Section A: Producers and Audiences

 

Section A: Producers and Audiences

Case Study: John Carter 2012

 

Director: Andrew Stanton

*also directed Toy Story

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton

 

Budget: $250million

Opening Weekend: $30million (USA)

Estimated Loss in the First Weekend: -$165 million

 

 

The biggest flop ever?

 

The director- Andrew Stanton- had never made a live action movie before. The executive's marketing the film had little experience and the film had to switch to a different team halfway through the production. The setting of the film is Mars, which contemporary audiences know is inhabitable and barren. The audiences were left confused by the marketing techniques. The posters were 'head-scratchers' with just a shirtless male running from monkeys. There were no major stars to entice the audience into watching the movie. 

 

"Long term consequences to the box office failure of Disney/ Pixar's sci-fi film John Carter... staggering $200 million operating loss. A massive $250 million was spent on its production, as well as close to $100 million on marketing." - This quote was taken from the Telegraph.

 

 

 



Section A: Case Study

Section A: Producers and Audiences

Case Study: Skyfall

 

Director:

Sam Mendes

[Oscar Winning director for American Beauty 1999]

Stars:

Daniel Craig, Judi Dench [Oscar winning actress for Shakespeare in love 1998]

 

Estimated Budget: $200 million

Opening Weekend: £20.1 million in the UK and was exhibited on 587 screens

Gross Profit: by December 16th in the UK 97.8 million was made

Gross Profit: by March 10th World Wide 1108.3 million was made

 

Release Date: 26th October 2012

Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime

 

Production Company: EON Productions

Distributors: MGM and Sony Pictures.

 

 

Why was it such a huge hit?

 

Characters: the characters in the film are well known and the audience has seen them before in previous Bond movies. Although as an audience we can see that the franchise made the stars, not the stars made the franchise. Skyfall has shown Daniel Craig's high popularity through playing the iconic role.

Book: Skyfall was based on a novel written by Ian Flemming who was well known for writing the James Bond Spy Novels. This brings an alternative fan base to watch the film- fans of the novel and the novelists work(s).

Marketing: the film was highly marketed using lots of advertisements. Promoting the film on the back of cereal boxes, on buses and on the television. Hard to get away/ miss the promotion for this big budget franchise.

Awards: the film is directed by Oscar winning director Sam Mendes and stars Oscar winning actress Judi Dench. Also the film won 2 Oscars during the 2013 Academy Awards. One for 'Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song' which was 'Skyfall' written by British Singer Adele and Paul Epworth. And the other was for 'Best Achievement in Sound Editing'.