Marketing Beyond the Movie

Amazon missed a clear opportunity with Project Hail Mary.

Not with the film itself: the film is excellent!

In its opening weekend, it made $141 million worldwide ($80.5 million in North America), making it Amazon MGM's biggest opening ever.

People are saying it's the best performance of Ryan Gosling's career.

(I agree, and I think the only possible reason you could argue with that is that he's been in so many incredible films.)

Sandra Hüller was brilliant as Eva Stratt. The entire cast was AMAZE!

And the visuals... WOW!

If you read the book (or listened to the INCREDIBLE audiobook version), you almost certainly would have wished more science and more character exposition had been included in the film.

But the film already clocks in at 2 hours and 36 minutes, and adding everything fans of the story would have liked to see would easily have turned PHM into a 4+ hours long film.

So something had to give... and overall, it was a faithful adaptation, and a fantastic piece of entertainment.

No, Amazon did everything right with the film.

What they missed is the merchandising opportunity that followed it.

Throughout social media, people are asking where they could buy the stylish sweaters and hilarious T-shirts that Ryland Grace (Gosling) wore in the film.

But if you searched "Project Hail Mary" on Amazon looking for merchandise, you would be sorely disappointed.

You would think that "The Everything Store" could easily meet consumer demand for PGM merchandise under normal circumstances...

... but ESPECIALLY given the fact that Amazon produced the film!

Nope.

If you're looking for PHM gear, you need to head to Etsy and buy unofficial merchandise from opportunistic entrepreneurs.

Without question, the Amazon crew did an excellent job promoting the movie.

But not allowing fans of the film to continue showing their appreciation by buying official merchandise was a big miss.

Here's the good news for Amazon: it's not too late!

They can easily create a "Project Hail Mary" section on Amazon and let us buy a selection of merchandise that relates to the movie.

I want an "AH! The Element of Surprise" t-shirt, and I know making that "wolf cardigan" everybody is talking about available would be an instant hit.

And don't even get me started on a plush... well, I won't say anything more for people who didn't make it to the theatre this weekend, but those of you who have seen the film (or read the book) know EXACTLY what I mean, and you KNOW it would be an instant hit!

Right now, Amazon is making a classic "product launch" mistake: they've done a tremendous job with their marketing up until the launch, but haven't thought about what they can do beyond that point.

Effectively launching a product requires marketing support before AND after the launch.

Project Hail Mary's opening weekend was a HUGE success, but Amazon can keep it going.

Marketing beyond the movie isn't a decision the company is likely to regret.