Orange and blue

Yesterday we talked about why some good movies fail at the box office, noting how important marketing is to a film’s success.

Previously I ran this 5-part series, a Q&A with a marketing executive at a major Hollywood movie studio.

Think there’s not a ‘science’ to movie marketing? Think again. Evidently they’ve done some sort of study and found that the colors orange and blue are an eye-catching combination.

Check out these posters compiled at SlashFilm.com. Here’s two of them:

But wait. It’s not just in posters. This orange-blue color scheme is prominent in some movies, too. Here is an analysis of the trend at the blog Into The Abyss:

Those of you who watch a lot of Hollywood movies may have noticed a certain trend that has consumed the industry in the last few years. It is one of the most insidious and heinous practices that has ever overwhelmed the industry. Am I talking about the lack of good scripts? Do I speak of the dependency of a few mega-blockbuster hits to save the studios each year, or of the endless sequels and television retreads? No, I am talking about something much more dangerous, much deadlier to the health of cinema.

I speak of course, of THE COLOR GRADING VIRUS THAT IS TEAL & ORANGE!!!

This is the insidious practice of color-grading every movie with a simplified, distilled palette of teal and orange like this:

Or this:

Or this:

It’s a fascinating read that goes into detail about movies and movie trailers, the current seeming obsession with orange-and-blue. The piece ends with this thought:

I leave you with this last horrible thought. What would art history look like if this virus had infected mankind hundreds of years ago?

Hit the link to find out what that might have been like.

Fortunately not everyone is fixated on orange and blue.

No really.

H/T to Sam Morgan for the heads-up on the whole orange-and-blue phenomenon.

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