'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.