Warner Bros. Pictures Canada has introduced a different kind of trailer to promote its new film The Accountant.
The studio has created an “escape room” inside a custom Airstream trailer at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square in order to publicize the Ben Affleck movie, which opens Oct. 14.
The free experience, which runs through Thursday, gives groups eight minutes to solve a series of clues in order to help the movie’s main character, Christian Wolff, unlock a safe containing $5,000.
Teams that succeed are immediately entered into an onsite draw for a chance to win a $5,000 getaway, while those that fail will be greeted by the sound of oncoming police sirens.
LexPR oversaw the creative development and build-out of the custom escape room, while Your Brand Integrated Marketing Communications is overseeing a targeted social media campaign and the development of a digital escape room where Canadians can locate clues for a chance to win prizes.
The digital escape room will be posted to Warner Bros. Pictures Canada’s Facebook page on Friday.
The Accountant stars Affleck as a freelance forensic accountant for dangerous criminal organizations who is being pursued by a Treasury agent played by J.K. Simmons (Whiplash). The film also stars Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead), Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent) and Anna Kendrick (Into the Woods).
The marketing campaign taps into the growing escape room phenomenon, in which teams are placed into a locked room and given a set time to solve a series of puzzles in order to escape.
Escape rooms are said to have originated in Japan in 2007 before making their way to the U.S. in 2012. According to a story on MarketWatch.com earlier this year, there are 2,800 permanent escape rooms worldwide.
