'71 Distribution and Marketing

This overlaps with other posts, but as there are a lot of images, a new post makes sense.

OVERVIEW: KEY POINTS
This is a film with wider ambitions, and arguably a more commercial approach, than most of Warp's productions - as it should, with its ambitious £5m budget*, twice that of Four Lions. UPDATE, 2016: BUT...It flopped, despite the awards, critical acclaim, and gaining distribution in the US and 10 more territories (12 total including the UK) for a worldwide total of $3m: $1.6m UK,, $1.3m US and just $355k from 10 other territories. *According to this Screen article (cited in Wiki) it was £8.1m

According to IMDB, it is getting theatrical releases in France, Spain, Greece, Germany, Canada, USA, Australia, Middle East (eg UAE, see section below). However, we have seen past Warp films such as Tyrannosaur getting distribution in multiple territories, but not getting any marketing spend to give it a real chance (its specialist LGBT distributor didn't issue a trailer, and it limped to a mere $22k). The absence of any information on its US distributor does not augur well.

IMDB company list.

Boxofficemojo: Not every distributor took up the option for a theatrical release.

OPENING WEEKEND: This has become a key figure - if it is lower than expected a film is likely to be labelled a flop and the odds are high that the public will be deterred from seeing a 'flop', while distributors may hold back on further prints and marketing investment. What is significant about the table above is that almost all of '71's national releases saw most of the entire box office raised in the opening weekend - it failed to get a wider, longer release beyond then. The UK figure, in contrast, is just 21% - in this case it built well by word-of-mouth, as I saw first-hand at Bradfor's National Media Museum, where a low opening night (Friday) turnout would be hugely boosted by a review in that day's Guardian (UK broadsheet/quality) newspaper.

COMMERCIAL? COUNTER-TYPICAL FOR WARP? MAYBE NOT...
The 'commercial' element lies in pushing the action/thriller genre over the setting or any real exploration of the issues raised.

BUDGETS Mid-budget movies missing from multiplex?

Another theme I've flagged up before; the disappearance of what used to be the dominant production model, the mid-budget movie, defined here as $10-50m, though I'd consider it more $20m and up for US productions.

There is another reason the barricades between “serious” and “popcorn” are coming down – the “squeezed middle”. In short, Hollywood movies have become either very cheap or very expensive. The middle ground – traditional habitat of awards-friendly drama – has all but disappeared. As Jason Bailey wrote in Flavorwire in 2014, that mid-budget range (roughly between $10m and $50m) was once filled by the likes of John Waters, David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh and countless others. Now Lee has to fund his films through Kickstarter, and Lynch and Soderbergh have quit movies in favour of television. Even Bay has noticed it. “The movie industry has really changed. The middle-[budget] movie is basically gone. They just want these big movies,” he complained to Rolling Stone, with no apparent trace of irony.

Why so serious? The directors ditching the daft for the dramatic http://gu.com/p/4g8fg?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

AGE RATING BOX OFFICE 5th Wave's 15 wipes target audience

I've raised again recently the issue of 18 ratings as box office cyanide, but here's a great example of the difference between 12 and 15 too - and a practical application of the Gant Rule to boot.

Adapted from the Rick Yancey science fiction novel, and featuring a female teen protagonist, future dystopia, alien invasion and two appealing romantic options for our heroine,The 5^th Wave appeared to have all the elements needed to connect it with the tween and early-teen girl audience that has proved so crucial to the success of franchises such as Twilight, The Hunger Games and Divergent. What The 5^thWave crucially lacked, however, was the certificate – a 12A – that would have made the film available to those audiences in The UK. Instead, British censor the BBFC slapped it with a 15 (for “strong violence” and “injury detail”). In the US, it’s rated PG-13. The 5^th Wave debuted with a rather flat £498,000 from 338 cinemas. In the US, it opened with $10.3m. Based on that number, a UK debut gross of around £1m might have been predicted.

The Revenant mauls UK box office but Sandra Bullock's brand may be in crisis http://gu.com/p/4g69p?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

RATINGS MPAA and BBFC ratings

Just a quick post to ensure you have quick reference of the two main age ratings systems we'll refer to.

The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) you'll recognize from the green background on US trailers. [see Wiki]

The BBFC are the UK censor ... but they dropped the word censorship from their name quite smartly to take on a more neutral name ... the British Board of Film Classification. Their website is excellent, including a student-specific section, and a quick search tool to find their rationale for specific movie ratings.

In most cases, the 18/NC-17 rating is box office cyanide - see this post on Zombie, and here, where I analyse the record of 18-ratings including Fifty Shades of Grey, an exception. (There's also the possible F for feminist rating, the Bechdel Test applied in Sweden!). Wal-Mart won't stock any NC-17 DVDs, a serious consideration as the biggest DVD retailer in the US!

I include the BBFC explanation for 3 case study films in this post: This is England, Hot Fuzz, The World's End.

Do the regulators favour the studios and treat Indies more harshly? There's certainly a case to be made, and the 18 ratings of TisEng and Sweet Sixteen seem to be quite typical, as are the 12 ratings of films like The Dark Knight. You can make an interesting comparison of Warp and Working Title on this.

The following trailer is the ironic, entertaining (NB: and UK 18-rated) documentary investigating the ultra-secretive MPAA, This Film Is Not Yet Rated (IMDB; Wiki). In the full film you'll hear Trey Parker comparing his poor treatment by the MPAA when he submitted his Indie debut feature ... and how this changed utterly when he was behind the Sony-backed South Park movie.

(Can't embed the trailer: here's the link)

Here are the two ratings systems graphically compared.

(CMD/CTRL-) Click picture to enlarge

...

CONVERGENCE Lionsgate jump at chance to sponsor TV show

A fortuitous bit of trashy reading ... buried at the end of this inconsequential article is the following revelation:

This year’s series is sponsored by Hollywood film company Lionsgate which is launching a biopic of Edwards, starring Hugh Jackman, Christopher Walken and Kingsman’s Taron Egerton, which will hit cinemas from 1 April.

Superman's Dean Cain and Girls Aloud's Sarah Harding join C4's The Jump http://gu.com/p/4fpe7?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

BOX OFFICE Di Caprio franchise-free; Star Wars only 15th

Gleaned from Phil Hoad's latest column on global box office, extremely informative, useful and interesting as ever - it's worth following through an RSS feed, the Guardian app... Newspaper indeed!

Adjusted for inflation Star Wars is only the 15th biggest hit of all time - Titanic still well ahead (some would quibble over the figures, which track ticket numbers rather than revenue). As I've blogged previously, hype over records is a central part of modern movie marketing.

It's clear that franchises rule and look set to continue doing so. Distributors still work on the assumption that star appeal is king, but this is becoming ever more questionable as stars struggle outside of franchises to successfully open movies on their name. Do Caprio is perhaps a rare, maybe even unique exception - Hoad works through the figures, including an impressive early run for Revenant, a difficult to market western.

The Revenant's franchise-free DiCaprio is the ultimate A-list survivor http://gu.com/p/4fycm?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

MPAA Zombie celebrates drop from NC-17 to R

In Britain the 18 rating is generally box office cyanide, barring as it does the main cinema market of teens, although some horrors and the occasional drama (Fifty Shades of Grey) manage to succeed with an 18.

Warp have frequently been hit with an 18, This is England being a notorious but typical example - intended as a 15, the BBFC decided it's strong language (scripted by the teen cast themselves to a degree) and one violent scene made it an 18. Many newspapers noted their disagreement with this judgement, and several local councils used their discretionary power to make it a 15 in their area. See also Ken Loach's social realist Indie Sweet Sixteen (18) and the studio tentpole Dark Knight (12), or WT's World's End (15) for could be seen as a system that favours the studio releases.

The documentary This Film Has Not Been Rated exposed a very clear bias of the US film censor towards the studios, with South Park's Trey Parker noting the contrast between the help he got to keep the South Park movie rating down and the stony silence he got when producing his debut film, a low budget Indie.

Rob Zombie has just tweeted his relief at getting his next film, 31, down to an R rating from the NC-17 it had twice gotten from the MPAA - whilst promising fans he'd release the uncut NC-17 version on DVD. He also released the poster (which takes the same basic design approach as Warp's '71 I noticed!) on his Twitter feed, a nice example of convergence and the potential importance of social media to Indie filmmakers (do Warp use it as well as they could?).

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3375759/rob-zombie-will-release-uncut-version-of-31/

GLOBAL Gotta be Indiat to win it

TBC

Bollywood box office takings down for first time in five years http://gu.com/p/4fhzn?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

ANALOGUE Kodak resurrect Super-8 cameras

With vinyl exploding, and even Polaroid enjoying a resurgence, the march of digitisation is not absolute, there remains enthusiasm for analogue tools and formats.

The Super-8 camera had largely existed as a special effect plug-in for editing software, something I've looked at with students seeking a retro look, but it is once more to receive mass production from Kodak, backed up with marketing featuring enthusiasts such as Quentin Tarantino.

The return of Super 8: why Kodak’s rebooted old-school camera could be a hit http://gu.com/p/4ft2f?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

NBC-U owner Comcast to buy ITV?

They've issued a blunt denial today, but if a rival, say Viacom, bids for ITV (as seems rather likely) then I'd be surprised if the home of Downton Abbey didn't get snapped up by a US giant.

UK media ownership laws are much looser than the USA's (where Murdoch had to become a US citizen before he could further expand his US media empire).

Keep an eye on the economics and business sections of papers for this one...

ITV shares fall as investors cool on bid after Comcast denies holding talks

http://gu.com/p/4fa94?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Paramount's toy story is a GI Joke

If ever there was a flicker of doubt about Hollywood's aversion to originality and determination to tap into existing IP, then this announcement surely pours a bucket of water (or cinema syrup-hydrated carbonated artery miller) over this.

There will be another Transformers! Yay, and alert the Oscar committee now!

There will be a THIRD GI Joe (seriously, there's been TWO?!).

And now there will be more brain-rot productions seeking to cash in Hasbro toys brand recognition and taking up the notion of the Marvel universe (a tremendously intricate, complex and highly converged narrative world, regardless of your view of the quality of TV or film instalments).

Hurrah for Hasbro!

Paramount and Hasbro uniting GI Joe and other toys in new movie universe http://gu.com/p/4f52d?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

The sound of family audience music to TV ears

So, UK TV channel ITV is to live broadcast The Sound of Music ... following in the footsteps of NBC in the US. The UK version takes the edgier setting of the Nazi backdrop, US network TV not exactly being known for its risk taking!

Why post this on a cinema blog?

Convergence.

We have the Universal link with NBC.

I've recently sat and listened to Warp's Barry Ryan flag up Warp Films' relative focus on TV.

More evidence of franchising and the reliance on pre-existing IP with likely built in audiences, or at least easier marketing challenges.

We're also seeing a surge of live cinema, led by opera and theatre, but also event cinema using back-catalogue movies.

As ITV prepares for The Sound of Music Live, are we watching TV's future? http://gu.com/p/4f3nt?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

The 'UK' box office: FOUR national audiences?

I'll add a Mickybo and Me trailer/link when at a computer, but spotted this gem in the ALWAYS useful Guardian box office column...

The headline story was the flop of the needless Frankenstein retelling, a good sign that a 'built-in' audience isn't guaranteed by widely known source material (a Fox off message for the Murdoch empire distributor).

Much further down, however, came this ... and I'm mindful of the stereotyped nonsense we get in such fare as Working Title's Wild Child (Scottish matron... the joke is...her voice... It's funny see if you don't talk with a southern English accent) as an explanation for the following:

Sunset Song lights up Scotland

Landing outside the top 10 with £114,000 from 80 cinemas, including £28,000 in previews, Terence Davies’ period romance Sunset Song is hardly a box office powerhouse. In Scotland, however, where it did 69% of its business – and especially at independent cinemas in cities such as Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Dundee – it’s a different story. Distributor Metrodome is billing Sunset Song as Davies’ biggest opening, because the previews push the tally past his previous best, The Deep Blue Sea (£109,000) in 2011.

This is one of the reasons I tend to put quote marks round 'British' cinema.

Victor Frankenstein dead on arrival at UK box office http://gu.com/p/4eq9q?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

CHINA's monstrous box office mythical, actually

This post is a simulacrum of itself - Google, why can't you sort out the damned Android app??? TWICE I've written (tapped ) this and twice its disappeared by switching apps or trying to navigate in the blogger app*. Not good.

Anyway... I've mentioned before the issues around the fantastical claims of China's explosive box office growth. Taking their cue from the Hollywood hegemons, who make 'biggest ever' standard marketing fare, we've seen the same approach to box office figures as to the Chinese stock market: only good, upbeat news is allowed. Make that was.

A recent US-China trade deal means that China now has an increased legal duty to ensure box office figures are accurate, and clamp down on piracy. The Chinese government finally permitted the huge 'correction' (econospeak for massive fall) in the value of the Chinese stock market recently, and with the state media reporting on suspicions that the home-grown CGI-fest Monster was exaggerating the box office returns, we're seeing the start of a similar process.

India will undoubtedly become a hype story soon enough, with equal issues over its figures, given how 'cinema' runs in the still huge rural market; listen to Chuck D and don't believe the hyp when that becomes the next meme.

The Western markets have inspired this behaviour - cinema crowds do operate on a herd/heard (word-of-mouth ...) basis, and we flock to a hit. As a recent, typically insightful Guardian box office column pointed out, the studios have been engaged in unattributed flame wars seeking to brand each other's tentpole releases as flops through social media, hoping to convince people to avoid them.

China takes box office manipulation to the twilight zone - as this article reports, the figures for Monster were inflated not just by benefitting from the period when US films are blocked each year, but also 40m 'public welfare' tickets given out to families. This often results in empty cinemas screening in the early hours, a phantom operation indeed (just how many horror intertextualities can I squeeze in from dusk 'til dawn...).

I guess the moral of the story is, don't get too wrapped up in box office this yuletide...

*The blogger app is handy but its way too easy to lose something you've worked on - don't try to switch windows to ... ironically, given the ownership ... Google something for example! A longer, wittier version of this post had appeared on the wrong blog, was shown as an earlier link-only post when I tried to navigate back to the right blog to re-post it ... and deleted entirely along the way. VERY annoying. Brings to mind Battlestar Galactica's haunting version of All Along the Watchtower: "all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again" [and thats the second time I've typed/tapped that ... this time on a Macbook now on 4% battery!]

Mock exam

As promised, here's the details for your AS mock exam, taking the form of a controlled test.

The timings and style of this combines elements from both exam questions (1: semiotic analysis of media language + representations in a TV drama clip, 2: British Cinema essay, centred on Warp/WT comparative case studies).

This is available as a Slideshare document, but also below the line as plain text.

AS mock exam outline Dec 2015 StG from DB3igs

UGC #IvorIsComing to Shaun of the Dead

'The text' extends far beyond the 'product' officially released...

[Hoping to finally find some time in a few weeks to work through months of mainly smartphone-sourced posts and properly format/illustrate these ... and here's another for that growing catalogue...]

Great example of the UGC concept which provides a rather funny demonstration of why Gauntlett, Gillmor and more are right to write of "the former audience" in the web 2.0 era (OK, so the shift to social media online dominance gives some sway to the web 3.0 label, but that's yet to gain the same currency).

Scroll to the bottom of the Unilad article linked below [NB: comments, fairly typically, contain strong language, and the article itself contains some - I've linked a Love, Actually alternative at the bottom] and you'll see a doctored SotDead still, one of many filmic responses to the viral mocking of an Irish hipster. I'll share a screenshot in due course.

Working Title, never mind their conglomerate parent NBCU or SotD's distributor, have no control over this - though surely smarter film firms will be keen to share, encourage and maybe even (albeit with risks of backlash) create such UGC?

There's convergence here too: a website accessed through a social media platform reporting on and sharing Twitter and Instagram trending content which features many film references, and which I, like most, accessed and viewed on my smartphone before further sharing on Blogger!

CONVERGENCE, DISTRIBUTION Scissorhands Weinstein cuts film, signals TV boost

Rather buried at the end of this article, on Harvey 'Scissorhands' Weinstein backing Tarantino for his outspoken attack on US police murders (prompting a police boycott of his $62m, 3hr+ latest, The Hateful Eight, which has a 12min interval - risky!!!), comes a shift from the Miramax cofounder.

Film output will shrink by 50% to about 10 films a year while The Weinstein Company will refocus on TV. We've recently heard the same, first hand, from Warp's Barry Ryan in a York ASFF masterclass lecture, and we can see WT's TV output growing fast too ... not to mention the supreme franchising back and forth across cinema and TV with the 'Marvel universe'.

If anyone doubted convergence was real, here's your proof.

What a shame then that some grossly ignorant civil servant, a legacy of Michael Gove's time as UK Education Secretary, thinks it makes sense to excise film from Media Studies. That consultation, on the contents of the reformed Media A-level, continues, but this is one of the headline proposals, along with a prescribed list of theorists which will be out of date the minute its published.

Harvey Weinstein says he respects Quentin Tarantino's police brutality remarks http://gu.com/p/4egxt?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

EXHIBITION Vue, Odeon, Cineworld leave CofE without a prayer

However you view the rights and wrongs of banning religious ads (how would you judge what's acceptable? Scientology? Jedism?), what this exposes is the monopolization of British cinema screens by just these chains. Together they account for 80% of UK cinema attendance.

Richard Dawkins says UK cinemas should screen the Lord's Prayer http://gu.com/p/4eexk?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

TENTPOLE Disney shows fewer releases the Universal strategy

Just check the numbers; Disney and Universal releasing fewer films than big 6 rivals but bringing in more revenue, while the highest grossing films are mainly franchise flicks exploiting existing brands. Zero big breakthrough Indie releases - Hollywood hegemony, for all the hype of the disruptive, democratising power of digitisation, the status quo is entrenching.

Sequels and franchises make 2015 the year of the mega-movie http://gu.com/p/4e7g7?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

SOCIAL MEDIA PR Zombieland star left Reddit-faced as users detect fakery

Woody Harrelson, the bartender from Cheers, psycho from Natural Born Killers, or guy from Zombieland and True Detectives depending on age/taste (they're ALL great!), showed that social media cannot be seen as a simple means of cheap self-publicising with a truly epic fail...

He arranged an AMA session on Reddit, short for Ask Me Anything, when he clearly had no idea of what this entailed.

He tried to base every answer around his latest film, looking equally cynical and ridiculous in the process, and clearly didn't know that AMA is far removed from the traditional media PR work, based on days of interviews in hotels and chat show appearances.

The first question, using a very specific example (so, a note of caution with the article linked below), accused him of exploiting his fame with female fans ... His responses would have done the Cheers barman (Woody!) proud such was their moronic tone.

When writing on the apparent wonders of web 2.0/social media I frequently caution that the supposed levelling of the playing field for Indies is largely illusory, but this is a potent example of the studios misjudging the democratic nature of some social media platforms!

http://www.mediaite.com/online/woody-harrelson-ama-ask-me-anything-goes-disastrously-wrong-on-reddit/

OWNERSHIP Red Ken on why press barons find Jez taxing

Meant for Media Reg blog, will move when on computer, not phone...

Long before the beyond-satire labeling of right-winger Ed Milliband as Red Ed by a hysterically hostile right-wing red top press we had Red Ken, the idea being that linkage with Soviet Russia would ensure their readers' hostility towards him and his ideas.

Standard stuff of course that Gramsci would have recognised as combatting counter-hegemonic views, seeking to squash any democratic representation for views that would undermine the wealthy elites.

Chomsky likewise predicted this through his propaganda model, with anti-communism (essentially opposing any left-wing views in post-Cold War terms) one of his five filters, along with concentration of ownership.

Well, now the original 'Loony Left' figurehead (a highly effective alliterative assault that continues to echo, as anything or anyone leftist can be casually dubbed loony) has spoken up on the shock and awe bombardment of flak (another Chomskian filter) that Corbyn faces.

Presumably a fresh alliterative association,  Commie Corbyn, has not been applied because the successful re-writing and re-wiring of reality from Murdoch's Thatcherism love-in has made Communism a scarcely recognisable concept. I'd look out for Comrade Corbyn nonetheless as a flak tool if he threatens to survive to the 2020 general election.

Back to Red Ken, kicked out by Labour for his errant leftie ways and re-admitted when it was clear he'd dominate the London mayoral race.

He makes the blunt assertion that the main right-wing titles are so assiduous in their vitriolic assault on Corbyn (what angle did he bow at...) because he threatens to bring in much tighter tax policies that will heavily impact the variously non-dom or non-British billionaire press barons. Their personal/corporate interests are threatened by any Corbyn surge.

Just what Curran and Seaton observed was the case during the 19th century stamp duty reforms and eventual abolition ... the great founding myth (as these Marxist academics see it) of the free, liberal press.

Press barons will do anything to halt Jeremy Corbyn, says Ken Livingstone http://gu.com/p/4e72h?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

WOMEN, DISTRIBUTION Female led film needed male star for funding

There have been a slew of stories over the past year about the unequal status of women in the film industry. I've highlighted and commented on a few, but really that's just spotlighting the tip of the iceberg.

This latest account of ingrained sexism highlights how deeply ingrained the attitudes and desires of distributors are. Seeking financing for a film, a female star finds blanket rejection until a male star is added to the package.

There we can see the primacy of the star as the continuing primary initial concern of a distributor (paying upfront, in advance of production, is often the funding device for Indies), with this added gender twist. Barring a few exceptions, race is likely to remain a factor too.

Will this change? The impact of the websites, social media and high profile media interventions by a growing number of stars, and that of the Sony hack revelations, are creating pressure for a fairer system - and in a numbers business it certainly won't pay to alienate half of your audience.

I wouldn't like to put a timescale on that though - and think it will take an organised boycott of a tentpole to make serious leeway, something that is hard to conceive of in 2015. The Hunger Games could have been that film - its a disgrace that the female star who drives the entire marketing effort is somehow not given the financially superior package to male co-stars, supporting players all in what has become a Jennifer Lawrence vehicle.

In recent months, a number of Hollywood actors have come forward to speak out about misogyny in the entertainment industry. Jennifer Lawrence recently publicly attacked the gender pay gap in the industry in an essay that went viral. And over the weekend, Sharon Stone recalled weeping over unequal salaries more than 20 years ago, following the release of Basic Instinct.On Sunday in Los Angeles, during a panel discussion dedicated to independent film at AFI festival, actor Olivia Wilde joined the chorus, recounting the hurdles she went through to get a female-led production financed independently.

Read more: Olivia Wilde: It's harder to secure funding for female-led productions.

GLOBALISATION Fox coup Theme Park of Aliens, Apes

Seems a theme park is now the must-have big six accessory ... indeed, Lions gate also joining this party can be seen as a strong argument for accepting the revised big seven label.

Yes, Eurodisney, Disneyland, the Universal theme park and the rest are to be joined by a Fox venture in Dubai, a clear expression of the global reach and hegemony of the Hollywood, American Giants.

I look forward to the Warp Theme Park, with its killer boat rides (Donkey Punch), domestic abuse deli (Tyrannosaur), explosive jihadi jinks (Four Lions), rap karaoke (Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee), Union Jack dumping game (This is England), Belfast maze ('71), and, as every blockbuster today has to reflect China's importance as a market with a token character or setting, an illegal immigrant merrygoround (She, A Chinese).

For a somewhat cruder comparison, you can also read this colourful column (not suitable for younger readers): A Hunger Games theme park? Why not The Human Centipede, too?

http://gu.com/p/4dqc3?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Titanic ride set for launch as Fox clinch Dubai deal http://gu.com/p/4dq2a?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Lionsgate's plans, using Hunger Games, Divergent, Now You See Me, Twilight and more, including a China-based attraction and possibly further licenced attractions elsewhere, are detailed here: Hunger Games ride brings District 12 to Dubai theme park

http://gu.com/p/4dpd7?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

NBC-Universal have made use of theme parks as a marketing tool in the past for new releases, notably Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

UK EXHIBITION Spectre widest release ever in 647 cinemas

This is quite something... Outdoing even Avatar, which set the bar worldwide for wide releasing, the latest Bond franchise flick, Spectre (apparently a $300m budget - the tentpole level keeps rising), has hit an incredible 647 cinemas in its debut week in UK cinemas. Many of those will be running multiple prints (or digital copies), meaning Spectre is sucking up a near majority of UK screen space.

I wonder if the hugely hyped Star Wars movie will surpass even this high watermark? Perhaps not in the UK, where Skyfall was the first and only £100m movie.

Here's a key quote from the latest box office analysis:

 Spectre is playing this week in 647 cinemas – the widest ever release for a film in the UK and Ireland. Of course, the screen count will be far, far higher than that, with multiplexes offering audiences an enormous choice of start times (43 shows per day at a Vue in Birmingham, for example) by programming the film in multiple screens.

Hotel Transylvania 2 keeps its fangs in UK box office – but Spectre is looming http://gu.com/p/4dk9p?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Relatively weak reviews have lead to doubts that it can match Skyfall's US performance, though the global outlook may be rosier:
Spectre tipped to fall short of Skyfall on debut at US box office

http://gu.com/p/4dqf3?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Bond is best of British – and Spectre still has a view to a killing overseas

http://gu.com/p/4dzm4?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard
This article notes that Spectre is up on Skyfall's openings in all but one of its initial European release territories, and that whilst the UK, Germany and France have been the top 3 Bond markets after the US, the Mexico set-piece is revealing, reflecting a determined assault on developing markets (leading to the confident conclusion that it will beat $1.1bn).

The scale of the Spectre release is indicated by the fact that the further 45 countries its released in next week still don't represent the end of its global rollout.

It's little wonder a fierce battle is likely to break out for distribution rights to the franchise as Sony's deal with production studio MGM (and British partner Eon) ends.

Rival studios 'eye James Bond distribution rights' as Sony's deal expires

http://gu.com/p/4dn4k?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

The standout figure from this article is that Sony made only $57m from the $1.1bn smash Skyfall, and will make only $38m if Spectre repeats that spectacular box office.

Skyfall benefitted from the global boost of a tie-in with the 2012 London Olympics  opening ceremony, roping in the Queen as a star for a glitzy Games/Skyfall ad that racked up huge online viewing figures as well as the global live audience. A good example of Baudrillard's simulacrum concept, with the fictional Bond used as a core signifier of Britishness in the British Olympics.

2015 saw a rather more sinister simulacrum, with Spectre's release coinciding with spectacularly fawning, olageanous exclusives in the Murdoch Times and 'neutral' BBC with MI5 as MPs and the wider media debated the jaw-dropping demands of the police and security forces, through the fiercely pliant Home Secretary, for legal powers to hack every UK citizen's entire digital existence. Orwell would conceivably have rejected this as unrealistic, unconvincing fiction, but such is the reality beyond the distraction factory.

DISTRIBUTION $80m Le Petit Prince shows Hollywood's lock on distribution

Great example of why any student (or anyone interested in) studying film should routinely read box office analysis columns like these.

We get a very clear example and blunt analysis of why European productions struggle without the global clout of a single big six distributor, having to restart the marketing effort, an expensive and impractical proposition, on a territory by territory basis as the limited number of prints slowly tour around.

Ghastly start for Crimson Peak leaves old-style horror in the red http://gu.com/p/4ddp7?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

RELEASE WINDOW is Paramount as Paranormal Activity boycotted

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension scares off cinema owners http://gu.com/p/4dchy?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Netflix Beasts challenge release window, cinema release as marketing

Netflix had to work with an Indie distributor after the major chains all boycotted their new feature, Idris Elba-starring Oscar hopeful Beasts of no Nation. Netflix are ignoring the standard 90 day window between cinema and TV release, yet more evidence of the disruption digitised upstarts like the streaming giant are bringing.

By the way, to be clear, disruption is the term economists use to describe the changes and challenges digitisation brings to any given industry's business practices.

The major American distributors wouldn't touch the film as to do so would damage their relationship with cinema chains (often the same company with the extent of vertical integration!).

As well as using the small scale US release to qualify for Oscar consideration (shades of Mirimax?!), the UK release is effectively a branding campaign - a cinema release brings a level of gravitas or status that streaming alone does not.

Think about Warp for an interesting point of comparison - '71 was highly reliant on broadsheet newspaper reviews while Le Donk... had a cinema trailer and release date ... but no theatrical release, a smart ploy to generate newspaper reviews!

Netflix drama Beasts of No Nation to hit UK cinemas before reaching subscribers http://gu.com/p/4ctx4?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

WORKING TITLE v WARP Getting started

Underpinning this blog is a comparison between two companies that, to some extent, exemplify different positions within and approaches to the film industry: the 'powerhouse' WT, a subsidiary of NBC-U with one eye always on the international market, and Indie Warp, with a clearer focus on domestic (UK) box office. WT is seen as compromising the Britishness and artistic quality of its output in order to maximise box office potential, though its recent slate may challenge that perception. Multiple award-winning Warp is seen as producing auteur films with a strong British identity (very widely defined: She, A Chinese...) generally with limited mainstream appeal - or, at least, opportunity to win major distribution and marketing backing/spending.

In time you might well view, or critically re-watch, several of their films, but we can make a start without that...

Investigate each of the following to gain an initial insight into the two companies. Sum up your findings for each:

1. The history of Working Title (put very briefly; the Wiki is ok in this case): its first movie, new offices, ownership changes, major breakthrough films, its subsidiaries, major talent relationships (directors, actors)

Warp Films + Working Title trailers playlist compilation

I've assembled a comprehensive YouTube playlist of Warp Films' trailers, and started one on Working Title films too (I'll also add some other useful features from time to time):

Warp playlist

WT playlist

WORKING TITLE new strategy with top two in UK box office

As I've frequently said, you can learn a lot by following box office analyses such as The Guardian's regular series.

The headline story today* is the incredible achievement of Working Title in having the top two films in the UK this week - US studios may easily manage marketing multiple movies at a time, but its rare to see this from a British company (albeit a studio subsidiary).

The benefits of their vertically integrated relationship with NBC-U are apparent, with distribution either directly through Universal or another of its subsidiaries, StudioCanal - described here as an Indie, which it has long ceased to be.

*Charles Gant's weekly, must-read, column: Peak performance: Everest climbs to the top of UK box office. Below: quotes from this, followed by bullet points on what you can learn from this.

[EXCERPT1] UK production company Working Title occupies the top two slots in the chart, with Everest and Legend. There may have been some disquiet at the company over distributors Universal and StudioCanal dating the films for release just one week apart, but both are successfully coexisting in the market. Despite a diverse portfolio of titles, Working Title was for many years defined by its Richard Curtis-scripted comedy smashes, but the success of Everest and Legend – following on from The Theory of Everything in January and Rush in 2013 – should finally redefine perceptions.

KEY POINTS IN BRIEF1:

• its extremely unusual for a BRITISH company to have the top two box office films
• each with a different distributor (though SC is owned by NBC-U)
• WT's reputation has been based on rom-com hits, but a more serious, drama-centred approach is emerging (making it more like Warp, a point not made in the article). Here's a screenshot of their movies since 2012 - About Time is the only Richard Curtis rom-com:

[EXCERPT2] First place: Everest
Everest had been in development for more than a decade before cameras rolled in 2014 with Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur at the helm; in 2004, Stephen Daldry had gone to Everest to film background shots. The true story of a notorious climbing disaster in May 1996 – the subject of Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air and other published accounts – the 12A-certificate film is targeted broadly, with significant presentation in 3D and Imax. A handy £658,000 in previews boosted the opening total to £3.16m. Comparisons are tricky, since climbing disaster films are rare. Fictional feature Vertical Limit (2001) kicked off with £1.9m, or about £3m when adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Cliffhanger (1993) began with £1.35m.

KEY POINTS IN BRIEF2:

• Everest is another in a recent line of WT serious dramas
• its not a 'tentpole' but is taking the four quadrant approach, seeking male, female, young and older audiences - the 12A is key to this strategy
• releasing on IMAX and 3D formats is also driving this four quadrant strategy - these push up production costs considerably, but are also key to the wider cinema industry's fightback against the rise of high quality home cinema
• there have been comparable movies, but Everest is taking in much higher box office

[EXCERPT3] Everest is the eighth No 1 hit for Universal this year, following The Theory of Everything, Fifty Shades of Grey, Fast & Furious 7, Pitch Perfect 2, Jurassic World, Minions and Straight Outta Compton. Universal, together with Fox (six chart toppers) and Disney (five) have dominated the box office this year. Warners, Paramount and Sony have had four No 1s between them; indie StudioCanal scored last week with Legend.

KEY POINTS IN BRIEF3: 

• after mixed fortunes in recent years, Universal is 2015's leading distributor (the dominance of American, specifically 'big six', vertically integrated distributors continues in the British market and globally)
• StudioCanal is misleadingly labelled an Indie here: its a subsidiary of NBC-U, and you'll see it listed on many Warp and WT films (previously named Optimum Releasing)

Above + below: Screenshots from Amazon Prime's 'Hidden Gems' list: StudioCanal is seen as a distributor of alternative, not so mainstream films: 21/36 films on this list are distributed by SC. Several of these 'hidden gems' are Warp Films productions, a fair description as they tend to get very limited marketing and so pass under the radar. Until now, YOU probably haven't heard of most of their films! Note the typically high (for Warp) BBFC certs from this small sample: 18 (Tyr, Kill List) and 15 (Sub); a similar sample of WT films would more likely be 12/15.

[EXCERPT4] Second place: Legend
Despite pretty decent weather at the weekend, Legend fell by a relatively gentle 34% in its second frame, delivering a 12-day tally just short of £10m. Legend’s total is just ahead of Tom Hardy’s other big 2015 hit, Mad Max: Fury Road, at the same stage of its run, after two weekends of play. The success of Fury Road rested on an appetite for a high-profile franchise revival, whereas Hardy’s dual performance as Ronnie and Reggie Kray is Legend’s chief selling point.
Until a year ago, StudioCanal had scored only two £10m-plus hits – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and Rush. In the past 12 months, that tally has risen to six, with the release of The Imitation Game, Paddington, Shaun the Sheep Movie and now Legend, which crossed £10m on Monday. As for Hardy, his biggest hits have been in supporting roles in blockbusters such as The Dark Knight Rises and Inception. Fury Road was his first lead role to pass £10m in the UK, and Legend is his second, making 2015 a significant turning point for the actor. Legend will soon be nudging the top 20 18-certificate films of all time in the UK, a list led by Fifty Shades of Grey, Gone Girl and The Wolf of Wall Street.

KEY POINTS IN BRIEF4: 

• no matter how good the marketing campaign, factors such as weather can determine a film's fortunes. Also:
• Distributors look carefully at what competition they might face in any given release window (not unlike TV schedulers)
• most major movies make the highest amount of box office in the opening weekend and 1st week of release, with the take usually sharply falling from there; the marketing spend is focussed on that opening (there are exceptions: Warp's Four Lions had its number of prints doubled (from 115 to 230) after a surprisingly successful opening week)
• typical WT production strategy: including an A-list star to help sell the movie in the US and the wider world; they don't rely on UK box office (Warp largely do)
• StudioCanal typically distribute lower budget, often Indie (eg Warp) films, but since summer 2014 have had FIVE films grossing over £10m in the UK (a figure few films hit), having had only ONE before then (WT's TTSSpy in 2011)
• 18-rated films rarely make as much as 12/15-rated films as 1 of the 4 quadrants (youth) are ruled out; Legend is a fairly rare example of a WT 18-rated film (most Warp are 15 or 18 by contrast) but will be at least one of the top 20 highest grossing 18s in UK history

[EXCERPT5] Top 10 films, 18-20 September
1. Everest, £3,160,154 from 567 sites (new)
2. Legend, £2,446,860 from 544 sites. Total: £9,972,511

KEY POINTS IN BRIEF5:

• a British production company having the top two is unheard of; US production dominates the UK market 
• a UK hit will be on 300-550 screens; a US hit 3,000-5,000 screens

DETAILS OF TASK BELOW

This is England research task

In Media Studies we don't simply consider the final product; 'the' text is just part of what we consider. To fully appreciate how and why the media language of a film takes the form and direction it does, we need to be aware of wider, contextual factors - marketing and distribution, production company/ies profiles, director record, box office, editionalising (eg director's cut on DVD), etc.

This short task, followed by a series of screenshots you can save and blog on, will get you started on this investigative path.

I have frequently blogged on this film and the wider franchise; you can find more posts using the tag, though I'm still working my way through 100s of posts across multiple blogs retro-tagging (as I only started tagging relatively recently).

This is England research task from DB3igs

LINKS:
IMDB This is England entry.
BoxOfficeMojo This is England entry.
Wiki.

BELOW: SCREENSHOTS FOR YOU TO BLOG ON