Creative Billboards & Box Office Win

Twenty-seven years ago, Armageddon benefited from a marketing campaign that left a lasting impression.

Director Michael Bay’s sci-fi disaster movie starred Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton and Liv Tyler in the story of a team of oil drillers sent into space to destroy an asteroid before it hits Earth. Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures released the film July 1, 1998, and THR reported then that the TV advertising spend was less than for a typical tentpole due to increased visibility elsewhere.

“We benefited from some very creative executions,” then-Buena Vista Pictures Marketing president John Cywinski told THR at the time.

As noted in the story, a key example was “a series of building art in Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas where they made it appear as if an asteroid had blown a hole through the building.” The concept, which likely wouldn’t have been approved post-9/11, was the talk of the town, with trompe l’oeil billboards near the 101 and 405 freeways in L.A.

“It was very smart and shows a great way to use outdoor campaigns,” says Russell Schwartz, former New Line president of theatrical marketing. “Most outdoor [marketing] is wasted because they’re basically taking the poster and just blowing it up.”

The unsettling visuals helped the film hit big, as Armageddon collected $553 million at the box office (more than $1 billion today) to leave the year’s similarly themed Deep Impact in the dust and become 1998’s highest-grossing title.

Today, Armageddon continues to get buzz from Affleck’s snarky DVD commentary track. (“It’s a real plan at NASA to train oil drillers?” Affleck recalled asking Bay.) Earlier this year, Affleck quipped that his commentary track is “maybe my best work in my career.”

This story appeared in the July 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.