"You liked X, so you'll like Y" is one of the best ways to sell a film. If the director was behind a previous popular movie, or a critic has made some positive comparisons, the association can get an audience ready for a new movie by itself. When Avatar came out the big push was on how it was from the director of Titanic. When Titanic was re-released a couple of years later, all the posters made a big deal about how it was the guy who directed Avatar. Of course, not every movie is going to be from James Cameron or equivalent. But that won't stop marketing departments from reaching to some vaguely associated film in an attempt to make just about any movie look relevant. "From The Producer Of..." is one that has a real air of legitimacy despite in most cases speaking little of two movies' relation, although it's the more extreme (and dumb) cases that really trick you. Battleship's marketing pushed how it was from Hasbro, who had also been behind Transformers, in what we assume was a bid to scare off anyone who may find fault with an explosion fest. In fact, saying a movie is from the same studio or production company as a previous hit is surprisingly common place, but unless your dealing with something with a unified view (think Pixar or Marvel), then it's worthless.
