Iron Man 3 Article
Iron Man 3 is the latest and potentially final instalment in Marvel’s Iron Man trilogy. The film
takes place after the events of Marvel’s crossover film The Avengers and sees Tony Stark
scarred by the events. A terrorist called the Mandarin threatens the country with attacks,
forcing Tony Stark to respond saying he isn’t afraid of the Mandarin, eventually the
Mandarin destroys Tony’s home and he accidentally sets a course for Tennessee and he is
presumed dead. Whilst Tony is there, he befriends a young child and also learns of a threat
called Extremis which has been the cause of the Mandarin’s attacks. He must find a way to
return home and protect Pepper from the Mandarin as well as rescuing the President from
him. He eventually finds the Mandarin who is revealed to be an actor portraying the
Mandarin, he finds that the real Mandarin is Aldrich Killian, a scientist who he embarrassed
at a party 1999.
The main target audience for super hero filmswould be children but recently, Marvel have
modernised their and changed the plots to expand their audience to teenagers and young
adults. I would say the average audience age for Iron Man 3 would be about 13-25. Also,
some of the audience would come from parents (mainly dad’s) with young children who are
taking them to the cinema to see Iron Man 3. Obviously the film would be targeted more for
males but could also appeal to females through some elements, for example Gwyneth
Paltrow’s character Pepper Potts may encourage females to see it because there is someone
they can relate to and because she represents women quite strongly, also in Iron Man 3
there is the character Maya Hansen who is quite similar. The main genre would of course be
super hero genre but it could also be classed as action, fantasy and possibly sci-fi because
there are elements of all these different genres within the film but most would just consider
it a super hero film. The year of production would have been 2012/13, the film would have
began filming in 2012 but finalised and realised in 2013, the release date in the UK was April
25, 2013. The film was directed by Shane Black who took over from Jon Favreau (director of
the first two Iron Man films), it was produced by Kevin Feige. The distributor of Iron Man 3
was Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The box office takings for the film were as of 11
June 2013 are $1,196,616,000, making it the fifth highest grossing film of all time, the
budget used was $200 million.
Iron Man 3 is a big blockbuster movie, Marvel often release films which have to be very well
marketed because they are so highly anticipated and popular. Iron Man 3 was marketed in a
lot of different ways using different methods. One of the main methods for marketing was
through TV, showing advertisements for the film during advert breaks. Quite often they
would show adverts during major TV events, things such as football matches or other big
sporting events as well as programmes like Britain’s Got Talent because they know lots of
people will be watching, the only downside of this is that it costs a lot of money to advertise
during major TV events. It is also advertised on the internet because the internet is very
popular in modern day times and lots of people use it, they advertised through social

networking sites such as facebook and twitter as well as showing adverts on YouTube
videos. These websites are used by billions of people worldwide so they know a lot of
people will see their advertisements. Probably the most common way of advertising a film is
in the cinema before films start, they will usually show a trailer in the coming months before
the film is released, more popular trailers will be shown before the cinema’s biggest films so
that they can get the largest audience possible. Billboards have also been used to advertise
Iron Man 3, billboard advertisements have to be very powerful because it is just a large
picture so they try and show as much as possible and catch the audience’s attention to the
best of their ability. They will often be used on billboards on roadsides where they know lots
of people will be driving in order to maximise their audience. Another one of the most
common methods of advertising is through posters; they will be seen on things such as bus
stops, inside cinemas, on the side of buses etc. They are used in places where they know
people will see them, particularly inside cinemas because film fanatics will see the poster
then possibly see the trailer whilst watching a film and decide they want to go and see it
when it comes out. On bus stops/the side of buses they know they will be seen because lots
of people use buses and it could be seen on the side of a bus for almost anyone who a bus
may drive past. Iron Man 3 would be advertised a lot in magazines, particularly in film
magazines because they know that film fanatics who read the magazines will see it and be
encouraged to watch it. Also in film magazines, there would likely be interviews with the
stars near to when the film comes out, reading these may encourage the read to watch the
film because of the stars in the film or how they talk about it, just before or shortly after the
film comes out, there would be critics reviews of people who have seen it early which film
fanatics would read. Positive reviews would obviously convince the read to go and see Iron
Man 3, whereas negative reviews would deter them away from seeing the film. Iron Man 3
could also be advertised in other popular non-films magazines, there may be full page
advertisements or small advertisements on a page with others. It is not very common to do
this but it may be advertised in some popular magazines just to attract a wider audience.
The internet has other methods of marketing aside from YouTube/social networking
websites. They would more than likely advertise it on cinema websites such as Odeon or
AMC because these are two of the most popular cinemas and people using the website
would notice the advertisements. Also if someone was to look on the cinema listings,
around the time of its release, Iron Man 3 would be being shown almost all the time which
could encourage people to see it purely because there isn’t much else they can watch and it
is on so often. There would more than likely be review pages on some of these websites as
well, meaning people have a chance to see a review before they choose to watch the film.
Also movie websites such as Empire Online would advertise it because they know that film
fanatics would see it and read reviews about it, attracting a larger audience. There would
also be an official Iron Man 3 website giving details about the film as well as screenshots,
trailers, games etc. The website would likely be advertised on things such as Facebook,
Twitter and other popular websites. And finally another very common method, word of
mouth, people talking about Iron Man 3 with other people, convincing people to go and see

it because of how popular it is and how much it is being talked about. People may see an
advert and then ask some of their friends, who may not have been interested in it, to go and
see it and it spreads around and becomes very talked about, meaning more people are likely
to go and see it. These would be the main methods of advertising, but because the film is a
blockbuster they would have gone to town on marketing, making sure everyone in the
world is somehow seeing an advertisement for Iron Man 3, meaning they would get a very
large audience and make as much money as possible.
One of the main selling points of Iron Man 3 would be the star theory as well as all of the
above. The film features actors/actresses such as Robert Downey Jr, GywnethPaltrow, Don
Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley and more. These are all very big names in film and may
attract some people to watch it solely because of the cast. Some people may not have seen
any previous Iron Man films but like Robert Downey Jr from other films and decide to see it
purely because he is in it. In the first Iron Man film, the cast was probably chosen to attract
a larger audience through star theory whereas with some of the actors, it would have been
a big chance for them to get themselves noticed because it is a big blockbuster that lots of
people will see.
Kevin Feige, producer of Iron Man 3 has targeted the audience in a very specific way to
make it attract as many people from that audience as possible. Feige also produced Iron
Man and Iron Man 2 so he obviously knows exactly how to target a specific audience.
Generally super hero films are targeted for children and he would be aware of that but
these more modernised super hero films also appeal to teenagers, young adults and even
people into their twenties and possibly thirties. Elements of the film such as the Iron Man
suit, the scenes where he is flying and using his abilities is what appeals mainly to children
because they recognise it instantly and enjoy the scenes because it’s so iconic. He has also
made sure that there are elements that appeal to older audience’s such as the plot lines,
character development and epic action scenes. These are all elements that the audiences
would expect to see in a super hero film so he has made sure that it is all there to attract the
largest audience possible.
Anchorage is another thing which is taken into account when marketing the film. Anchorage
literally means hooking you in; in this case it has been used with the movie poster for Iron
Man 3. It has been used to anchor the target audience, there is a very large picture of Iron
Man on the poster and if a child saw it he would instantly recognise even if he could not
read the text, they would instantly know that it is Iron Man 3, they would then be
encouraged to go and see Iron Man 3. For people who do not know Iron Man by appearance
alone, the words Iron Man 3 have been written very largely so it can easily be recognised
and it may make people want to go and see Iron Man 3. Also there is a Marvel logo which is
the franchise Iron Man is from, the audience will more than likely recognise this straight
away and they will want to go and see it because they know Marvel films are usually good.

Anchorage is elements like that which instantly hook you in when you see the poster and it
works very well to attract a larger audience.
Before Iron Man 3 began filming, the producer would have to do quite a lot of research to
make sure everything about the filming is up to standards and that the movie will sell as
much as possible. One of the main things the producer would do before the production of
the film, is things such as surveys, questionnaires and focus groups to the expected
audience, finding out what they like to see in action movies and possibly specifically super
hero movies, they would be asked questions such as do they like to see lots of explosions?
Do they like car chase scenes? Do they like to see a romantic subplot? Questions like that
would be asked to the members of the estimated audience, they would base it off the
majority vote to interpret that into the film because then more members of that audience
would come to see it. Also the producer would look at things such as box office takings of
similar films and in all different regions to see the regions where the film has been the most
popular, they would then spend more money on marketing the film in those specific regions
rather than regions where those types of films aren’t very successful. They would find out
what people in those specific regions enjoy about action/superhero films and make sure to
use that information as much as they can. Once the film has been finished to a rough edit,
they would do a test screening at a cinema, showing the film to a certain number of people
– roughly around 40. They would ask them what they liked and didn’t like about the film and
get the general opinion and then finish the final edit based on the feedback they receive.
They would then do another test screening when the final edit has been released, probably
to up to 400 people this time and receive more feedback, it would likely be members from
different backgrounds as well to see what they can do to attract the largest audience
possible. They would use all of these research methods to make sure the film is marketed to
the audience in the best way possible and make sure the film is up to the audience’s
standards.