Over the weekend, Drew Barrymore's new flick, Whip It, grossed a paltry $4.65 million. With a bright female cast, positive buzz, and even sneak previews, one has to wonder what happened. Even the similarly female themed 2006 sports comedy Stick It opened to DOUBLE what Whip It did. Like every movie ever released, it all comes down to the premise and how well it was marketed.
Whip It had a good premise for a drama: a normal girl gets involved into the unique world of roller derby. This wouldn't have had a huge audience, but it had potential to be a successful coming-of-age movie. The full trailer in the theater showed a good mix of comedy and drama and sold the premise well. The marketing that killed it in my opinion was the TV spots. TV spots are a great method of confirming or destroying a person's interest in the last week before a movie is released. Whip It's TV spots were quite the mess. (Check out this one) It was hard to tell if it was directly a teen romantic movie or an extreme sports movie.
Movie Marketing Rule #1: Don't try to sell more than one genre.
Now in the end, Whip It won't be that big of a bomb or even a disappointment financially as its budget was $15 million, but it is more of a lost potential sleeper hit.
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