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.

Skyfall's Success

Skyfall - British Production

Skyfall was incredibly successful at box office, it took more than £100 million in the UK, succeeding not only the rest of the Bond franchise but also every other film in British box office history. There are many considerable reasons behind this, including:

• Director Sam Mendes is a British oscar winner for American Beauty, attracting a newer, more accolade driven audience.
• Singer of song of the same name Adele, a famous British star across the globe, won Bonds first Oscar in 47 years for Best Original Song.
• Spin off film - Happy and Glorious - was featured in the opening ceremony for the London Olympics 2012,  showing the Queen in her first on screen role.
• Uses and Gratification theory highly shown in all Bond films, including this one, in terms of Escapism.
• Successful advertising campaign including tie-ins with both Heineken and Coca-Cola Zero even if there was disgust from certain Bond fans insisting he would not be seen dead with such drinks.
• Oscar winning screenwriter for Hugo, John Logan.
• Shown in Imax theaters, adding to the experience for certain cinema goers.
• Use of social networking sites as a form of advertising.

Here is a screenshot of the films website, showing many of the reasons behind its success.

Case Study- Die Hard 5

What i can use A Good Day To Die Hard to discuss:

• Stars
• Release Dates
• Age Ratings
• Titles
• Budget

A good day to die hard case study from 12ahone12

Past Paper Question - Lovers on the Lam

In the American films you have studies for this topic, how far do the representations of women and men reflect the time they were made? (40)

The two American films that I have studies for this topic are Badlands, directed by Terrance Mallick, and Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone. These films have a 20 year gap between them, with Badlands being released in 1973 and NBK in 1994, this time difference can be shown through the mise-en-scene, setting as well as the representations of gender. Both of these films are each loosely based around the same event, the Starkwhether and Fugegate killing spree which occurred in the late 1950s.

With Badlands being set at the time of this event and released in the 70’s, within American society at these times women were seen as much more vulnerable and niave compared to the more empowered women in society now. This is reflected within Badlands as the lead female character, Holly, who Is around the age of 14 is shown as very niave and in the need of being rescued. It is hard to argue that the representation of Holly is a reflection on women in society at the time as Holly is only a young teenager not necessarily a woman: however due to the nature and maturity of what she gets herself into it has to be considered that her representation of women is the right one. Throughout Badlands Holly seems to be unaware that her boyfriend, Kit, is killing anyone who stands in his way, even though she is with him when it happens. This shows that she does not want to have to admit to herself what he is doing, and begins to condone it up until the last few scenes of the film when she sees sense. Her niavity and acceptance begins to show how men were much more dominant in society at this time.

Comparing this to the representation given to women in NBK there is a very clear contrast, the lead female in NBK, Valarie is represented in just as much of an evil and manipulative way as her boyfriend Mickey as she joins in with the killings and at times sparks it. Unlike Holly who never joins in with the killing and just takes a back seat. This shows a clear contrast between the women in society in the 70’s and women in the 1990’s because Valery is much more of a dominant character with control over situations unlike Holly who lets Kit do everything. Within NBK Valarie is a very sexually aware, provocative woman, however in Badlands Holly is a young girl who is experiencing love and sex for the first time (this is mainly due to her age) yet this shows that as Valery is still quite young but is so aware of the effect she can have on men: that this was much more accepted within the 90’s. At the start of NBK Valarie is wearing skimpy clothes and dancing around a diner provocatively attracting the attention of all of the men. This is something which was much more common in the 90’s as women gained empowerment by understanding their body and men’s reactions to it, rather than in the 70’s which was much more restricted as more women were being taken control of.

The representations of women in both of these films clearly show the societies views at the time, as within the 70’s the working world was very much male dominated and so the fact that it would have been mostly males who worked on Badlands shows how men thought that the women should be represented through Holly, frail and weak. Whereas more women began to be accepted within the workplace in the 90’s which is shown through Valarie’s empowerment as that idea was likely to have come from a women who no longer wanted women to be seen an vulnerable.

Within Badlands the representation of Kit as a male character is a poor one, although he is not shown physically in a stereotypically masculine way as he isn’t incredibly strong or powerful, his other traits begin to enable us to depict the way men acted in the 1970’s. Kit was a very independent person, even though he spent the film with Holly he did not seem to confide in her about anything: he was very self confined. This could just be the representation of Charles Satrkwhether being shown, or it could be due to the fact that men in the 70’s did not respect women enough to trust them with anything important, whether it be their own feelings or something like killing. Kit was also the instigater and sole actor on the murders, this shows again, that men were much more dominant and felt the need to hold the power within the 1970’s compared to the 90’s where they took more of a backseat in some cases.

The representation of Mickey in NBK shows a stereotypical male character physically, unlike Kit in Badlands, as he is a very physically dominant male. This begins to show the fact that men took more of a care with their appearance within the 90’s mainly due to the fact that women were becoming much pickier with the men they wanted to attract so the men had to step up their game, so to speak.

It is clear that the representations of both genders within Badlands and Natural Born Killers reflect the time in which they were made as there are clear differences between these two films and the time gap can be visibly seen. The two films show similarities in event in which they are both loosely based on, yet the way in which they have been approached by the directors is very different and in both cases works well to show its intent and society at the times.