Though in the case of Christopher Nolan’s historical drama, the advanced promotion game has already been in play since Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Seeing as both the World War II drama, and the classic comic book come to life, are both slotted for July 21st release dates, both films will need as much promotion as they can get in order to aim for the advantage.
With an IMAX prologue already running, and a roadshow experience of that very sequence making its way across the country as we speak, the ground game that Dunkirk has been playing is going to be quite the obstacle for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is going to have to overcome.