10 Movie Marketing Stunts That Backfired HARD

The Hunt was one of 2020's most controversial and divisive films, though for several reasons this didn't transpire into the commercial success Universal was clearly banking on.

The politically incisive black comedy was delayed from its original September 2019 release date due to the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings, ultimately releasing in March of last year.

But the marketing campaign ahead of its release attempted to lean heavily into the hand-wringing from both "sides" of the political spectrum, who questioned quite who the film was really poking fun at.

In truth The Hunt is really an equal-opportunities satire, mocking both liberals and conservatives in varying degrees, but the film's opaque marketing simply left both camps uneasy about the end product.

And so, it was little surprise that the film only scarcely recouped its modest $14 million budget, a result of not only the onset of COVID-19 but also edgy marketing that failed to convey the movie's tone and satirical through-line.