On 15 November, without prior announcement, one of the defining comedies of the year was posted to Timothée Chalamet’s Instagram account. Captioned only “video93884728.mp4”, the 18-minute video at first appeared to be a leaked Zoom call in which the Oscar-nominated actor pitched marketing ideas for the movie Marty Supreme to bemused staff at the indie production house A24. It might take a few minutes, and at least one shock interjection of “schwap!” from the very serious-seeming star, to realize that it’s a joke. Well, sort of – the meta video, in which an egomaniacal Chalamet proposes they “highlight international cooperation” by painting both the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower a “very specific shade orange”, satirizes the tedium of movie marketing desperate to get people in seats, while also introducing a harebrained marketing strategy that’s unabashedly thirsty to get people in seats.

The “leak” heralded an unconventional and extremely committed press campaign for Josh Safdie’s 50s-set ping-pong epic that has turned movie marketing – so often formulaic, cloying or apathetic – into eye-catching performance art. “Movie marketing is trying to be passive, trying to be chic,” Chalamet says in the video, for which he wrote the script. “We’re not trying to be chic.”

Not chic, perhaps, but certainly entertaining. In the weeks since Chalamet pitched “fruitionizing” Marty Supreme via big orange blimp (the “vehicle representation of American greatness”), the actor and studio have been somehow both unpredictable and everywhere. Among the highlights: staged pop-up screenings with Chalamet flanked by bodyguards sporting giant orange ping-pong balls for heads; a near-wordless Instagram live that introduced the refrain “Marty Supreme Christmas Day” to the masses; an ad campaign in which the so-called Goats (Greatest of All Time) of various fields, from Tom Brady to Bill Nye to Misty Copeland, wear a branded windbreaker – “the defining garment of 2025”, according to GQ – for an ad campaign that exhorted people to “dream big”; a mock talent competition with Chalamet and the ping-pong bodyguards as judge; and, of course, a bright orange blimp above LA, with journalists on board. (As of this writing, the Statue of Liberty remains green, but A24 did get the Sphere in Las Vegas to that very specific rust shade.) The hype for an unreleased, original ping-pong movie was sky high even before Chalamet memorably debunked rumors that he’s moonlighting as an underground rapper named EsDeeKid, when he appeared in a music video for a remix of the masked Liverpudlian’s hit 4 Raws.

It all makes for easily the most idiosyncratic, unhinged and genuinely enjoyable press run in a year when the movie press run often seemed like it had run out of road. And it appears to be working – in limited release in New York and Los Angeles ahead of the holidays, Marty Supreme scored the biggest per theater average opening for a film since 2016, a promising start for A24’s most expensive feature to date, with a budget reportedly around $60m. That’s a rare spot of good news for original theatrical releases this year, which have by and large failed to connect with audiences despite marquee movie-star wattage. Even with top-tier talent making the traditional rounds, films such as A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell), The Smashing Machine (Emily Blunt and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), Roofman (Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst), After the Hunt (Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield), Good Fortune (Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen), Kiss of the Spider Woman (Jennifer Lopez) and Anemone (Daniel Day-Lewis, in his first film role in eight years), struggled to attract people to theaters in recent months.

There are, of course, numerous macro reasons why it’s more difficult than ever for original and/or indie films to compete in a market dominated by remakes, reboots and franchises: the decline of the movie star, for one, as well as the proliferation of streaming and the many, many second screens competing for audience attention. But the Marty Supreme press coup underscores just how important, as well as confounding and inconstant, the work post post-production has become. Many a celebrity and their marketing managers have been bedeviled this year by what Vulture termed “the New Media Circuit” – the vast, unofficial constellation of celebrity-friendly podcasts, video series and outlet-affiliated gimmicks sought by movie marketers for the vaporous goal of activating the internet.

These days, a traditional (“passive”) movie campaign – late-night show anecdotes, junkets, gauzy profiles in a respected outlet – isn’t going to cut it, even when the star at hand is as funny and game as Jennifer Lawrence. (No amount of charm offensive on Hot Ones could get people to see her dark psychodrama Die, My Love.) Winning the attention wars is no guarantee of success, either; Sydney Sweeney was in plenty of headlines and social media posts this fall, but her boxing biopic Christy flopped spectacularly.

In the rules of the new media circuit, there is no guaranteed success, only volume and a willingness to try new things … which is, unfortunately, how you end up with A-list movie stars like George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio on a podcast hosted by the Kelce brothers. (Perhaps that helped get the dudes out to see F1.) In a beyond over-saturated media environment, the name of the game is surprise and memorability. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, the highest-grossing original film since 2010 and indisputably the industry highlight of the year, ran a decently standard press campaign, and thrived on exceptional word of mouth.

That, and a sincere pitch for the continued existence of original cinema, which equates the purchase of a ticket with a defense of the arts at a critical time. “I believe in cinema,” Coogler wrote in a thank-you note to Sinners viewers. “I believe in the theatrical experience. I believe it is a necessary pillar of society. To see your response to the film has reinvigorated me and many others who believe in this art form.”

Chalamet, already adept at the New Media Circuit from last year’s award-worthy campaign for the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (in which he crashed his own lookalike contest in Manhattan, out-called the sports analysts on College Gameday, fooled around with Brittany Broski, rode a Lime Bike on to a red carpet and taught dude-bro podcaster Theo Von about government-subsidized arts housing), has taken film appreciation as press crusade to the next level. In his handful of more traditional stops on this very untraditional press blitz – the Tonight Show, Good Morning America, BBC Radio – Chalamet has framed all of his extra-ness as in service of independent, original films in theaters. “This is the easiest sell, for me to come here,” he told Jimmy Fallon, before imploring viewers “you will not regret it” directly to camera one.

“People’s attention spans are so short these days ... How do you convince them to go to the cinema, to spend money to see a film, rather than waiting to stream it illegally, or for it to be available on Netflix?” he said during a different junket stop. “I have an audience, so I engage with them, and I give it 150%.”

Time will tell if Chalamet’s 150% will make the difference between a social media hit and a cinematic one. But I can’t knock the effort, as a supporter of original film and of press tours being less rote and overwhelming at the same time. Not every film can pair extremely game movie star with sellable pitch with solid cause, and also make it fun. But here’s to hoping others pick up the new marketing playbook in 2026.