Indiana Jones: The Golden Years

OK. I admit. I'm a bit behind the times. I just watched the official trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and apparently, I'm the only one in American who hasn't. So I won't be arguing that the film will be a huge commercial success. I won't even get into the film's quality -- or lack thereof. Since this is a movie marketing blog, I'll try to limit myself to a discussion of the marketing strategy used by the filmmakers, and I'll try to limit the Harrison-Ford-is-65-years-old jokes -- but I can't make any promises.



So for those like myself, who aspire to be living under a rock, here's the official trailer, which was released on February 15th.



I remember hearing rumors about this film 6 or 7 years ago, when I was still in high school. If this is the best trailer that a team behind a big budget summer spectacle can come up with, then...well, I promised I wouldn't get into that. After all, Harrison might break a hip coming after me, and goodness knows we wouldn't want that.

Considering the last Indiana Jones film (The Last Crusade -- ironic now, isn't it?) was released 19 years ago, the biggest problem Spielberg, Lucas, and the rest of the team will face is attracting those free spending teenagers that make up the bulk of the movie going audience. Why should they spend money to watch a special effects boosted geriatric when they can catch the latest Jason Statham masterpiece (keep an eye out for Transporter 3 in 2009) instead?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull releases on May 22nd, so the marketing team has time to put together a creative campaign that targets that demographic. I can't say it will be easy, but then again, if Harrison Ford can keep his action movie career going at 65, then perhaps anything is possible.