Marketing Gay Movies

Brokeback Mountain

Scott wrote in his review of Rent that he is not sure how a movie with lots of gay characters will play in the Midwestern states. Apparently Hollywood is likewise concerned. Several recent releases have prominent gay themes and characters. However, Hollywood has chosen to down play the gay aspect of these films in their marketing.

I have never seen the play Rent, nor did I know anything about the plot until I started reading reviews for the movie. It's a fair guess that many people only know about this movie from the trailer. The previews simply show a bunch of twenty some things singing in New York. It is never mentioned that many of the main characters are gay. Did Sony consciously decide to leave all aspects of the plot out of the trailer on purpose? Was it afraid that it's multiple gay love stories would offend some movie goers? If they were confident enough in their movie then they should not have worried.

In the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang trailer, Val Kilmer's character, Gay Perry, is asked by Robert Downey Jr if he is gay. Kilmer's character denies it with a flippant joke. Later in the trailer, for the sake of a joke, the two leads kiss. Kilmer's character, for the record, is gay.

The trailer for Brokeback Mountain at first seems to be quite openingly gay. It clearly shows two men who share a moment. Then the trailer ends up spending more time with the main characters and the women they later marry than with the men's intimate relationship. This is a gay love story but the trailer spends as much time on the characters being married to women as it does with them being together. Was this done to lesson the gay angle of the story? Brokeback Mountain could break new ground in movies with homosexuals in them. The makers of this movie should brag about it's boldness in making this kind of movie and not shy away from it.

The Producers have gay characters in it, but they are of the tried and true variety. That is to say that they are around for laughs. Is gay hard to market if the characters in question are anything but comic relief? Will gay movies only play on the coasts? Perhaps some Christians will be put off by gay story lines. Perhaps some conservative groups will complain. Who cares? It is a free country. Let those who wish to avoid these movies do so. Let those who want to see them, see them.

My only complaint is that Hollywood is scared to death to be honest about its own product. Market these movies for what they are. I think duping audiences into seeing Rent by showing a bunch of happy people singing with one wearing a santa outfit in the trailer is very misleading that it is a Holiday family movie. For a town that is known for being liberal, Hollywood seems conservative when dealing with gays in movies.

By not announcing clearly what your product is you are misrepresenting yourself. How can the Christian right complain about an gay agenda movie if it is clearly a gay movie. They will know to see something else and no one is bothered. Trick your audience into seeing something they may not want to see and you run the risk of backlash.

The real bottom line, though, is profit. Hollywood wants everyone's money, no matter what their religious or political views. Hollywood is so worried about putting off any possible ticket buyer that it markets its movies to hopefully appeal to the largest possible audience. So they down play the gay themes of it films in an attempt to not offend any possible conservative ticket buyers. Of course this is hardly exclusive to movies with gay characters and gay stories. Movies are often marketed to imply that they are something that they are truly not. I have had a couple of people comment that they thought Jarhead was going to be a action/war movie, based on the previews, only to find that it was actionless and boring? By not honestly marketing the true subjects of its films, whether it be a gay storyline or war picture, demonstrates how Hollywood occasionally does not have the confidence to defend it's own product.

The bottom line to any critic, or movie goer, is simply whether a movie is good or not. A truly great movie, no matter what it's subject matter, will find an audience, but how can a movie find it's audience if Hollywood does not accurately market it?