Animated pic 'Rio' loads up on promotional tie-ins

By Sarah Sluis

Lately, the animated box office has reminded me of a nursery rhyme (by Longfellow!) I used to hear as a girl:

And when she was good
She was very very good
But when she was bad she was horrid

The horrid? Mars Needs Moms, the motion-capture film that resulted in Disney shutting down its production company, ImageMovers, not just after the movie flopped, but a few months before it even released. Disney must have known it had a stinker on its hands, and its $150+ million investment was rewarded with just $7 million its opening weekend.

The very very good? By all indicators, Rio is going to do very well. First there were the SuperBowl ads featuring a tie-in to the smartphone game of the moment, Angry Birds. Then there were plans for a videogame. Today, at the top of Variety, is an article detailing the 82 brands Fox signed on as promotional partners for Rio, the most that have ever been attached to a single film. With all this side revenue, the box office for Rio just becomes another part of the picture. The tie-ins include not only the typical McDonald's Happy Meal toys, but custom paint colors (Benjamin Moore), blue-filled Oreos, Chiquita ads, car manufacturers, Gap, and more.

I'm not knocking tie-ins, but it's worth noting that the amount of money they can bring in has affected movie studios' production strategies. Disney, for example, has explicitly stated it's focusing on fewer, better films that can be leveraged across all its areas of business--from tie-ins to direct-to-video sequels to videogames to stuffed animals. It's caused some unusual side effects, too. AMC and Regal, frustrated with the declining amount of movies made by the biggies (as well as studios putting films on DVD closer and closer to their theatrical release dates), have gotten into the movie distribution business themselves. That's a new one. Good companies will create great product and then find a way to promote it, not the other way around. From what I've seen of Rio, the movie is sure to entertain both kids and adults, and is comparable in quality to the best animated films.

There's another golden egg of optimism hidden within the Variety piece, which opens with an expression of disbelief: Rio "isn't an obvious magnet for marketers" because it "isn't based on a popular property." If original ideas can generate this kind of advance excitement, maybe Hollywood can feel more confident developing new ideas, especially since the summer of 2011 looks like it's shaping up to be the summer of sequels and comic book heroes.