Here's What MAGIC MIKE XXL and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Have in Common
The first trailer for Magic Mike XXL dropped earlier this morning, and it immediately reminded me of Guardians of the Galaxy. No, you didn't miss a scene in Guardians in which Star-Lord, Groot, Rocket, and Drax ripped off their shirts and danced to Ginuwine's "Pony" - though that would admittedly have been ridiculous and kind of awesome. The thing they have in common (well, at least that their marketing has in common) is the use of the phrase "You're Welcome." In MMXXL, it comes up in huge text during the trailer itself. In Guardians, it's the tagline on the poster.
It takes some balls to say "you're welcome" to fans that early, because you're essentially implying that we're all screaming "Thank you!" when we see the first glimpse of whatever it is you're selling. But in the case of both these movies, that confidence seems to fit really well with the attitude and tone they're trying to convey in these stories. Peter Quill is egotistical (he really expects everyone to know that he goes by "Star-Lord"?) and Magic Mike is...well, he's freakin' Magic Mike. These guys have swagger for days, and it looks like the marketing departments for both films capitalized on that and tried to translate it in our early looks at the movies.
But is that "You're Welcome" actually earned? In Magic Mike XXL's case, it seems that the answer is "yes" just from the footage presented in the trailer. Female fans especially are going nuts for it already, and you'd likely lose count if you tried to track down all of the .gifs that have been made since its debut this morning. Will the movie actually be any good? I think for many people, it probably doesn't matter - as long as it has those scenes from the trailer, they'll be happy with it.
In the case of Guardians, it was probably a riskier move to slap that phrase on the poster when practically no one had ever heard of any of those characters before. That's the equivalent of an unknown rookie baseball player pulling a Babe Ruth and pointing to center field, "calling his shot" before trying to hit a home run. Luckily, Guardians actually did end up hitting a home run - it became one of Marvel's most successful movies, and everyone loved it. Will Magic Mike XXL recapture the success of the original? If this trailer is any indication, it'll make even more money than the first, so it looks like that "You're Welcome" is just an early indicator of how confident the studio is in the final product.