When the primary trailer for Weapons was launched on the finish of April, it stoked hypothesis on-line concerning the film’s subject material. All through its marketing campaign, that hypothesis turned out to be Warner Bros. Discovery’s biggest weapon of all.
Weapons, the second characteristic movie from Zach Cregger (Barbarian), premiered on Aug. 8, showcasing a narrative the place 17 kids mysteriously go lacking from their houses one evening at 2:17 a.m., operating from their homes in an airplane type.
After an enormous opening weekend of $42 million on the U.S. field workplace, the film has since gone on to gross greater than $250 million worldwide. And a part of that success goes again to its advertising and marketing marketing campaign, which Christian Davin, evp, worldwide advertising and marketing technique, Warner Bros. Leisure, stated got here from a movie loaded with content material to tug from—and even included a scene impressed by a well-liked sketch from Cregger’s time with the comedy troupe The Whitest Children U’ Know, which he co-founded within the late ’90s.
“Zach gave us an unimaginable worldbuilding movie, but additionally had a ton of Easter eggs sprinkled all through that had each real-world and meta-world references,” Davin instructed ADWEEK. “We needed to faucet into a few of these Easter eggs and provides individuals the expertise of the film with out truly having to see the film, as we constructed into that crucial part of phrase of mouth.”
Showcasing Easter eggs and preserving secret twists is strolling a tremendous line, based on Dana Nussbaum, co-head, international movement image advertising and marketing, Warner Bros. Leisure. So one of many strengths of the marketing campaign was restraint.
“It was one thing that we always needed to be aware of,” Nussbaum stated. “The restraint got here from the aim of eager to protect that have for audiences. We needed to be very protecting of that every step of the best way, in order that was one thing via every key beat that we needed to hold prime of thoughts.”
Tribute to the Blair Witch-isms of the ’90s
The marketing campaign leaned into its cryptic facet: A Maybrook Information website was a hub for fictional in-world studies of the lacking children, Ring digital camera footage confirmed children operating from their homes, and there have been livestreams and stunts tied to the marketing campaign.
Davin famous that in 2025, there’s no probability {that a} discovered footage stunt, a la The Blair Witch Venture, may ever idiot audiences prefer it did in 1999, however he stated an enormous a part of the marketing campaign was paying homage to these ’90s advertising and marketing hijinks.
“We needed to have individuals hold coming again to that web site,” Davin stated. “We needed to generate consumer engagement partly as a result of we didn’t simply need to construct a web site for a one-time view, but additionally as a result of we discover that when audiences take possession over our films, they assist market our films with us.”
Davin stated that the web site—which even went as deep as having a metadata picture of the youngsters operating away in its code—drew multiple million views. And the marketing campaign’s mixed efforts with livestreams, creator content material, and different stunts led to 125 million views general.
The workforce labored with creators like Dude with a Signal, Group Summertime, Atomic Twins, Cinna, Joe Mele, Emmanuel Duverneau, Monse, and Liz Cooper on a sequence of on-line vanishing stunts that delivered a mixed 70 million impressions, based on WBD. Creators additionally obtained mailers with props comparable to alarm clocks set to 2:17 a.m., soup cans, and locks of hair.
The youngsters’ operating type, with their arms outstretched like airplane wings, has additionally develop into a staple of the marketing campaign.
For one of many viral advertising and marketing stunts, WBD deployed children throughout varied cities comparable to Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York Metropolis, in addition to cities in international locations comparable to France, Germany, Spain, and Brazil, the place children did the signature run via public areas earlier than vanishing into crowds.
“We tapped into plenty of key markets and we had them occurring in real-world and extremely trafficked locations,” Nussbaum stated. “However we additionally had them occurring digitally on Twitch or TikTok, the place the creators can be doing one thing and would vanish.”
Total, Davin and Nussbaum stated they simply needed to have enjoyable with the marketing campaign, particularly when it got here to mixing the digital and real-world parts.
Up to now, the 2 have been pleased with the response the movie has obtained from critics and followers alike, particularly seeing moviegoers operating out of the theater opening weekend with their arms outstretched and sharing these movies throughout social media. Some manufacturers have responded, sharing their very own memes and content material tied to the movie.
“That’s when that one thing has actually struck a chord with tradition,” Nussbaum stated.
