Why was Colossal marketed the way it was?

SPOILERS BELOW!

The 2017 movie Colossal was marketed to be a fun film with monsters and supernatural powers. Right from the music to the dialogues picked in the trailer read "funny monster movie".

Here's the trailer - Colossal Trailer

However the film was far from being a "funny monster movie". It had some deep themes like alcoholism and bad influences/relationships. Everyone who went thinking it was a monster movie had to reconfigure their expectations as they sat and watched the film. Only a few succeeded doing that.. everyone else came out saying it was an odd monster movie where nothing was clear.

Any idea why this misdirection? Had the trailer mimicked the core themes of the movie (eg: Enemy or any Lynch film) the film could have done far better? It was an amazing movie i thought?

Best Answer

According to multiple sources, from interviews to film reviews, it appears that there was a blip on the radar from the beginning which revolved around Toho (the owners of the Godzilla franchise) suing them for using a Godzilla look-alike in emails when they were looking for financing. Since that was the "big news" on the film, and that story was easier to sell in 30-second spots, that was the story they pushed forward.

I saw him comment on one site (which I can't remember) that it's less a satire on Kaiju and is more a satire on RomComs and their predictability.

This review specifically mentions in its first paragraph how defying expectations isn't a bad thing.

In this age of beefed-up movie marketing, it’s rare to find a movie willing to actively surprise its audience. Between trailers, teasers, teasers for trailers and Instagram videos for teasers for trailers, by the time your 21st moviegoer steps into a theatre, they generally know what to expect, in broad strokes if not in the specifics. [clip] That doesn’t mean the movies themselves are bad. But order variations on the same meal at the same restaurant for long enough, and eventually you’re going to want something different.

I'd suggest checking out a few of the results from this Google search: Colossal movie marketing