Great movie taglines entice the viewer to see the film, but the worst taglines from the past decade have actually done the opposite. Marketing is an integral part of film, and with so much competition, studios have to think of clever ways to help their movies stand out. A tagline gets right to the point, and sells the movie immediately.
Classics movie taglines like “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream”, and “You’ll Believe A Man Can Fly” are as recognizable as the films they come from. However, plenty of movies have utilized truly awful taglines that sour the experience from the start. This trend seems to have worsened in the modern day, with marketing changing rapidly.
Traditional marketing has fallen out of favor in the past decade, and taglines don’t have the same impact that they once did. Films from the past decade have still utilized taglines, but their effectiveness is lessened. This isn’t helped by the fact that so many movie taglines from recent years have been downright bad and frequently laughable.
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) – “For The First Time, You Will See The Activity”
The Paranormal Activity franchise limped into its sixth installment with 2015’s The Ghost Dimension, and delivered a lot of the same bog-standard thrills found in the first five movies. On top of the found footage trope, The Ghost Dimension had the added gimmick of 3D, which was already on the decline by 2015.
The movie enticed viewers with the tagline, “For The First Time, You Will See The Activity,” but it didn’t have the desired effect. The tagline suggests that there was no activity to be seen in the previous movies, which was only partly true. If anyone hadn’t seen the first five films, The Ghost Dimension certainly didn’t make them sound appealing.
Gran Turismo (2023) – “From Gamer To Racer”
Video game movies only found their stride in the last few years, and Gran Turismo was a tepid addition to the genre. The sensationalized true story was less about adapting a video game, and more about how video games could have an impact on the real world. As such, the studio dreamed up “From Gamer To Racer” as the tagline.
There’s nothing overtly wrong with the tagline, but it does suffer from being too blunt and on-the-nose. On top of that, the invocation of the word “Gamer” always has a somewhat humorous and meme-like quality that is inescapable. Gran Turismo is a textbook example of a tagline that is too streamlined for its own good.
Antlers (2021) – “Pray It Desires Not You”
Horror movies and taglines are an inseparable pair, but they don’t always get it right. 2021’s Antlers was a spooky little story set in the Pacific Northwest that drew some ire for calling upon indigenous mythology in tired and cliché ways. Nevertheless, it had enough scares to keep things interesting.
However, its tagline, “Pray It Desires Not You,” doesn’t do a good job of selling the film. While the sentence is technically grammatically correct, it is also unnecessarily complex and awkwardly clunky, obfuscating its frightening message. The reader is so busy trying to unscramble the sentence, they aren’t being convinced to see the movie.
Mulan (2020) – “Loyal. Brave. True”
Disney’s live-action remakes have ranged from pretty good to pretty bad, and 2020’s Mulan falls somewhere in the middle. While it scores points for casting Asian actors in all the major roles (something the original animated film did not), it made a myriad of changes that took away a lot of the Disney magic.
The least imaginative part of the movie was the tagline “Loyal. Brave. True” which is both meaningful and useless simultaneously. It refers to Mulan herself, but it doesn’t tell the reader anything about the movie or why they should see it. All three words are common traits of heroes, something that goes without saying in a story about Mulan.
The Snowman (2017) – “Mister Police. You Could Have Saved Her. I Gave You All The Clues”
2017’s The Snowman is one of those forgotten disasters that has thankfully slipped into the past, but its terrible tagline lives on forever as an internet meme. The film hoped to continue the trend of popular Scandinavian thrillers like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but the jumbled and confusing story was a largely dull affair.
“Mister Police. You Could Have Saved Her. I Gave You All The Clues” was splashed across the poster in a childlike scrawl, but it was more goofy than scary. It fails as a tagline because it doesn’t let the audience know anything about the movie, while also sounding so silly that it’s impossible to take seriously.
Fast X (2023) – “The Last Ride”
The Fast & Furious franchise is one of those Hollywood institutions that has been around since the dawn of the new millennium, but its time is limited. Fast X had a note of finality with the action series entering its eleventh installment, but the tagline “The Last Ride” was a bit premature.
Unsurprisingly, another sequel was announced almost immediately after Fast X was a box office success. The tagline itself is clichéd and unoriginal, but it is also a classic example of false advertising in movies. It likely caused a bump in ticket sales as fans flocked to see what they thought was the end.
Morbius (2022) – “The Line Between Hero And Villain Will Be Broken”
Marvel superhero films outside the MCU have struggled, but Morbius is a low point in a genre that has plenty of notorious valleys. Sony’s take on one of Marvel’s more obscure comic book characters, the film was doomed by terrible visual effects, poor writing, and an audience that quickly turned every part of the film’s release into hilarious internet memes.
Morbius was a box office disappointment, grossing only $167 million against an $80 million budget (Box Office Mojo).
The movie’s tagline warned that “The Line Between Hero And Villain Will Be Broken”, but Morbius failed to deliver that promise. Not only was the line left mostly intact, the uninspired tagline felt like it could be cut and paste onto nearly any somewhat edgy superhero flick. Shockingly, the tagline isn’t even the worst part of the movie.
Expend4bles (2023) – “They’ll Die When They’re Dead”
Starting as fun and light entertainment, the Expendables series had long overstayed its welcome by the time Expend4bles arrived in 2023. Most of the core cast returned to reprise their roles, but the supporting stars felt significantly less interesting than in previous installments. As if poking fun at themselves, the tagline read: “They’ll Die When They’re Dead.”
The tagline was meant to be a joke, but it doesn’t work because the joke isn’t very funny. It’s a play on the advanced age of many of the franchise’s stars, but it’s not clever and doesn’t really make sense. A pithy tagline can be an amazing marketing ploy, but it still has to form a coherent thought.
Wonka (2023) – “Discover How Willy Became…”
Paul King’s Wonka was a mixed bag of Hollywood cheese, and it managed to be a huge box office success thanks to Timothée Chalamet and its recognizable franchise name. The movie straddled the line between taking itself seriously and being a tongue-in-cheek experience, and that continued into one of the movie’s worst taglines.
Working in conjunction with the film’s title, the tagline “Discover How Willy Became…” grabs attention, but it’s too funny. The inuendo-laced use of the name Willy makes it instantly humorous, and it falls apart under closer scrutiny. The tagline is useless when removed from the context of the poster, and not something viewers will be quoting in the future.
A Working Man (2025) – “Human Traffickers Beware”
Jason Statham has made a career starring in blunt action films that are a fun way to waste a few hours, and the marketing for those movies is usually just as straightforward. A Working Man got middling reviews, but was yet another box office success thanks to the fact that it delivered on most of its promises.