Don’t worry movie fans: heartbreak will continue to feel good at AMC.
Following its viral success, America’s largest theater chain is already working on a sequel to its “We Make Movies Better” ad campaign. Nicole Kidman, the face and voice of the campaign, is also slated to return–thank god.
Billy Ray, the commercial’s writer and scribe of several memed films, including The Hunger Games (“I volunteer as tribute!”) and Captain Phllips (“I am the captain now.”), confirmed the news to Vanity Fair. “It’s already written.”
Ray and Kidman have been collaborators for years. He directed her in 2015 with Secret in Their Eyes and wrote the screenplay for Kidman’s latest project, The Silent Wife. Kidman asked Ray personally if he would write the ad. “When Nicole first asked me to do it, I was just doing it as a favor,” Ray said. “I said I would do it for free just because I’m a fan and a friend of hers.”
Since premiering online in September last year, the campaign has become a post-ironic anthem for movie fans across the country. What began as memed mockery slowly turned into a full-on embracing of the commercial’s complete lack of irony. Fans have testified to watching fans recite the ad, by memory, in the theater; one avid fan even made custom t-shirts.
“Nobody saw this coming,” assures Rey. “Nobody.”
The campaign, which is the most expensive for a movie theater to date, was so successful that AMC extended Kidman’s contract for another year. As diehard fans have speculated, Kidman will return for the ad’s follow-up. “Of course it’s with Nicole,” he confirms. “I’m not doing it without Nicole.”
“All I can tell you about it is we are not dumb enough to fly in the face of the one we’ve already done and try to top it,” Ray said when asked what audiences can expect. “It’s a very, very different approach that is a little bit of a wink to the one we’ve already done.”
Will it feel as perfect and powerful? Only time will tell.
Larry Fried is a filmmaker, writer, and podcaster based in New Jersey. He is the host and creator of the podcast “My Favorite Movie is…,” a podcast dedicated to helping filmmakers make somebody’s next favorite movie. He is also the Visual Content Manager for Special Olympics New Jersey, an organization dedicated to competition and training opportunities for athletes with intellectual disabilities across the Garden State.
