Last summer, the Twisters disaster film conquered the cinemas and recorded over $ 372 million worldwide. An impressive sum, which was actually exceeded by the predecessor of the blockbuster 28 years earlier.
Twister of director Jan de Bont (Speed) had a global turnover of almost $ 500 million and thus became the second most subsequent film of 1996 (behind Independence Day).
However, this immense success was by no means foreseeable. Why? The disaster actioner, in which Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt hunt tornados, started in the US cinemas in May, which was then fairly unfavorable period for a blockbuster release applied. In addition, Twister was an original film that was on its own and had no already established franchise in the back. A flop was forecast, but it turned out differently.
The clever twister marketing revolutionized the cinema sustainably
A picture with which Twister is still associated today is undoubtedly that the flying cowthat was recorded by a hurricane. The financing studios Warner and Universal rely on effective scenes like this in the published trailers to market their film and thus hit the nerve of the audience. Here was not the acting, but the tornados shown were the stars.
In addition, Twister benefited enormously from the real reporting, which took place around its cinema release. This was not by chance in the late spring by those responsible if the tornado season usually begins, especially in the Midwest of the United States. The Accordingly, TV news was full of real recordings of destructive stormswhich only fueled the audience’s curiosity about the film.
This excited attention was economically worth gold, as it represented free advertising for the film, so to speak. The La Times even spoke of one at the time “Marketing phenomenon“. A hype around Twister quickly emerged, which people now of course also wanted to experience on the big screen.
The rest is cinema history: the interaction (later Oscarnominated) spectacular-realistic effects, mostly positive reviews and clever marketing. In 1996 the disaster film put the At that time the most successful May opening weekend ever and influenced the marketing and publication strategies of future blockbusters.
From then on, their marketing, if possible, was no longer limited to trailers and commercials. And May too was no longer a restricted zone as a starting room, but was suddenly a sudden after the Twister success New start of the summer blockbuster season explained.
Science exposed many content errors in Twister
In the triumphal march of Twister, 28 years ago it may have been a little bit that the creators: inside the film took a few creative freedom when it comes to the correct representation of tornados and dealing with them. After all, in the blockbuster cinema, the following applies: of course nonsense can also be entertaining (yes, you are meant, Armageddon!).
As Business Insider summarized, scientific experts have found some factual mistakes in Twister. Among other things:
But in order to take up the most famous picture from Twister again and to clarify the most important of all questions: As storm expert Greg Carbin revealed to Alabama.com, a flying cow during a really strong tornado “isNot so unusual. “
Where is Twister and the continuation of Twister in the stream?
In order to be able to watch Twister, the streaming flat rate from Amazon Prime Video offers the currently the best opportunity. The Sequel Twisters, however, is available for all subscribers: inside WoW free of charge.