For Good’ Press Memes and Method Extra Merch

Earlier than Wicked hit theaters final yr, Oz felt inescapable. Trailer after trailer, clips and TV spots, model offers—and sure, the press tour that felt prefer it went on perpetually, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande giving social media new meme fodder each different week for months on finish (who continues to be left to hold space for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity”?). However with its continuation, Depraved: For Good, about to hit theaters, issues have felt decidedly completely different: fewer meme-y interviews, and manner, manner extra model collabs.

For Good has managed to make viral moments of its personal both manner—for higher or worse, as was the case in Singapore this week when a fan prompted commotion dashing at stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, prompting a security scare—however the rollout for the second film has had a decidedly curtailed interval. For Good‘s debut trailer hit in summer season, six months earlier than its launch, in comparison with the 9-month-early Super Bowl 2024 debut for its predecessor. Its stars have appeared in curated fan occasions and at premiere rollouts (or particular broadcasts reminiscent of Wicked: One Wonderful Night) reasonably than on the press junkets that blanketed 2024.

The explanation? Common wished to be barely much less than “simply wanting obnoxious” this yr, in accordance with Common’s chief advertising officer, Michael Moses (by way of Variety), with For Good largely attending to trip on the witchy coattails of Depraved‘s advertising marketing campaign already doing the legwork to make the franchise a cultural second. Common has spent round $90 million selling For Good in comparison with the $150 million it spent in 2024 on the primary movie. As an alternative, all that promo has been changed with merch—and lots of it.

In response to Selection, whereas the variety of model collabs that For Good has executed matches an identical complete for the unique movie—round 400—simply 165 of these are repeat collabs. With Common rolling out an increasing number of absurd partnerships weekly for months as a part of “Depraved Wednesdays” (“highlights” embrace Lexus ads, wildly priced American Lady Dolls, and sure, Glinda and Elphaba-themed Swiffer mops), the theme of the return to Oz has been about getting audiences to spend, spend, spend, reasonably than the studio itself.

It would repay for Common, too. For Good is presently monitoring to open larger than Depraved‘s $112 million debut, and the primary film went on to herald three-quarters of a billion {dollars} worldwide. Can lightning strike twice within the Emerald Metropolis? Both manner, Oz has turn out to be one of the profitable locales in Hollywood.

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