Producers and Audiences - Past Paper Question

Compare the different factors that contribute to the box office success or failure of a film. [40] (May 2009)

There are many different factors that can affect the success or failure of a film at box office, including, marketing, accolades/reviews, release date etc. Each of these things, if done incorrectly by the production company of the film in terms of their target audience will most likely result in a poor box office figure and therefore the film will be a flop. However, if only one of these are done brilliantly there can be a huge impact on the amount of people willing to see the film, making it a much larger success.

One major element which will most defiantly alter the box office figures is the marketing of a film. Without a clear and dominant marketing strategy a film’s box office figures are bound to be low due to the fact that, if people are not made aware of the film, then no one will go and see it. A clear marketing strategy consists of well thought out trailers and posters, appealing to the target audiences of the film: shown at convenient times at the right places. The marketing strategy initially revolves around the target audience, if there is not a set view on who they wish to appeal the film to the marketing of the film will end up being uncoheirant and take much more time due to having to appeal to a much wider range of people. It can be shown that marketing plays a part in the success of a film at box office by looking into Disney’s “John Carter” a massive flop for the company that cost then $160 million, and ultimately earned the title of one of the greatest failures in film history. This film, although containing many conjoining factors causing it to fail, had its marketing company switched half way through the post production period. Overall, this resulted in the name being changed from JC to John Carter, posters which confused audiences and lack of knowledge of this films release within the public. I am the first to admit, that before its huge failure I had not heard of this film being released, which surprises me due to it being produced by Disney in 2012. Comapring this to a film with a clear marketing strategy, consisting of sponsorships, interactive previews and a huge soundtrack, such as Skyfall, the latest instalment in the Bond franchise. This was the most successful Bond film of all time, and smashed box office records making it the largest selling film within the UK. The release of this film was surrounded by a so called “hype” between, not only Bond fans but curious others. This hype began through the release of the films song of the same name weeks before, sung by one of the largest selling artists in the world at the time, Adele. The release of this song broadcasted the knowledge of this film out to all of her fans, as well as general fans of music as it was such an acclaimed song. This use of marketing, combined with links with Coca-Cola the worlds largest selling drinks brand, if not the largest brand in the world meant that everybody who was anybody was aware that this film was being released: with this knowledge, audiences began to get curious... and the rest they say is history.

Other factor combined with marketing which will almost defiantly have a link to the box office figures, is its release date. The release date is highly important as the availability of the target market to watch the film is the key to high box office figures, if the audience you have spent millions of pounds trying to create a hype around are not satisfied by the release date then on opening weekend, the film will not take amount at box office that it wanted. For instance, the idea of releasing A Good Day To Die Hard on valentines day had both it’s ups and its down’s: In America this date was in fact presidents week and so a bank holiday, meaning that people are willing to go out and spend their leisure money on things such as the cinema. This holiday in America applied to everyone and so A Good Day To Die Hard was able to use this to appeal to a vast audience. However over in the UK this date was unimportant for an action film, although many couples do head out to the cinema on Valentines Day, the fact that this film isn’t typical and so wasn’t aimed at couples meant that other films released around that time such as romance film, Safe Haven, took more at box office than AGDTDH.

Stars can play a huge part in the success or failure of a film, as they are able to in fact make or break the figures at box office. For films with huge stars, type cast in many of their roles, (Bruce Willis in Die Hard) the target audience for that film begins to clearly be aimed at those who are fans of the star as the people who go and see the film will want to see plenty of that star within the film. However, other films such as John Carter, that did not have a very famous male lead created no anticipation around its release because no one was aware of who was playing the main character and what to expect. Ultimately contributing the to the failure of John Carter previously explained. Although it can be stated that this is not always the case as there has been films with very little known about the stars which have done exceedingly well, such as Hugo.

The last key element which I am going to discuss which can highly effect the appeal of a film at box office, and so making it a success or failure, is the word of mouth. With opinions being something which many people go off before watching a film it is important for any reviews or news that is spread about the film to be positive. This can come through the winning of accolades, critics reviews, press as well as general reviews from the public on websites such as Rotten Tomatoes. With a positive word of mouth comes with it the hype that marketing companies spend millions of pounds to create. This shows that even without any fancy marketing strategies, or spending multimillion pounds hiring a star, a film can be successful through purely creating a good piece of cinema that can be easily enjoyed.