Living the Startup Life

Why such good reviews for Iron Man? Why such good word-of-mouth?

I did not hear or see any attempts at viral marketing by Iron Man. Forgetting Sarah Marshall tried to harness the power of blogging and new media but didn’t fair so well at the box office. The ruins made an attempt at a viral video but did horribly at the box office. Does the new media actually cause people to go and spend $11 for a movie?

I checked out the Iron Man Website and it is a SUPER slow flash site that doesn’t have anything really that cool or interactive.

From my research, I believe that I have found the two X-factors:

1. Rotten Tomatoes
2. Hard-core user Approval

1. Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes gave Iron Man a 93% rating! The first thing that a person would say to me about Iron Man was that “It got a super high rating on Rotten Tomatoes.” For a lot of movies, Rotten Tomatoes can make or break you. In comparison, Speed Racer (34%) and What Happens in Vegas (28%) did not do well at the box office. Indian Jones scored pretty well this week at 80%. Lets see if they debut at number 1 next week.

2. Hardcore User Approval

One of my best friends, Timon Safaie, is a hardcore Marvel reader. He knows absolutely everything about the Marvel Universe and is a Maven in that area. The first thing that he told me about Iron Man was that “It stayed very true to its comic roots.” The second factor in gaining great word-of-mouth is gaining the approval of your hardcore users. People who don’t read comic books watch a great Marvel movie and think, “Wow, this was a good movie.” Harcore readers of Iron Man (people who have grown up reading the Iron Man comics) watch an Iron Man that stays true to the comic book and thinks, “WOW, I must tell everyone I know about this amazing movie!”

Even though your hardcore viewer base is very small, they will be the ones writing the reviews, telling their friends, writing blogs about it, and spreading it word-of-mouth. I think that’s where most companies drop the ball. They don’t focus on satisfying their hardcore users who ultimately make their product an amazing product.

So the ultimate movie recipe is:

High Rotten Tomato Rating + Satisfy Your Hardcore Viewers = Lots and lots of Money!!!

I want these wings…