I love films and I love a good old-fashioned blockbuster. So the headline of this article grabbed me. A good old-fashioned look at the trends that drive cinema-going in 2018.
More to the point, how cinema is responding to the golden age of television, with bigger screens, bigger characters, bigger noises and bigger thrills. (And why not, as Barry Norman never said).
But when I read the first few paragraphs I became suspicious. Is this an article about cinema, or is that article a 'trojan horse' for a hyped up review of the new Mission Impossible film?
These days it's getting hard to know. Content marketers, like myself are getting better and better at getting our brand/feature/benefit message across. But are we transparent enough?
Sure, our content is smart, entertaining, informative. But at the end of the day we're here to sell, even if it's mostly at the top of the sales funnel. And that's where the line blurs.
I can see this debate raging more and more this year.In the same way that the news media is struggling to purge itself of 'fake news', I think we'll see more transparency in content marketing, especially where it overlaps with influencer-marketing (a whole other story).
Meanwhile I'm off to the cinema. I do like a good blockbuster. Plus most of them now have pretty good air-conditioning. A blessed relief during a blazing summer like this one.
I saw a movie on Wednesday night and as soon as it was over all I could think about was when I could see it again. On a bigger screen. With my friends. The movie was Mission: Impossible—Fallout, which will not be released for another two weeks. On its face, Fallout is everything that is wrong with Hollywood in 2018: the sixth installment of an overworked franchise adapted from forgettable source material starring a has-been action star with a problematic personal life. And yet: Fallout is fantastic, one of the most thrilling and enjoyable movies of the year, imbued with wild set pieces, a chummy acting style, and the kind of Who cares if it makes sense? plotting that feels airlifted in from a time before we had expanded universes and preciously curated intellectual property. It is a minor miracle.
https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/7/13/17567944/moviepass-marvel-star-wars-box-office