10 Upcoming Movies Studios Don't Know How To Market
6. Red Sparrow
From the get-go, this film's marketing painted it as one thing and one thing only: a Black Widow movie. Obviously, it's not, but that is exactly what Fox wanted everyone to see it as, a female-lead action film with a side of espionage.
They clearly thought that the one-two combo of that concept and Jennifer Lawrence in the starring role would be the best sell for the film and they're not wrong. The problem is, they never stopped to consider what the actual product was they were selling.
The film itself is a two-hour-plus slog that is incredibly light on action and incredibly heavy on prolonged, moody espionage. So instead of a discount Black Widow, the film is actually the exact kind of thing one should have expected from the same director who made the final two Hunger Game installments feel like they lasted four hours a piece.