Marketing 'The Dark Knight'

The rest of the summer is pretty much just a collection of things to pass the time until we get to The Dark Knight. That's not meant to slight Wall-E or Wanted or Hancock or Hellboy, but let's be honest, if everybody had to choose between any of those and The Dark Knight, there'd be one jam packed theater and a bunch of nearly empty ones. You could certainly say that the entire summer has pointed to July 18th, despite the successes of Iron Man and Indiana Jones. I don't know what the box office will ultimately hold for this film. I've heard estimates of $400 million, which is a little ludicrous considering Batman Begins made about $50 million less than the Tim Burton Batman. I think $300 million's a very conceivable number, though, and it could challenge for the box office crown with lots of repeat business. It's also getting lots of business from merchandising tie-ins. Comcast In Demand recently debuted a new trailer that's making the rounds: Not much new to report there, but just based on the initial response, you can tell that millions of people are hyped up for this sequel, and understandably so. We've talked about some of the marketing connected to this film before, when the Heath Ledger/Joker figures were christened at the Toy Industry Association Toy Fair earlier this year, just months after his death. And now, you can get your very own Batphone! Nokia has made a Verizon-exclusive version of their new 6205 model that just became available today. It comes available with a pre-loaded trailer and ringtones. And the Batphone can be yours for only $119 (plus a two-year service plan). Last but not least - although there are probably dozens more tie-ins we could mention - Reese's has redesigned their famous peanut butter cup into the shape of the Bat symbol. As part of the campaign, The Joker is "calling all Henchmen to put an end to Reese's bat shaped candy." The website features periodically updated videos of various methods of, uh, discarding the world's most delicious chocolate and peanut butter confection. The great thing about all of these products, from the studio's perspective, is all the free advertising the film gets from the tie-ins, whether they're point of purchase displays, commercials, or just simply on the shelves. Now, you're saying, "What's the big deal? Every movie does this." That's certainly true, but I think this film has a higher Q score (marketing lingo for the measure of a brand's appeal based on awareness and favorability) than any movie this year, with the possible exception of Indiana Jones. I don't think you can make a case for anything else until Harry Potter comes along. So, here's a product millions of people can't wait for in the first place, that has set itself apart from the rest of the summer movies with its viral marketing, has a higher level of curiosity among fence riders because of Heath Ledger's death, and it's in every grocery store and cell phone store and toy store in the country. So the question is: At this point, is the marketing and merchandising moving the needle for The Dark Knight, or is The Dark Knight still selling itself and all these products? If it's the latter, then we're going to see a huge payday for everyone, especially DC Comics and Warner Bros. Finally, in related news, I hear Fox will offer vomit bags emblazoned with Eddie Murphy's face for the theatrical run of Meet Dave.