Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Review: Another Tarantino classic | Melbourne International Film Festival Review | SWITCH.
By Chris dos Santos
This article was originally published on www.maketheswitch.com.au.
In 2019, we live in an interesting time in terms of film marketing - using big names to push a film doesn’t really work anymore. Most people didn’t see ‘The Lion King’ because of Beyoncé; they saw it because of nostalgia. The term "A-list cast" is often thrown around, but doesn’t really have the same impact on audiences these days. Look at last year's ‘Ocean’s 8’: sure, it made money, but nowhere near what was expected. Even The Rock has lost his box office draw with films like ‘Rampage’, ‘Skyscraper’ and even ‘Fighting with my Family’ all falling below studio expectations, despite aggressive marketing campaigns that pushed the star. Even outside of Disney and Marvel (even Disney can’t bank on "big names" - look no further than ‘A Wrinkle in Time’), it’s clear that audiences are looking for familiar stories and not names as much as they used to. Directors also used to be a huge selling point, and with the exception of possibly Jordan Peele, this marketing scheme is another lost trade. James Cameron is aggressively still trying to do this; I don’t think I saw an ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ trailer that didn’t feature him yelling at you to see the film in 3D. There is only one director, at least in my mind, that can really use their name to sell a film - and that’s Quentin Tarantino.
