Author: Chris Thilk / Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Dwayne Johnson is back for more big-screen adventures in this week’s Skyscraper.
The Legendary and Universal movie, budgeted at $129 million, casts Johnson as a wounded veteran-turned-building safety expert brought to Hong Kong to evaluate a massive new building.
He and his family are there at the same time the building is targeted by a group of criminals.This is the second major release from Johnson this year, following Warner Bros.’ Rampage, which grossed $99 million domestically and $425 million globally.
The film, which has worn its summer popcorn Die Hard and Towering Inferno influences on its sleeve, is tracking to open to $33 million to $40 million stateside. Here’s how the marketing for the film has rolled out:
The Posters
Johnson is leaping from a crane toward the broken window of a burning building on the first poster, a busy cityscape behind the action. So it’s pretty clear we’re in summer action territory here, with a story that’s being sold primarily on the belief audiences will react to a big, spectacle-driven sequence.
Reaction to the poster, released in February so as not to overlap with Sony’s Dwayne Johnson-starring Jumanji was, of course, that it was ridiculous. In an entertaining thread, a Twitter user even did the math on the
The next poster shows an extreme close-up of Johnson as he hangs on the outside of the massive skyscraper he’s trapped in, flames coming out the windows of the floors below him. Another shows him leading his daughter through the flames as a way to convey the human stakes in the story.
Two posters revealed by Johnson in early July acknowledged the movie’s cultural inspirations, placing his photo as well as images of the building from the film and some of its promotional messaging within one-sheets resembling those of Die Hard and Towering Inferno.
The Trailers
The first trailer (16.4 million views on YouTube), also released in February, begins by showing that Johnson is — or was — a soldier who suffered an injury leading to the loss of one leg. Now he’s a security consultant who’s been brought in to offer his opinion on a new building, the tallest ever built. And his family has been brought along because that’s how these things go. When a group of terrorists invade the building…
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