Thursday 18 December 2008

Case study - The day the earth stood still

This film is a new release as of 12/12/08, this film is a modern day war of the worlds and a remake of the 1951 "the day the the earth stood still".

The 1951 version the box office results in rentals of the film was around $1,850,000 in USA alone.
The box office results for the first weekend is a gross to date of $30.5 million in the USA and is now at the top of the chart for box office. These recent results from IMDB.com show that as of the 12/12/08 this film is now beating the Quatum of Solace rating at just $3.72 million at the present time- http://www.imdb.com/chart/ . However the day the earth stood still is still not beating the box office results for the Quatum of Solace in its opening weekend.

However in UK cinemas, Madagascar 2 is at the top and the day the earth stood still is second, according to the guardian film site. The UK box office results for the day the earth stood still is roughly around £ 3 million pounds in its opening weekend. Where as Madagacar 2 is rougly around £10 million - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/dec/16/uk-box-office-analysis

Since the film is a remake the older generatiopn who watched that film is likely to go and see this one. The older generation are not the only ones however who are interested. The younger generation today who are interested in sci fi film are likely to be interested too. The marketing for is coming mostly from trailers and the posters and the internet, mainly through MSN, Bebo, Facebook and other social networking site advertisements and pop ups on the pages.
This film acorrding to a review from the guardian film critic it is a big budget film with big budget stars such as Keanu reeves, Kathy Bates and John Cleese.

Most papers and internet sites have given the film a majority rating of around 6/10 overall.

Wednesday 3 December 2008

Film Production and Distrobution Summary

For the power point presentation, I decided to use the new UK bond film Quantum Of Solace and a recent USA film Burn after Reading.



There is so much marketing about the film Quantum of Solace such as trailers, posters, phone and tv adverts etc. The film was directed by Marc Foster who has directed films such as "the kite runner" and "Stranger than fiction". The producer is Babarba Broccoli who has produced the last two Bond films ("Casino royale" and "Die another day").
The younger generation of Bond fans I think are drawn in by the action and the special effects and the marketing scheme of the film (e.g. phones, HD TV advert etc). whereas the older generation of Bond fans are drawn in by the fact that this film was produced by Barbara Broccoli,who has produced the last two Bond films. As well as this the older generation is more interested by the fact that the Bond films have been running and made into films for the past 30-40 years, and the Quantum of Solace may draw in more attention, as according to the reasearch this is the first Bond film not written by Ian Flemming which is what the older genereation grew up reading.

The Bond films are known all over the world and we found that in it's first weekend, it made a gross to date £15,384,217 in it's first weekend! the box office results showed that the film was rated 1st in the top 15 most viewed film in the week of 31st october to the 2nd Novemeber. In America I found that it was shown in 5,900 screens and raked in a gross to date $70.4 million. Even thought Bond orginates from the UK, the US has a wider auidence and population of film fanatics and Bond fans. The reviews from most papers were quite bad however The Times newspaper had a diffrent view-
What makes Marc Forster’s film such an intriguing watch is that this is the first of the 22 Bond movies where the plot flows organically from the last instalment, and Quantum of Solace looks a far stronger picture for this rare continuity.



Burn after reading is a new film made by the US, in the UK the biggest marketing scheme is the facrt that the cast of the film includes many big stars known all over the world, such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt. However in the US, the marketing scheme is slightly wider as the film was directed and written by some of the most famous US directors Joel and Ethan Coen aka "the Coen Brothers". They also made films such as Fargo and O Brother where art thou.
From the reaserech collected, I found that in its 11th week of opening in the US it made a gross to date of $60,029,592 and in the UK it has made a gross to date of $11,167,982 (roughly converted that would be around £ 55, 839,91)
I found that the marketing that appiles mostly to the younger generation is the cast member Brad Pitt as teens and young people have grown up watching his films or appearences on TV. the older generation will be drawn from the fact the George Clooney, Frances MacDormand (who was in the previous Coen Brothers film "Fargo") and John Mallovich (who was recently in Juno, a film aimed mostly at teens).
The film was a success in the US, as it is in the UK as statistics show it was appreciated, however most people did go to see purely because of the Star- studded cast, in british papers it got very good reviews for example-
"THIS comedy begins by zooming in like a satellite camera from outer space down to the corridors of the CIA in Washington.
If that spy camera was to focus on the homes of the Coen brothers instead, it would probably find a mile-long queue of Hollywood stars outside their doors.
Right now there is no other writing and directing team as certain as Joel and Ethan Coen to make an actor hot." - The Sun newspaper.

To conclude, Bond seems to be the most successful film of the two however since Bond has been around alot longer it is understandable. However for a new film Burn after reading is blossoming in box office numbers and still growing much like the Bond film as well.