Amazon Prime Video (PV) had to continue to assert its position in culture as home for high octane original entertainment in an ever-intensifying streaming landscape. The Tomorrow War is Prime Video’s ambitious action/sci-fi blockbuster starring Chris Pratt that’s set in the present day (2021) and the future (2051), focusing on a futuristic war against a viscous alien force where the hope of mankind relies on scientists’ new ability to draft soldiers from the past to the war in 2051. Our brief: Make Tomorrow War the biggest action movie of the year and establish Chris Pratt as the next generation action hero.

Stories of mass disaster or threat of extinction tap into a fear all people have, regardless of race, politics, income, geography, and religion. Given the universality of this ever-increasing existential fear, our efforts were designed to reach broad audiences eager to stream a blockbuster hit. Our strategy was to ‘Create a Global Invasion’ that catches people by surprise and transports them to another world through global world building stunts and interactive high-impact media. Creating a Global Invasion meant every touchpoint was designed to help differentiate this action/sci-fi from other post-apocalyptic films. We wanted to immerse people in the thrilling premise while introducing them to their enemy - the vicious invading alien force, the Whitespikes. Our idea was to use media as a conduit for the menacing Whitspikes to invade the most iconic locations around the world.

Our Global Invasion was led by Whitespikes that appeared across the globe driving PR headlines and social chatter. In Brazil, Whitespikes emerged out of OOH units across iconic locations in São Paulo and Rio De Janeiro. As Brazilians tuned into their favorite shows, we surprised them with an in-program integration that announced the Tomorrow War was coming. 3D projections brought the Whitespikes to life as they crawled up the side of iconic buildings in Buenos Aires and San Cristobal. In Canada, an OOH execution featuring 3D spikes brought the film to life on one of Toronto’s pedestrian-heavy streets in the summer. We invaded Denmark and Sweden, with OOH units juxtaposed next to famous landmarks that showed what the landmarks would like after an alien invasion. In the US, we transported life-size Whitespikes in cargo trucks giving Los Angelenos the chance to get up close and personal with the aliens.

The Tomorrow War ranked as the No. 1 streaming film during the opening weekend, and, according to Screen Engine's PostVOD audience summary, ranked as the largest live-action streaming movie last summer globally. The film also helped Prime Video set record viewership in Brazil, India, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, and Japan (Entertainment Weekly). The movie scored 1.23 billion minutes of watch time in the United States, the best opening for an Amazon original tentpole behind Coming 2 America (1.41 billion million minutes) and among the best showings for any movie since Nielsen began tracking streaming viewership in 2020. Tomorrow War ended up being the most watched movie in Brazil and Mexico according to Just Watch in 2021.