Front Burner - Why movies about products are everywhere

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

Last weekend The Super Mario Bros. Movie had the biggest global opening weekend for an animated movie ever. The story of how Nike brought the world Air Jordans is also raking it in at the box office. And the internet was abuzz last week after the teaser trailer for Barbie dropped. It all begs the question: when did Hollywood movies start looking like a ten year old's Christmas list circa 1993? Host of CBC Radio's Commotion, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, joins us to dig into this growing trend of movies about products. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. This past weekend, a movie about a mustachioed plumber from New York was number one at the box office. Do not touch that mushroom, you'll die!

Oh, I'm sorry, that one's perfectly fine. Come on, Mario! Mushroom Kingdom, here we come! The Super Mario Bros. movie had the biggest global opening weekend for an animated movie ever. A few spots down was a movie about a shoe. I need the greatest basketball shoe that's ever been made. Who's the player? Michael Jordan. Air tells a story of how

Nike designed and sold the Air Jordan. And last week, the internet was tickled pink when the trailer for the Barbie movie dropped. Hi, Barbie. Hi, Ken. This Barbie hosts a daily news podcast. I know that you saw the memes. All of these movies seem, I think, fun, nostalgic, and some even look like they might be pretty good. But when did Hollywood movies start looking like a 10-year-old's Christmas list circa 1993? To dig into this trend of movies about stuff, stuff that we buy, we're joined by host of Commotion on CBC Radio and wherever you get your podcasts, Elamin Abdelmahmoud. Elamin, hi friend, how are you? Jamie, I'm so delighted to be here. How are you, friend?

I am very delighted to have you. And I'm really excited to have this conversation today. I feel like we have become quite accustomed to product placements in movies. That's not new. But it feels like right now we're being inundated with movies about products themselves, right? Or movies based on a product. There are quite a few different versions of this happening. And I don't know about you, but they feel to me like maybe they split into two categories. So the first camp, maybe you could define it as movies about products for kids. So I mentioned Mario and Barbie, but what else is coming? Right. So there's coming down the pipeline and good Lord, There's coming down a pipeline and good Lord, what a pipeline it is. Lil Yachty said to be working on an Uno adaptation.

Uno. Wow. Are you an Uno person? Is that what I'm hearing? Huge Uno person. Huge. I'm very good at it. I will say. I'm very pleased to tell you then that there's an Uno movie coming.

Lil Yachty is apparently adapting Uno to be some kind of heist movie. Then there's also Emily Gordon, who made The Big Sick with Kumail Nanjiani. She's working on a Play-Doh movie. And I don't know who asked for these. That's my big question, is who in the world is like, you know what's really missing from the market is a Play-Doh movie. However, whether we like it or not, that is coming up.

Our producer, Mac, was telling me earlier that a Hot Wheels movie is also coming up. You know, I feel like I'm talking like this is new, but I guess it's not so new. There is precedent for this. I'm thinking like the Lego movie and the Trolls movie. And do you think we're just talking about this now because the cultural touchstones are from our time, right? Like Mario in particular. What do you think? Well, listen, no, we are not just getting old.

I don't think that's what's happening here. I think what's happening is that these movies are becoming more and more frequent, right? Like the first G.I. Joe movie was, I don't know, 1987, I want to say off the top of my head. America's number one superhero team explodes on the home video screen in their very first major motion picture blockbuster, G.I. Joe the Movie. But in the last 13 years alone, there's been three G.I. Joe movies.

Once again, who asked for this? I don't know. There was a cool movie that came out in, in like 1985. It didn't do particularly well. Every person in this room has the perfect motive for murder. But it's now kind of considered to be some kind of cult classic. Then, of course, people are, I think, familiar with the Transformers movies, which so far have been five. But there's two more to come, including one that's coming this June. And so we are sort of living in this moment

where it feels like it's kind of reached some kind of climax, or maybe it hasn't. Maybe actually that climax is to come and there's even more of these movies on the way. Yeah, I mean, it does kind of feel like it's ramping up. It feels like it's ramping up. Yeah, like I don't know if we've ever been this overwhelmed with product movies as we are right now.

Like, you mentioned the Barbie movie. Hasbro is in development for a whole bunch of other movies. They're in development for a Monopoly movie. They're in development for a Furby movie. They are going to make another Clue movie. So this is just, like, this is not going to stop. This is going to just keep going on and on and on. I had no idea there was going to be a Furby movie.

Are you excited? Are you a Furby person? No. Okay. I was never into the Furby. But Una, that's the one for you. I get it. Ah, I will be.

I'll be first in line for this Una movie. Okay. The other category does seem to be movies based on like the launch of a product. So still, still stuff that you can buy, but aimed maybe more at adult audiences. I know Barbie probably is going to straddle a bit of a line, but there's Air about Air Jordans. Tetris. I played for five minutes. I still see falling blocks in my dreams.

Blackberry. Get this baby in the hands of every Fortune 500 executive you can find. We call them Crackberries. Haven't heard that name in a while. And what do you see this as a response to? Well, for the most part, those are movies about how we got here, right? Like, those are the

they're trying to solve the mystery of hey, how did the Air Jordan become this giant shoe that everybody sort of adores? With BlackBerry, how did these bunch of nerds who named a company Research Emotion, which, can I just say, I'm so sorry to say this on your show, I'm not sure that's

the best name for a company. However, here we are, having realized the fact that BlackBerry became this sort of world-dominating force for a period of time. And then returning to explaining that mystery. And I think that mystery is really interesting. One of the things we learned from the Michael Jordan documentary, The Last Dance, which came out a couple of years ago, was that when Michael Jordan was drafted into the NBA, Nike was in third place in terms of like it's sort of share of the shoe market. And Converse was like by far and away the number one shoe in the NBA. Then Adidas had the second share. And then after that, Nike. And you kind of get this transformative moment where Nike overtakes everybody else and becomes the defining shoe.

And it all kind of started with the Air Jordan and the bet that they made on a rookie who at the time had not played a single minute in the NBA before they offered him his own shoe. It's actually a really fun, dramatic story. And I'm not just saying that because I am the biggest Ben Affleck fan on Earth. If Ben Affleck has one fan, is just me oh really oh yeah I'm the Ben Affleck guy so I really loved Air and I am actually going to go back and see it again tomorrow night that's how much I love that movie you know there's another kind of grouping here, and that I think is video games, which, again, is not necessarily new. Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, they've all come before us. The Super Mario Bros. movie seems like a feature ad for Nintendo right now, although, you know, I haven't seen it, so maybe that's not fair. But you can already tell that there's going to be more of these,

the Nintendo Cinematic Universe, for sure, right? But do you see a difference between Super Mario and The Last of Us, which was also based on a video game? I so desperately wish you hadn't said the words the Nintendo Cinematic Universe. But I will say, like, the difference, the very simple difference between The Last of Us and the Super Mario movie

is, which is an unbelievable sentence. Other than the fact that they both have to do with mushrooms, I suppose. The Last of Us... Very smart. Thank you. I really worked hard on that one.

The Last of us is cinema like the video game itself is a cinematic piece of art and mario is the gentlest way to say it is nostalgia fodder right like when i see the super mario movie and they play the very special music that comes when you put super mar in the squirrel suit, I go, oh yeah, I literally am nine years old again when I'm listening to this music. It has nothing to do with the cinematic merits, if you will, of the Super Mario movie. Whereas The Last of Us, even the original material sort of had this heft and had this morality to consider and this ethics to consider. And so we're just kind

of dealing with, even though they might seem like they're cut from the same cloth, they are fundamentally just two entirely different products. Hang on to that thought about dredging up these memories of being like nine year olds. I'll mean for a moment because I want to come back to that with you. But first, like, if we're talking about cinematic universes uh here i'm curious if you think this latest blast of ip movies has anything to do with the marvel cinematic universe kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel story-wise the past few years no no offense a man but i i don't even maybe i know you're also a Marvel fan. Maybe you're going to disagree with that, but you know, it's getting kind of. First of all, wow. I did not anticipate Ant-Man shade when I came here. I love that for me. I

really do. I am pro the Marvel movies, but I think the biggest challenge that they've made to the industry is that they've made the story that they're trying to tell not really matter all that much, right? They've made the brand such a sort of safe investment. And maybe investment is a crude word to think about it. But if you are a studio, any movie that you make is a bet, right? Like you have $200 million and you're going to plop it down on a horse and you're like, I hope this horse wins because if it wins, this $200 million magically transforms into a billion dollars. And if you think of it that way,

then the easiest thing for Marvel to do is say, well, we introduced this character in, I don't know, movie 12. Certainly we can give them a spinoff movie and it will cost us $100 million to make, but we're pretty guaranteed to make $600, $700 million out of that. And so as crude as it might be, the challenge that Marvel has done is that it's made it so that everybody else is trying to figure out the same level of bet, the same kind of safety of a bet. And it's a little bit hard to have that unless people are already familiar with the property. So you go, well, what is a property that's very familiar and has emotional resonance for people? And the answer is, I guess,

Mario. You used to play Mario. You know the guy. He's a plumber. He goes through pipes. And then magically, you transform that into the biggest opening weekend for an animation ever. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years.

I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Cops.

Basically, to kind of sum up your argument here, this is an extension of what's been happening with Marvel over the years, right? Like it's just trying to bottle that, you know, secret monetary sauce. You know, you hear some people say there are no good ideas anymore. That's why everybody has to, you you know pick up old ideas like mario brothers even even right now if you look at the charts like uh there's like john wick 4 avatar 2 dungeons and dragons what do you make of that argument well i don't i don't personally buy the idea that there's there's not you know a lot of new ideas there's plenty of new ideas yeah just none that are big enough to sell popcorn at your local Cineplex, right? That's the challenge. The challenge is,

how are you going to get people out of a house and into a movie theater where they're willing to pay, what is it, $25,000 for a movie ticket now? And then an additional $50,000 for popcorn? No, I don't know. I don't know the specific prices but movie movie going has gotten more expensive um it's gotten more grand and in order to justify that you have this phenomenon of every movie needing to feel like a giant event and maybe an event but that features characters you already know um martin scorsese got in a lot of trouble a couple years ago because he said that uh marvel are not they're not cinema. They're more like amusement park rides. I don't think he's wrong about this on several levels, but he's especially not wrong about this when it comes to treating the movie theater as a an amusement park ride.

Like you are going on a ride and then you're paying ride money and then that's what you're experiencing. on a ride, and then you're paying ride money, and then that's what you're experiencing. What has happened, though, is all the movies that are new ideas that are really interesting, that are like, oh, this is cinema, this makes me so excited, they've gone to streaming, and they've gone to TV, and that has fundamentally shifted our idea of what the movie theater itself is for.

Like, I think we've lost, and there's been much made of this, but we've lost a lot of's been much made of this, but we've lost a lot of the sort of mid budget blockbuster, you know, like we used to have, um, movies that cost something like from 30 to $80 million to make, and they would have a couple of stars attached to them. you know,

you mentioned John Wick, like Keanu Reeves was in a lot of these, he was in point break. Like that's a sort of excellent example of like, Hey, that's a movie that costs $30 million to make. It's a new, fresh idea that's exciting. We talk about an Ocean's Eleven, even though that is a remake. That's still like, oh, here's a bunch of stars who are willing to show up for this kind of movie.

Erin Brockovich. All these kinds of movies that cost somewhere in the middle of the budget range. But they were a bet. And the studio had to say, we don't know if this is going to make a lot of money because this is a somewhat original idea that we're trying here. And what you've seen is a complete lack of willingness

to tolerate risk from studios, especially when you have the biggest studio in town, Disney, spending all this money on IP, that is a sure bet. Ant-Man, you may not be on board, Jamie. I am on board, but that doesn't matter because it's still going to make... It's so boring. I get it. I get it. But the point of Ant-Man wasn't to set up Ant-Man.

It was to set up Kang as the new big bad of the new Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that's going to pay off in eight movies later, which, of course, you're going to see because you're invested in this world. And if Disney has such a sure bet with these Marvel movies, everybody else is like, well, how can we also have a sure bet? And the answer is, unfortunately, the Mario movie. I want to talk to you about demographics because we're talking about Mario, we're talking about Uno, even Barbie, although I know she's older. trying to hit this window to capitalize on that nostalgia,

basically on yours and I's nostalgia, you know, before it's too late and, you know, trying to get us to late pass it on to our kids. Like, hey, you know what's a cool game? Uno. Well, that's definitely going to be you when the Uno movie comes out, just speaking to your child and be like, hey, it's time to go see the Uno movie. I'll be like, mom, I don't want to. I'm not interested in this. I am already shoving those cards down his throat. You know what?

I can tell that about you. When I think about Jamie, I'm like, I can see you doing that. I will say, speaking of nostalgic moments for millennials, I am one of those people who is willing to admit that it is remarkably easy to extract money from me. Like, it's very easy to position something so that it hits all of those emotional signifiers. And I'm like, yeah, I'm there because this reminds me of a time when the world was simpler

in a certain way. I don't think that's necessarily what the Barbie movie is doing because, yeah, it's taking the character Barbie, but giving it to a creator like Greta Gerwig actually kind of guarantees that it's going to be an interesting movie, like it's going to be a movie that plays on our idea of what Barbie came to represent. And that's something that can be exciting. And I think that's actually like a lesson for people to learn in general as they make all of these movies that are based on these IPs.

When you think about all of the Marvel movies, some of them are terribly boring and have no voice. Some of them have a very clear voice and a very clear vision. There's a good reason why Black Panther was the only Marvel movie that was nominated for Best Picture. I think that actually speaks volumes because it is a story that is, it is rooted in the character, but it's also trying to say something about engagement with blackness and engagement with black art in a context of North America. I think picking someone like Greta Gerwig to make the Barbie movie is an interesting indicator to say, hey, you could actually do something that's kind of cool with some of these characters. The Lego movie is also a good example

of this. Like Phil Lord and Chris Miller made a movie that I think is really remarkable that doesn't just kind of rely on the fact that like, hey, you know Legos, just show up to the movie. I think they pushed that idea further.'m that's why i'm like not against not blanket against all of these ideas um but i was surprised to see the mario movie do as well as it did because it didn't seem to have that additional level of commentary on the fact that this is the one game that has transcended languages and transcended cultures and children in japan and children in sudan where i grew up and children here in canada they're all familiar with this character they're all familiar with this none of that is translated into the movie and i think that's like the real

disappointment yeah if you talk to people it's it's real people i've talked to have seen it say it's it's really quite vapid but it strikes me that it's harder to do that with these movies. These movies that are ultimately about stuff that we have, stuff that we buy, stuff that was on our Christmas list. Because I'm trying to think of movies that really do capture that magic of coming of age and growing up. And I think about Lady Bird and goonies and stand by me and ferris bueller even like these films capture to me what was going on in your heart you know not not this like representation of like capitalist culture well i think the even the movies that you mentioned just now like i think fer Ferris Bueller, if you're making Ferris Bueller now, I don't know if you could make that and put that in a movie theater. I don't know if he would succeed in the same level that it did. Because back then, our only options were to go to the movie theater and you could have a bit of variety of the stories that you tell.

which is like it's only five or six years old but ladybird is made by a24 which is a relatively small movie studio that is willing to take those risks at risks and every time every once in a while it pays off they made everything everywhere all at once and that's a movie that um kind of bucked a lot of those trends because people were showing up to the movie theater to see it um but by and large it's uh trying to do the big tent nostalgia thing is your only sure bet in terms of making sure that you hit all the demographics. At this point, it's a sort of a paint by numbers. Hey, how do I get these people,

but also these people, but also these people. But you know what? To that end though, like not to mention the Lego movie too many times, but like the Lego movie really did work on this level because the Lego movie took, I mean this level because the lego movie took i mean it took the idea of here's this blank um lego man who has this blank face and we don't

really know what's going on with his life and he doesn't really have much of a story um and then it used that as a very reasonable and very excellent jumping off point to explore how you could rely on this one character to build a beautiful world. But also in the Lego movie, they use the idea of a brand tie-in to bring in Lego Batman. And Lego Batman was one of the best Batmans I've seen on screen for the last 10 years. I will absolutely go to the mat for that. And I love Ben Affleck, but I don't know if he was better a Batman than the Lego Batman. I'm just putting that out there.

So I think you can sort of deepen the idea and deepen the story. You just have to hire the people who are actually willing to work for it. And as much as I was a little bit dismissive of the Play-Doh movie earlier, I'm interested in Emily Gordon as a creator. I think she's a really interesting writer. I think she has a really interesting writer I think she has a really interesting voice and there's promise there in the idea that she's the person that they turn to

to say take this concept of Plato and no pun intended I promise mold it into something different and I will see what kind of comes out of that I'm really curious I don't have a lot of hope but I do have some patience for it I'm really curious. I don't have a lot of, you know, hope, but I do have some patience for it.

I think I'm going to go see it no matter what. Okay. Well, I mean, that was probably a very good point for us to end on.

The anticipation that we have to see if the Play-Doh movie is terrible or not. This was great and really fun. Thank you.

My pleasure. And will you come with me to the Transformers movie or no? No, I hate those. But I will go to Uno with you. Uno movie, it's a date. Let's go. Yeah. All right. That is all for today.

I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening and talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.