MOVIE NEWS – A very brief deleted scene from a Bruce Willis movie led to a $200,000 lawsuit by Black & Decker. The company paid for John McClane to use their drill in Die Hard 2: Die Harder, only to discover three days before the film’s release that the scene had been removed.

Have you ever heard of product placement? If you grew up in the 1990s watching shows like Full House, you’ve probably seen it in action. It’s a clever advertising method where products are seamlessly integrated into scenes, sometimes even becoming a part of the plot. This tactic is so lucrative that companies are willing to pay significant sums for their products to appear on screen. In some cases, product placement even influences major films, such as Die Hard 2: Die Harder.

In the film, which is set in an airport, John McClane (played by Bruce Willis) must navigate the terminal stealthily to avoid the bad guys and save Christmas Eve once again. One of the sequences would have shown him using a Black & Decker drill to unscrew an air duct grate, similar to a scene you’d expect from Batman in the Arkham Asylum games. Black & Decker invested a large sum of money for this brief scene and even launched a marketing campaign to maximize the impact.

The issue arose just three days before the movie’s premiere when Black & Decker discovered that the scene had been cut entirely from the final version. While the reasoning behind this decision remains unclear, the omission derailed the company’s plans, and they refused to settle for a simple apology. Black & Decker sued 20th Century Fox and received compensation for the breach.

According to Far Out Magazine, the company withheld the $20,000 they had agreed to pay for the product placement, arguing that the removal damaged their credibility. They escalated the matter by suing both the studio and the intermediary marketing agency for $150,000. Though the case never went to trial, the parties reached a settlement. This lawsuit was one of the first of its kind, likely leading to stricter contracts for product placements in the future.

Why was Black & Decker so upset if they hadn’t even paid the full amount? The company had invested $200,000 into a Father’s Day marketing campaign in the United States, banking on the drill’s appearance in the movie. They made their “Univolt” drill available in 17,000 stores, promoting it as the perfect gift for the occasion. However, with the scene removed at the last minute, the campaign’s impact was severely diminished, and the company lost out on a potentially lucrative opportunity.

In Die Hard 2: Die Harder, McClane spends Christmas Eve battling a group of terrorists, led by a ruthless leader (played by William Sadler), who seize control of an international airport. The film was a box-office hit, grossing over $240 million on a $70 million budget. Part of its success came from marketing deals like the one with Black & Decker. The movie is currently available to stream on Disney+.

Source: 3djuegos