Riding a superhero high, Hollywood's marketing machine roars back to life

The Age

4 days ago

A Marvel superhero, a Pokémon and a Dalek walk into a bar ... bad joke, or billion-dollar marketing windfall? Hollywood's film and television studios are banking on the latter as almost 200,000 people descend on San Diego for the world's biggest annual Comic-Con.
With somewhere close to 150,000 visitors expected through the turnstiles over 4½ days– everyone from families to pop culture diehards – and tens of thousands more people around the city, the mood board says Batman, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, but the studio accountants have their eyes on the bottom line.
San Diego Comic-Con was born a comic-book convention in the old-fashioned sense: vendors, in a convention centre basement, buying and selling comic books. But in recent decades it has become the backbone of Hollywood's film and TV marketing calendar.
In 2025, however, the intersection of commerce, fandom and marketing is at a bit of a crossroads. Spider-Man, Star Trek, Doctor Who and retail brands such as Lego, Hasbro and Funko are here with bells on, but some of the biggest labels, including Star Wars and the wider DC Studios and Marvel Studios brands, are missing.
That said, the absence of the majors has the knock-on effect of lending oxygen to projects and brands that might struggle otherwise to get air at a convention where top-tier schedule clashes are the norm.
Alien: Earth and Predator: Badlands, surfing off the back of Alien: Romulus and the Predator show Prey, are staging panels in the convention's iconic Hall H, the main stage where the biggest and best of Comic-Con get to show their wares.
Hall H is also playing host to a Star Trek Universe panel, which is expected to feature the much-loved Strange New Worlds, which just kicked off its third season, and the coming series Starfleet Academy. Another panel, for Dexter: Resurrection, will feature Michael C. Hall.
Three other Hall H biggies: Project Hail Mary, from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and featuring Ryan Gosling, Peacemaker, which will feature director James Gunn and star John Cena, and a panel unveiling the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which will feature Star Wars creator George Lucas himself.