'Longlegs' is a box-office smash. Here's how Neon did it

A woman grabs a gun in a holster while looking out a window and covering her mouth with her other hand.

July 16, 2024 3 AM PT

The greatest plot twists lie at the end of a long trail of clues, dramatically revealing an answer hidden in plain sight all along.

The marketing campaign for independent distributor Neon’s surprise horror smash, “Longlegs,” took that concept a step further.

Breadcrumbs — in the form of enigmatic trailers, chilling phone messages, encrypted newspaper ads, fake blog posts and other stunts — littered the promotional path to “Longlegs.” And audiences took the bait, handing the New York-based Neon its biggest opening ever as well as the best launch for an independent horror flick in a decade.

The R-rated title — which cost less than $10 million total to make and promote, according to the studio — debuted at No. 2 this weekend with $22.6 million in domestic ticket sales.

Its performance “seemingly came out of nowhere,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, especially when sandwiched between safer, flashier pushes for major studio films such as “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters.”

“If you had talked to people a month ago and said, ‘Is this movie “Longlegs” on your list of films to be one of those sleeper, surprise hits?,’ they’d say, ‘What’s “Longlegs”?’” Dergarabedian joked.

“Getting audiences on board like this is not easy,” he added. “The way you entice that audience is to do something that goes above and beyond the ordinary ... and they certainly did that.”

Helmed by Osgood Perkins (son of the late horror icon Anthony Perkins), “Longlegs” stars veteran scream queen Maika Monroe as an FBI agent investigating a series of gruesome homicides. Nicolas Cage plays the film’s titular bogeyman — but you wouldn’t necessarily know that from the marketing materials, which deliberately obscure the actor’s face.

He’s barely shown in the main trailer, which reveals little about the plot. (The studio scrapped its original plan for a more conventional preview after audiences responded enthusiastically to an early, cryptic teaser.)

“It increases the intrigue,” said Monica Koyama, an entertainment marketing expert and communication management professor at USC.

“I mean, he’s definitely frightening in the film. But ... sometimes what’s in your head is scarier than what shows up onscreen.”

The back of a woman's head, with brown hair in a ponytail, obscures the face of a man sitting across from her.

In an added effort to sell audiences on the fear factor, Neon released a recording of Monroe’s heartbeat spiking from 76 bpm to 170 while filming her first scene with Cage as Longlegs. The studio pulled the audio from a microphone taped to Monroe’s chest after a conversation with Perkins — who deliberately separated the actors before shooting that sequence and said Monroe’s heart was racing during the encounter.

“It’s so simple,” Koyama said. “They gave us data. ... ‘We’re saying this is scary. Here’s the actual raw data from the actress.’”

It’s all part of Neon’s ploy to place moviegoers in the shoes of the protagonist.

“Longlegs’” success is “a testament to the wildly creative, exciting film [that director] Osgood Perkins and his fantastic group of collaborators created,” Elissa Federoff, president of distribution at Neon, said in a statement to The Times.

“We couldn’t be happier with the results, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with Osgood and his team of producers, all of whom have allowed us the freedom to build a campaign we believe in.”

Koyama suspected that Neon intentionally blurred the lines between the horror and crime genres to appeal to a wider audience. She also credited plenty of tried-and-true advertising moves — such as quoting rave reviews calling it one of the scariest movies in years — with getting “Longlegs” over the line.

“This is going to reignite the creativity within marketing,” Koyama said. “I’m hoping studios will feel more excited about taking chances.”