So the marketing department at Marvel have worked very hard over the past few years aiming to lock me into to their superhero universe.
The idea is that in order to get all of the movies references you have to have watched all the preceding movies (of which there must be 15 or so) dating back approximately 10 years.
The strategy behind this has been very successful for them. Each movie in the sequence has outsold the last (roughly) as the anticipation builds towards infinity war and viewers can’t be without any information. It’s become more like a TV show than anything else.
But this blatant attempt to lock me and the amazing frequency with which they are releasing the movies put me off them and I’d say a fair amount of other viewers. The amount of viewing time required to watch before sitting down to avengers infinity war is just insurmountable and not worth my time.
The truth is I don’t need to get all of the movie references i’ll watch Infinity war purely out of the curiosity to see all the superheroes in the same movie.
So to review Marvel’s lock in strategy. They have catered to their hardcore fans by delighting them (and making lots of money off them) with 15 odd movies. And then they draw in the less committed but still curious fans with Infinity War.
Overall it’s not a bad tactic and will most likely be studied in years to come.
Thomas Duggan 