This past fall, Timothée Chalamet posted a link on social media to a Zoom meeting with marketing execs at A24 about ideas he had for selling his upcoming film Marty Supreme. For anyone who wants to how campaigns really come together, it was a dream come true to be invited into the inner sanctum — especially when what you’re trying to sell an original indie film about a 1950s hustler who will do anything to become the world’s table tennis champion.
Chalamet was on fire as he spoke to the group . “We must be intentional, relentless, aggressive,” said the actor, whose meteoric rise to movie stardom has made him a voice for his generation. “This has got to be one of the most important things that happens on Planet Earth this year.” He then asked the group to name the best campaign of the past several years, and why. When no one could answer, he said it was Barbie’s pink-infused rollout. He wanted to use orange — the main character in his film, Marty Mauser, uses orange ping-pong balls — but it could be risky. “If we do straight orange, then we’re literally just copying the vibe of Barbie, which we can’t do,” he said. He then showed the group a hue a designer friend had spent six months working, an orange he described as “corroded, falling apart and rusted” that could be the perfect solution. Next, he brought up the idea of using an orange blimp, or even a fleet of blimps, labeled with the slogan “Marty Supreme…dream big.”
“I think it’s exciting,” responded one A24 exec. “My only concern, which probably won’t come up, is that some people think of the Hindenburg disaster when they see a blimp. But blimps were invented by the Germans, so I think we could skirt around it.” Growing even more excited, Chalamet said a blimp could crisscross the country and end up in L.A., where it could rain the branded orange-ping pongs on the crowds gathering in November at Tyler, The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Festival (the multi-hyphenate musician, songwriter and designer makes his feature film acting debut in Safdie’s film under the credited name Tyler Okonma.)
The Goodyear blimp and the Marty Supreme blimp fly together on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025 in Gardena, CA.
Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Looking concerned, a third exec said there could be safety issues involved. Chalamet barely flinched. “I don’t want to put anybody in an unsafe condition, but I also don’t want to be too safe about putting out this movie. If it’s the difference of someone losing an arm but gaining an arm intellectually when they see the movie, I’m fan of the idea,” he opined.
It was at that moment that anyone who actually watched the entire 18-minute Zoom session realized it was actually a brilliant marketing ruse (the Hindenburg? Losing a limb?) designed to become another viral sensation — which it did. The satirical, scripted meeting proved the power of an actor can have when granted authorship in marketing their movies in unconventional ways.
Look no further than Ryan Reynolds and the first Deadpool, which turned into a surprise hit following a campaign heavily influenced by the actor that didn’t take the normal route for a superhero pic (Reynolds was so enchanted by the process that he later founded his own marketing agency and started numerous other brand ventures.) Marty Supreme is hardly the scope of a Marvel franchise like Deadpool, although the sports-dramedy is the most expensive film A24 has made with a reported production budget of $60 to $70 million.
Kevin O’Leary, Timothée Chalamet, Fran Drescher, Tyler, the Creator, Josh Safdie, Koto Kawaguchi, Odessa A’zion, and Luke Manley Light the Empire State Building in Orange to Celebrate the Premiere of Marty Supreme on Dec. 15, 2025 in New York City.
Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Chalamét has only spoken publicly a handful of times about his marketing role. “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 recently told The Guardian. “I have an audience, so I engage with them and I give them 150 percent.”
And they gave 150 percent in return — and then some. Marty Supreme has shattered one record after another since opening over the holidays. Its latest box office milestone came Tuesday when passing up Leonardo DiCaprio’s rival Oscar contender One Battle After Another to end the day with an estimated cume of $72.27 million, according to A24. From director Paul Thomas Anderson and Warner Bros., One Battle After Another, has earned slightly north of $71.6 million to date domestically (unlike Marty, it’s already playing in the home as its theatrical run winds down.) Internationally, One Battle is still far ahead, earning $154.5 million at the foreign box office for a domestic total of $206.1 million.
But Marty Supreme is only now beginning to roll out in earnest overseas, where it has earned nearly $10 million to date from just a few markets, including a best-ever showing in the U.K. for an A24 pic with north of $8.4 million. Based on early returns, box office experts believe Marty Supreme could do substantial business overseas and end up north of $170 million to $180 million globally, if not higher.
And it is now just days away from overtaking Oscar best-picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once ($77.2 million) to rank as A24’s top-grossing film domestically of all time (and it will ultimately pass up $147 million earned by Everything. And the pic will also become Chalamet’s top-grossing original film this weekend at the global box office when passing up last year’s Oscar contender A Complete Unknown, which grossed $75 million in North America (the Bob Dylan biopic’s global total was $140.4 million).
Last weekend, Marty Supreme’s domestic tally was already one of the best showings for a specialty film at the U.S. box office in the post-pandemic era and that was before Chalamet took home his first Golden Globe win for best actor after five nominations, beating out formidable competitor Leonardo DiCaprio (they were both nominated in the musical/comedy category, while The Secret Agent‘s Wagner Moura won in the drama category).
With his win, award experts expect Marty Supreme will get a post-Globes bump at the box office heading into Oscar nominations, since it is so early in its run. Ditto for Focus Features and the Steven Spielberg-produced Hamnet, which held back in order to benefit from any win, such as its surprise Globes victory over Sinners for best picture in the drama category.
Chalamet has always been interested in marketing, including for 2023’s Wonka. And last year, he dipped his toes into the marketing waters even further when promoting the A Complete Unknown. And he made a surprise appearance (or was it planned)? at Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest and was also enlisted to be the best picker for ESPN GameDay for SEC Championship.
“This is all a testament to him knowing his audience and his brand, and how he speaks to them,” says a source close to the campaign. “With Marty Supreme, He’s been really leaning into the things that he loves himself. He’s treating the campaign like being an athlete. There’s an aspect of this where it’s incredibly unrelenting: the choreographed video of the Zoom call, pop-culture music stunts, all these viral moments with the blimps. And then his pop-up trucks, which we did around the world. And he collaborated on a tracksuit that he gave to the best of the best. It’s s been amazing.”
Chalamet sidestepped many of the traditional publicity duties — that’s likely to change now as the Oscar push begins — in order to focus on creating these strategic viral moments. One of his final adventures before the movie officially opened was becoming the first person to scale and stand atop The Sphere in Las Vegas, which was turned into a giant orange ping-pong ball.
How did he use the profound moment? To urge people to go his film “Marty Supreme is an American film that comes out on Christmas Day, 2024,” he said before raising his arms in victory and whooping and hollering.