A closer look
Twentieth Century Fox executives genuinely had no idea how to market Fight Club upon its release in 1999, so they bizarrely decided to promote it almost exclusively during commercial breaks for professional wrestling matches. They completely ignored the film's dark, anti-consumerist satire and existential dread, opting instead to sell it to teenage boys as an action-packed movie about Brad Pitt aggressively punching guys in a basement. The misleading marketing predictably caused the movie to bomb at the box office, as people expecting a brainless beat-em-up were subjected to a dense philosophical critique of modern masculinity. It ultimately found massive success on DVD once audiences realized it was a masterpiece, but the irony of a massive corporation trying to squeeze profits out of a movie that violently mocks corporate capitalism remains one of the sweetest cinematic jokes ever told
