Angelina Jolie became a bonafide action star thanks to her Tomb Raider films titled Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider- The Cradle of Life. Based on the Tomb Raider games, the movies explored the action and adventures of the lead character.
The first film had a budget of $115 million and grossed $274 million. The second one grossed $160 million on a $95 million budget. Thanks to the success of the first installment, Jeep used the film to launch its Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with 1001 limited vehicles that cost it a total of $44M.
The Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 2 And Customized Jeep Connection
In Lara Croft: Tomb Raider- Cradle of Life, there’s a scene where Angelina Jolie’s heroine parachutes into a 2003 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon while adventuring in Africa. Jeep partnered up with the film to advertise its new batch of cars. The vehicle used in the film was specially customized and apparently, a total of 3 such cars were made for production.
As per Motor Trends, here’s how the cars used for production differed from the normal ones put on the market:
“Based on the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon designed and created specifically for the movie, the production Wrangler Rubicon Tomb Raider model features a unique exterior with 16-inch Alcoa forged aluminum wheels, Tomb Raider badging, and a number of Mopar accessories.”
Along with this, the site stated that additional changes made for the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon included, “Unique Dark Slate fabric seats with red accent stitching down the center, silver surround instrument panel bezel, red seat belts and a Tomb Raider badge with serial number.” People could grab 1001 such car models.
1001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 2 Customized Jeep Wrangler Rubicons Up For Grabs
To promote their Jeep Wrangler Rubicon vehicles and the Angelina Jolie-led Lara Croft: Tomb Raider- Cradle of Life, Jeep put out 1001 cars across the USA that looked similar to the one used in the film. All the Tomb Raider Wrangler Rubicon models were offered in bright silver, exactly what was seen in the film.
Jeff Bell, the vice president of Jeep said, “[The ad campaign] is more than just a product placement … the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is the most capable Jeep ever built, so the heroic and extreme environment in which Lara Croft uses her custom Wrangler Rubicon in Tomb Raider is accurate.”
Back in 2003, those 1001 collector edition vehicles were priced at $28,815 as per Motor Trends. Nowadays, it costs around $44k to buy one. So adjusting for inflation, Jeep spent approximately a whopping $44M to market the film as well as their vehicles. All of the 1001 limited edition Jeep Wrangler Rubicons were sold out.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider- Cradle of Life is streaming on Netflix.
Source: Motor Trend
