Media Essay - Distribution and marketing

“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices”.

I agree with this statement and i think that distribution and advertisement of a film is one of the most important aspects when creating a film because if know one knows about the film no one is going to watch the film, however it is essentials it targets your target market. It is one of the elements which makes the film successful if done well or unsuccessful if not done accurately. The distribution of a film needs to be done strategically, and to the widest and most effective way e.g. trailers on youtube and through social media and the advertising of a film needs to be also directed at key audience members who can market the film socially through retweets and word of mouth. The marketing off a film now relies on the distributor in the modern film industry such as warner bros,20th century fox and paramount pictures which are classified as one of the 'big six'. These are two of the best companies at distributing films because of there ability to distribute a film global and to make it accessible to all audiences, they have greater access to cinema chains. Also there status as being well know n high class film distributors means that there films get more noticed and they have links with in Tv companies and different accepts of the media to make sure that there marketing campaigns are a success. An example of this is the film transformers age of extinction this is a film which was almost guaranteed success because it was distributed by Paramount pictures this meant the film was distributed globally through there distribution network and cinema chains. Also the film was advertised very efficiently and to a high quality. There was 5 different trailers up to the release if the film. The film was in tv commercials for products such as Oreo Cookies, Uber app, ESPN, Samsung HD Tv, Chevrolet and Duracell batteries, they also released loads of different toys. But the film transformers age of extinction did not have very good reviews from film critics. IMBD gave it a 5.9 out of 10 which is low for a hollywood blockbuster and common sense media gave it a 2 our of 5 which again is a low score for a film with a budget of $210 million. But even with these bad reviews from critics the film still made a massive $1,087,289,076 at box office which which wipes out its budget. This just shows that distribution of a film and advertising is one o the most important elements of a film and can be make a film successful or un successful. 

The film Dredd is a film which is distributed by entertainment film distributors and lions gate. The film loss money at box office and was unsuccessful. This is due to the way the film was distributed. The film was well marketed to its audience but the Film was distributed poorly as in many cinemas it was released only in 3D so if you didn't like 3D you had to travel to see it in 2D. Eventually they stopped showing it in 2D and it was only shown in 3D, which really made the films audience a lot smaller, and it made it so it was not accessible to all audiences. The films reviews were really good it got mainly 4s/3s out 5, which is good for a film, which only had a budget of $45 million budget. Unfortunately reviews do not affect a films success very much as it only made $41 million at box office, which means that it was a failure. This failure is due to the way it was distributed to cinemas and the lack of advertising and marketing there was for the film. Not many people new about it not even the there target audience, which it was aimed at. This again shows that the statement is true and that distribution and marketing is one of the keys to success for a film. The film the expendables 3 is another example of a film which has bad reviews but succeed because of its advertising and distributed. The expendables was distributed by lions gate and it was successful film. The film got pretty poor reviews for a film with a $90 million getting 2 maybe 3 star ratings from most critics but it was still some how successful. The reason it was successful was due to the way the film was distributed by lions gate it was distributed globally and it was made accessible to all audiences, Also the film was well advertised and marketed which made the film look better than it was and attracted people and made them want to go and see it. From doing the advertising and the distribution well the film made $206 million at the box office making over double the budget. 

The film Grand Budapest Hotel is a film which incorporates these two things together and is a successful film. The film has great reviews getting 4/5 out of 5 which shows the film is to a great quality and is produced and thought out really well, which got the film 5 awards. The film also has great distribution and advertising/marketing. The company that distributed the film is fox search light productions  which is a subsidiary of 20th century fox, they usual distribute independent British films. The film was distributed on Ultraviolet BluRay,this enabled consumers to watch it on a series of different platforms, So you can watch it on blu ray players as well as normal dvd players. The only problem with is being distributed They marketed the film in many different ways such as selling merchandise on eBay, products such as fake moustaches, wax and bow ties. They did Unique Promotions; they toured a large-scale model of the hotel to theatres around the world. They made videos and recipes so people that had watched the film can bake their own mendls cakes (a cake which is featured in the film). Finally they had a very nice high quality website fully dedicated to the film. All of this made the film successful as the budget for the film was only $31 million for the film and it made $172 million at box office making more than 5x the budget. This shows if a film has good reviews and is distributed and marketed well it will be guaranteed success. 

Overall i agree with the statement and think that the success does depend on how well a film is distributed and marketed. Because with out a film doing this the films audiences may not even find out about the film, or if it is poor advertising and not to a high quality they may think the film is going to be poor quality. I think that this statement will always be true and that advertising and distribution will always be a big part of the a films success as it is the way you get people to come an watch the film and with out it, it would be a lot harder to get the film to your target audience.