T h e H e r o M a r s D e s e r v e s

Schwarzenegger wasn’t just a hero on- screen. Three weeks before the movie was set to be released, Arnie discovered that a lacklustre trailer was putting off a large number of potential viewers. He personally phoned Sony executive Peter Guber, who was one of the people charged with distributing the movie. “Your studio is screwing up the publicity campaign,” he said. Guber agreed to meet with Schwarzenegger. A different ad campaign was hurriedly launched, and approval ratings for the movie rose from 40 per cent to 92 per cent. “Arnold Schwarzenegger is such a smart guy, you can’t dance around him,” says producer Mario Kassar. “He has the best understanding of how to market a movie that I’ve ever seen in an actor. He knows where to market it, how to market it, who to market it to. He had done his homework, that’s for sure.”