
  concentration camp.
• I am unable to find a date when the film will be
  allowed to be shown on TV, though Id probably
  expect after the home release on DVD and Blu-Ray.
  I also am not able to find out if the film is
  being streamed on things such as Netflix, though
  in America you can buy it on iTunes and Amazon.
• Taking advantage of social media, the people
  behind the film opened an Instagram account for
  the character of Peter Maximoff or Quicksilver,
  showing his take on life.
• The film was released internationally and as far
  as Im aware, all versions of the film are very
  much the same with the regular and extended cuts
  both released to DVD and Blu-Ray. The titles of
  the film may be different in name and title
  though some dont change it as much following a
  different language, for example in Italy the film
  is dubbed into Italian.

3
Advertising

• Also when promoting the film, Carls Jr. fast
  food had the majority of the main cast advertise
  their products, though most of the fans reacted
  badly especially when Quicksilver was revealed
  eating and drinking with a tiny strip of bacon
  slowly reaching the floor.
• To advertise the film, Fox released a set of
  trailers and a few viral videos and websites such
  as The Bent Bullet Conspiracy and the 25 Moments
  That defined a species. These sites were
  released to begin viral trends for X-Men
  promotion, and 25 Moments included a history of
  the world between 1962 and 2018, and those 56
  years are split into 25 moments and include
  Magentos Bent Bullet conspiracy where he was
  implemented in John F Kennedys murder. This site
  documents a brief history that defined mutants in
  a modern world, documenting this species with
  extraordinary gifts and the humans who attempted
  to destroy them and near enough succeeded.
• The benefits this site offers to the film is to
  add a sense of realism, that these characters and
  this timeline could indeed exist. It immerses you
  in the experience and allows it to feel real.
  Offering this information as well is intriguing
  the people who choose to read it, because it
  allows you to piece together everything and offer
  personal connections with these characters who
  you see as being like many of the other people
  you really only hear as items on TV and in the
  news.
• Director Bryan Singer took to Twitter to announce
  casting and promote the film, even pulling an
  April Fools Prank on people by saying Lady Gaga
  had been cast as the character of Dazzler. Along
  with the real casting news, these casting rumours
  and confirmation get people hyped for the film
  since X-Men is mostly an ensemble of characters
  so theres always speculation surrounding which
  characters appear in upcoming films and will
  continue to do so for future X-Men films.

4
Advertising (Continued)

• Purpose These posters have been used for all
  X-Men characters and have been used for
  advertising in Variety magazine. To introduce the
  character and show the kind of world we will see
  in X-Men in the future.
• Colour The grey background makes me feel the
  future is bleak and there is little hope for the
  world, giving us as the reader an idea of what
  the aim for the film is.
• Key Image Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. In
  different photos, other characters are used from
  Hugh Jackman as Wolverine to the smaller
  characters such as Fan Bingbings Blink. I feel
  Mystiques presence in this photo would be much
  more of a reason to why I believe most men would
  take note, its Jennifer Lawrence naked for
  crying out loud!
• Background The X in the background symbolises
  that it is X-Men and also shows that it is
  crumbling away, symbolic of the future you see.
  The buildings like Ive said are to show it is a
  desolate Terminator-esque future.
• Realism Mystique looks very cold and focused on
  what she wants to achieve, but the fact that she
  is facing away from what happens because of her
  actions does not mean she knows the future and
  chooses to ignore it, she is completely unaware
  because her aim is to kill Bolivar Trask.
• Text colour/font The colour white on the dark
  grey and black background so the audience notices
  it but it doesnt look out of place. The font
  works as it seems like something out of a
  computer, to me it looks familiar like its out
  of a car racing or motorsport game.
• Layout Mystique is the centre of the photo, so
  having her with her bright blue skin and yellow
  eyes in front of all the grey, so automatically
  your attention is on her. Having the backdrop low
  down on the pic symbolises how big the world is
  and the crumbling X shows what is needing to be
  saved, with the X being humanity and mutant-kind
  dropping by numbers.
• Target Audience Fans of the X-Men and superhero
  films.
• Reaction Seeing this advertisement would make
  people want to see the film since its
  introducing one character, and people wonder Who
  is she?, they Google her and find out shes a
  part of the X-Men franchise along with other
  major characters.

5
Advertising (Continued)

• One of the way X-Men was promoted were the fast
  food companies Carls Jr. and Hardees, with Evan
  Peters as Quicksilver, Daniel Cudmore as Colossus
  and an unknown actress as Mystique. The
  advertising involved the characters using their
  mutant powers whilst eating one of the burgers.
• This generated quite a bit of discussion as this
  was the first time the character of Quicksilver
  had been shown, and fans of the character were up
  in arms saying that the character looked like a
  Daft Punk reject with the long silver hair, big
  silver jacket and other flashy (Pardon the pun on
  the DC character with the same power) clothing.
  Fox are fairly known for grounding out their
  characters in a realistic way, which means it is
  very rare that they follow exactly what the comic
  books offer them.
• However this was the least controversial matter
  in the advertisements for the X-Men and Carls
  Jr./Hardees burgers, as a load of hate was aimed
  towards the advertisement when the advert for
  Mystique had her (Not played by Jennifer
  Lawrence) changing into a man and it was saying
  to Man Up. This caused a lot of outrage, saying
  the advert was sexist and sparking a lot of hate,
  leading X-Men to remove all ties with the advert.
• Along with all this negative backlash, Carls
  Jr./Hardees pressed on and began a competition
  where if you took a picture of yourself with a
  burger from the fast food chain and posted it on
  Instagram with the hashtag EatItLikeYouMeanIt,
  Carls Jr. would then give you an X-Men makeover.
• As for the actors promoting the film, they would
  go to big conventions such as Comic-Con, and at
  the time of promotion Hugh Jackmans new The
  Wolverine film had just been released, which
  acted as a prequel in many senses to X-Men Days
  of Future Past, and also promotion at the time
  was going on for another franchise owned by 20th
  Century Fox, the new Dawn of the Planet of the
  Apes was being promoted alongside X-Men. The
  X-Men Days Of Future Past Comic-Con panel was
  part of a surprise thrown by 20th Century Fox,
  nobody was expecting the X-Men cast to turn up so
  it was a positive surprise for comic book film
  fans.
• Screenwriter Simon Kinberg revealed at Comic-Con
  the differences between that of the Days Of
  Future Past comic book and the film would be a
  lot. Including the fact that in the comics, the
  character of Kitty Pryde was sent back and it was
  from 2013 to the year 1983. But in the film the
  years are 2023 and 1973, and the character of
  Kitty Pryde is played by Ellen Page, who was 25
  at the time and the character even though there
  is no specified age, it is expected to be the
  same age, and with the time travel that is used
  in the film, Kitty could not be sent back as she
  would be negative 25 years old.
• So in the film, Kitty is able to send someones
  consciousness back to their younger self barring
  a few obstacles, and Wolverine is the one who is
  sent back to the time of the younger cast from
  X-Men First Class. He is able to travel back
  thanks to the fact he heals very quickly and he
  really does not age physically as he is nearly
  200 years old at the time of the future sequence
  of X-Men Days of Future Past.

6
Advertising (Continued)

• A load of rumours went flying around surrounding
  characters being involved with X-Men Days of
  Future Past, such as if Halle Berry (Who was
  pregnant at the time) would be cut from the film
  as Ororo Storm Monroe. There was also strong
  rumours about who would end up playing the
  character of Bishop the character that has a
  very important role in the Days Of Future Past
  storyline which ranged from Dwayne Johnson,
  Michael Jai White, Jason Momoa, David Oyelowo and
  Terry Crews, but in the end the role went to a
  fairly unknown Frenchman, Omar Sy. Other unknown
  actors in line for the role who now are stars of
  other big franchises are the new Star Wars lead
  John Boyega and DCs Cyborg actor Ray Fisher.
• I am reaching a big metal barrier made of
  adamantium here. Because of the upcoming sequel
  X-Men Apocalypse, whenever I am looking for
  rumours, all of links are for Apocalypse rumours
  so I cannot find anything for Days Of Future Past
  unfortunately.
• Other advertising methods used to promote the
  film was a website called 25moments.com, which
  accounted 25 points in history within the X-Men
  universe, all points in the past altered to
  follow X-Men lore and make it seem a lot more
  immersive and allowing us to see these characters
  in such a realistic way. Within this reality,
  such as the Cuban Missile crisis which was
  explored in X-Men First Class, and also
  accounting events that would take place in the
  years between the current year for us, and the
  future sequence of X-Men Days Of Future Past.
  Such as the death of Hank Beast McCoy, who was
  played for the most part by Nicholas Hoult and
  also by Kelsey Grammer, and played a big part in
  mutant constitution in X-Men The Last Stand,
  when he was picked to be the representative of
  the USs mutant affairs.