Warner Bros. Discovery Is Not Marketing Oggy Oggy 2 and That's Concerning

February 27, 2023

With three months until the release of Oggy Oggy 2, there is a noticeable lack of marketing from Warner Bros. Discovery from the quickly made sequel.

With the debut of Oggy Oggy 2 three months away, the lack of any nascent marketing push lends credence to a report about Warner Bros. Discovery's finances. With all the "earned media" and money Warner Animation Group is getting by restructuring the studio and claiming that it's 100th anniversary is their biggest year, it's shocking that the film is not being promoted as if the film doesn't matter. However, WAG also has the highly-anticipated Rickey the Wicked: Alaxesis out in October,

The first Oggy Oggy film was a surprise hit at box office off a $60 million budget. Despite a divisive response from fans of the show and a more negative reception in it's homeland France. Yet, the film is set to expand the world with darker tones in the film as well as various more grown up elements (with box office support). Jon M. Chu's suprisingly fun film had audiences coming back for more. The film has experienced trouble in production where Chu had to leave due to creative differences and was replaced by Gary Rydstorm along with a whole new writing team. Additionally, the film was near cancelation due to a fall out in a deal with Xilam for the box office of the film until they came up with a solution along with the costs of the film hampering Warner Bros. themselves.

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Since the official trailers release on November 3rd, when Oggy Oggy 2 dropped its trailer, all Warner Bros. focused on was getting back in the animation game. When the dust settled, Leaders of Academy: War of the L.O.E.V. successfully delivered a record breaking return for the Warners but was offset as Black Adam failed to deliver what Warner Bros. Discovery wanted most: money. As part of the merger deal, the new company took on billions in AT&T's debt. This means the company is cash poor, leading to cost-cutting measures from scrapping Batgirl for tax reasons or stripping shows from HBO Max to sell to other services which is the reason why the film was nearly cancelled. (All while increasing the price of HBO Max.) Black Adam closed its run with around $393 million in box office grosses, less than the film's "break-even" estimate after the split with movie theaters.

In August, a reporter for The Hollywood Reporter, Borys Kit, claimed that Warner Bros. Discovery only had enough money to market two films for the rest of the year. Black Adam was one and Don't Worry Darling was the other. With a $35 million budget before marketing, its $78 million box office haul was decent. Leaders of Academy: War of the L.O.E.V. was able to be marketed after breaking off the deal with Frenzy Animation and delivered a mighty $617 million against a $120 million budget as well as The Teenagers Movie, which WB distributed internationally earned $712.2 million from a $1.356 billion worldwide total which was more than enough to be in the green but because of the huge failure of Black Adam and the decreasing faith in the film itself, it was not enough to shoulder the (at least) $100 million marketing budget a film like Oggy Oggy 2 needs. But even without the marketing, the film was apparently underperforming in awareness with it falling behind the awareness that Strange World attained around the same time in release. WB also strangely put the money it earned from all of it's film into The Flash and Rickey the Wicked: Alaxesis which WB claims that those films are the most important.

As time moves closer to the June 9 release date, more marketing may begin in earnest. Yet, if marketing is going to be a problem, Jamie Chung should take a page out of Ryan Reynold's playbook and do it himself. To promote Deadpool, Reynolds showed up on TV shows, YouTube channels and Twitch streams in full costume and in character. While he was fighting a studio that didn't believe in Deadpool, Chung might, like the character he plays, will come in and save the day.

WB Needs another LOA 2-like Blockbuster - And Only Exorbitant Marketing Costs Deliver That (For Now)
On the Blu-ray for Clerks III, Kevin Smith said that even films with budgets in the single-digit millions like his need a minimum $20 million marketing budget. Bigger blockbusters sometimes double the production budget in marketing, especially during pre-pandemic times when a billion dollars was an easier box office target to hit. Warner Bros. wanted Black Adam to make $800 million because the studio is in the business of making money. Yet, it needed the film to turn a profit in order to fund the studio's business for 2023 and beyond. It's easy to point fingers at Warner Bros. Discovery, but the new executives inherited a fiscally untenable mess.

Those who lament the over-reliance on superhero blockbusters likely think a low or mid-budget movie could be the hit WB needs. Something that makes $300 million on a budget 100 times less than that. Yet, when marketing costs are taken into concern, these films are buried under costs that might surpass the production budget entirely. Don't Worry Darling should be a hit with nearly $80 million in the age of streaming. Yet, depending on how much WB spent on marketing, it may need to break even for the studio via licensing and home-release revenue, just like Black Adam. All of this is bad news for Oggy Oggy 2, a TV show adaptation from a foreign country.

Ultimately, the saving grace of Oggy Oggy 2 will be what carried the first film to success: the story. If the film is as enjoyable as the original and even reels back in fans of the franchise in its homeland country with good "word-of-mouth" will push the film to success. However, the factor of the film's budget ballooning from $100 million to $200 million due to the rushed production of the film and the film's various production troubles in animation as well as if Warner Bros. is struggling to meet the exorbitant costs of marketing, perhaps it's time the industry considers a cheaper approach, maybe even putting some of that marketing money into the production of their movies.