TYRANNOSAUR - A British film, made for a British audience

TYRANNOSAUR:

• A British film made for British audiences. (Production budget £750,000, the film received a grant of £206,540 from the National Lottery Fund through the UK Film Council)
• Released the 7^th October 2011. 37 screens in the UK. (Total box office takings in UK: £244,560).
• Filmed in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK.
• Opening weekend: $7,635 (USA) (20 November 2011) (5 Screens)
• Gross takings: $22,088 (USA) (11 March 2012)

I have never watched this film, nor have I heard of it before. I think this is due to the fact it was not advertised very well. I far as I can tell it was only advertised via the internet, this means that it had a limited audience. However, I do think that it was targeting a certain audience; older adults who like horror or psychological thriller films. I think this, because of the moderate violence you see in the trailer as well as the ‘ over 18’ age rating.

I think the film is trying to appeal to British audiences by using British stars, such as; Olivia Coleman and Peter Mullen. Also, they attract a British audience by showing locations, which people in Britain may recognise. The action and emotion struggle which is shown on the trailer, is another way that the film grabs people attention as audiences would want to see if the couple make it through their problems or not.

I personally would not go and see this film as I am not into the horrors or psychological thrillers.

After looking at the Box Office's resent weekend result for top 15 movies, it is clear to me that the USA has more big budget movies. Which is turn means more success and more money for America. British films do not seem to do as well as the first British film we see on the list is 4th and the film is part shared by the USA.

Conclusions I can draw from this is that it was not very well known due to having a smaller budget than other films and also a lack of advertising. Also, due to the fact American films have larger budgets, they are more well known and so this film could not compete with most of the American films.

'BATTLE SHIP' - Production, Distribution and Exhibition

BATTLESHIP:

•       Battleship is 2010 American science fiction naval war film, which is based on the children’s war board-game (battleships, created by Hasbro). ($200 million production budget)
•       Universal Pictures released the film. Universal is horizontal integrated as it controls all stages of the film making process.  Universal Pictures is owned by NBC Universal, which is a media entertainment company. This means that it is a form of vertical integration.
•       Released on 11th April 2012 (the Easter holidays). It was a saturated/wide scale release and shown in 416 UK cinemas.
•       By the film's opening weekend (13th-15th April 2012), the film had already made £3.7 million.

What marketing strategies were used to promote the film? ($50 million marketing budget)

Universal used many marketing strategies.

One strategy that they used was creating themselves accounts on social networking sites, for example; Facebook, Twitter and Google +.  Universal created these accounts to advertise trailers and any information they could about the film to try to get people to go and watch it. Universal chose these sites, as they are very popular (Facebook has over 845 million users). On their Twitter site, they had posted information about the release dates and who was in the film. They had also posted trailers to give the public a sneak peak of the film.

Another strategy they used to advertise the film was through trailers, which they could show on TV. This is a good strategy to use as TV is a strong form of advertising as most family’s own a TV and most people watch TV everyday. Also, they could post their trailers, for free, at anytime on YouTube. YouTube is a very popular website and lots of people use it to look up the latest films. These trailers would show many of the highlights/best bits of the film, which would make the viewer want to watch the film.

Universal also created themselves a website, which meant that once people had seen the trailer on TV, they could go online and either watch the trailer again or get any other information that they wanted to know. Most people own their own computer nowadays and so they would be able to gain access to the website, easily. The website posted about the film and even had the official trailer. They had also got a game on there, which meant the public could ‘fight off aliens’ too.

Besides the cinema release, how was the film exhibited?

Besides the cinema, people could get hold of the movie through download. This is a very popular way of watching movies now, as most films cost a small price to be downloaded from iTunes. It is easily accessible and easy to use. Plus, this also means that the movie would be saved on your computer without having taken up much space, unlike DVDs. Also, if the film was downloaded to a laptop, it would mean that you could watch it anytime, any place.

People could also get hold of the film through buying or renting the film from shops or online. LoveFilm allows the public to buy or rent ‘Battleship’ for a small price. This means that the buyer will have a portable hard copy of the film, that they can watch through either a laptop, computer or even a games console.