Black Widow and No Time to Die
No time to die and black widow have an endless list of differences
and similarities but when we look at the two films holistically as products
they use the same techniques to attract wide audiences and ultimately bring in
the most amount of money as possible.
Black widow first started development in 2004 and had a
budget of $200 million meaning the planning and organising behind the film
would have been carried out in extreme depth and detail. No time to die started
developing in early 2016 and had a similar budget of $250 million. Both films
had to deal with the struggles of Covid and got pushed back because of it. The bond film was delayed by
around 18 months and finally got released on the 30th September 2021,
this is because the director and producers decided that they didn’t want the
film to be released onto any streaming platforms before fans had the
opportunity to see it on the big screen, more specifically on the IMAX screen. Black
widow was released simultaneously in cinemas and on streaming platforms. Scarlett
Johansson sued Disney for this because she was promised a ‘theatrical release’
which she felt was not achieved because of the release to streaming platforms.
It also meant that although the film did incredibly well on the first weekend
of being released
(earning $218 million), box office receipts started to rapidly fall after this
time. Whereas no time to die has earned $121.20 within the first 2 weeks and it
has only been released in cinemas which suggests that once it is released onto
streaming platforms this number will increase rapidly.
Both films heavily relied on their marketing strategies to keep their audiences interested during the delays. Black widow had a marketing budget of $150 million. When the film was first announced in 2019 at the San Diego Comic-Con sneak peaks of footage was released from the first 30 days of filming and cast members started promoting the film via social media. The first teaser trailer was released that December and got the attention of fans all over the world and various critics who praised it for being ‘surprisingly emotional’ and highlighting its spy thriller tone. One critic, Mendelson, found the trailer to be an improvement over the teaser, attributing this to its theme of "found families, forced families and actual family". After the announcement of the delay the marketing team paused their campaign and decided to build a new approach to the film. Rather than focusing on Black widow in her black costume as before they began spotlighting her in her white suit and her legacy as an avenger, this meant that posters now had two different approaches that appealed to different audiences and therefore attracted more people to the film. Pre-sold elements also contribute to the marketing because the Black Widow comic books and her appearance in other marvel films means the film will already have a fan base that will be talking about the films release on social media which means more people hear about it and come to see it. The Bond film had a similar approach first releasing a teaser trailer, then multiple trailers, however the Bond film was delayed for a far longer time than Black Widow meaning they had to try even harder to hold and attract audience attention. They did this by producing multiple different posters and made deals with different brands for example Heineken that kept mentioning the film whenever that brand was advertised. Some of the posters tailor to people who prefer the more vintage approach to the bond films with the classic 007 behind Daniel Craig dramatically holding a gun or the comic book drawing effect to the image. Whereas others take a more modern approach for example the heavily edited poster that includes multiple characters and a mysterious atmosphere to ensure you know what genre the film. This being Daniel Craigs last Bond film had an impact on the marketing as well because it meant that no matter how delayed it was fans would still wait to watch it because they had looked forward to it and followed the bond franchise for a long time. Like Black Widow, there are also pre-sold element for the Bond film with the Ian Fleming books and all the previous films. This attracts a huge fan base that crosses multiple generations which ensures a following and again that it will be talked about on social media and spread by word of mouth. Using Billie Eilish to sing the opening song caused massive publicity because she won a Grammy for it, became the youngest artist to sing the Bond opening and the film now appealed to her fan base around the world.
There is various product placement in both films. In the Bond film there is:
- Triumph motorcycles
- Omega watches
- Moscot glasses
- Land rover SUV
- Aston Martin cars
- Nokia phones
In Black Widow there is:
- CCM motorcycles
- TOV Artich Vodka
- Chevrolet
- Ford
- Piper aircraft
- Lada
- Dell technology
- Microsoft
- BMW
Both of the films are very high
concept and have all the aspects associated with this like the A-list cast such
as Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh and then Daniel Craig and Rami Malek.
This makes the film seem more credible as people know that these actors are
talented and have been in successful films in the past which promises that their
future films will also be successful and high grossing. The stunts for the Bond
film relied on hiring all the right people rather than CGI for example the motorcycle
jump that happened when Bond came around a corner, onto a narrow street
filled with parishioners exiting church, so he aims left, rockets up a long
stone staircase and launches over the stone wall at the top. This stunt
was performed by Paul Edmondson five time world eduro bike champion and the
stunt was completed on his 50th birthday which was very impressive. However
unlike the Bond film, Black Widow had a large amount of CGI involved in scenes
that may or may not have been noticeable for example de-aging David Harbour and
Rachel Weisz during the flashback sequence and in the final action scene where
Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) is sliding down a solar panel that is falling through
the sky a mix of GCI techniques was used. Johansson was in full costume sliding
down a blue ramp, digital effects supervisor Hanzhi Tang said "There’s
a lot of stuff going on in this shot. Scarlett Johansson was filmed in a
full Black Widow costume sliding down a blue ramp. That’s the
plate.” However, she typically might not do the full move as was needed
for this shot. Because her body actions didn’t line up exactly with the solar
panel or the pose, from the neck down, it’s been replaced by the digi-double
version of Black Widow. And because her hair would have just gone in front of
her face, that also needed to be replaced in CG.” No time
to die was filmed in many different countries including Italy, England,
Scotland, Norway, Faroe Islands and Jamaica. Black Widow was shot in Norway, Hungary,
Morocco, UK and US and filming locations included Macon, Georgia; RAF Upper
Heyford, Oxfordshire; Sæbø, Ørsta;
Budapest, Hungary. Filming in all these different countries spreads news
about the films all around the world.
In the past the two films have been focused mainly on action and in black widow’s case the sexualisation of her body for a male target audience. This has changed in recent years to shift the focus to include the emotions and the backstory of the characters. For Bond this meant giving the audience a look into his relationship with his girlfriend and their history together. Natasha in black widow has often been over sexualised with her wearing very tight suits with a zipper that always seem to stop mid chest level and the audience never really got much information about her life story and her relationships. The new film focuses on Natasha’s family and how and why she grew up the way she did while still having plenty of action. I far prefer it when films focus on the characters emotions because it allows you to build a connection with them and in Natasha’s case when she dies in Endgame it has a far bigger impact on the audience if we are emotionally invested. (spoiler! They do this in Bond too when he dies at the end) It definitely targets a slightly different audience because after my family watched Black Widow together my dad ended up falling asleep while my sister, mum and I absolutely loved it. I think it is good that they made the film with the non-male audience in mind because ultimately in means bringing a larger audience demographic into the Marvel universe and if you watch one film you are likely to watch another one.
Websites used for research:
Black Widow (2021 film) - Wikipedia
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