Viral marketing stunts made 'Deadpool' a $1 billion hit, says Disney exec

ANAHEIM, United States — From cameos in K-pop videos to cooking chimichangas with celebrity chefs, movie stars like Ryan Reynolds are trying ever-more unorthodox stunts to reach fragmented Gen-Z audiences, according to Disney's marketing chief.

The giant Hollywood studio is enjoying a blockbuster summer, with irreverent superhero movie "Deadpool & Wolverine" becoming its latest film set to pass $1 billion at the global box office this weekend.

Speaking at Disney's D23 fan convention Saturday, chief brand officer Asad Ayaz attributed a large part of that breakaway success to stars Reynolds and Hugh Jackman pushing the boundaries of traditional marketing.

The A-listers appeared in character for the "Chk Chk Book" music video with Korean pop sensation Stray Kids, and joined a YouTube cooking competition with Gordon Ramsay and his 22-year-old daughter.

They also took their world tour to a European Championship soccer match in Germany, a London chicken shop (for a popular online comedy sketch series), and got drenched at a water balloon festival.

"We were very lucky and fortunate to have talent... who are willing to do things that sometimes actors don't want to do, like do things in character," Ayaz told AFP.

Gen Z, who are roughly aged 12-27, have been particularly difficult for Hollywood and movie theaters to reach in recent years, setting off alarm bells in the industry.

But unusual stunts "cut through" to young viewers who pay more attention to their phones, social media, YouTube influencers and commercials on video games than traditional TV ads or movie trailers, said Ayaz.

Much of the focus is on generating off-the-wall content that spreads rapidly online.

A highly suggestive popcorn bucket for the film, supposedly "designed" by Reynolds' innuendo-loving Deadpool character, was intended to — and succeeded in — going viral globally.

Reynolds and Jackman also filmed a pre-movie message warning theater-goers to switch off their cell phones — in character as their wise-cracking superhero characters.

"Turn your phone to silent," growls Jackman's aggressive Wolverine, in an expletive-laden threat to camera, which has been watched hundreds of thousands of times on