“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices”.
To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?
Films success is largely bound by the distribution and marketing of a film as it plays a major part in how successful the film will be. Films must make it very clear from the beginning what age category they are advertising towards to allow them to focus maximum attention on their advertisement campaign towards this age range. In order for a film to be truly successful, they must market and advertise their films at very high profile standard. This includes marketing strategies aimed at all ages to reach maximum viewing figures and in-turn, profit. An example of a large scale distribution company would be 20th century fox, who dominate the film industry with a wide range of distribution techniques which reach global audiences around the world. Moreover they are an example of 'the big six' who do not require the levels of advertisement that smaller distribution require because of their name and brand. In addition another example of a large scale production company would be Marvel, who produced and released the hit blockbuster The Avengers. The Avengers was advertised massively through various distribution techniques, however, the majority of it advertisement came from the films prior to it; Thor, Iron Man and The incredible Hulk. The level of the films success previously created for 'The Avengers' as massive build up of excitement for Marvel fans in the public and contributed hugely to its success. The film intern generated in box-office a profit of $1.518 billion, much of its success stemmed from the films newsworthy budget of $220 million.
Furthermore an example of a film who failed due to poor marketing and distribution would be Dredd who were produced by entertainment distributors and Lionsgate production, they were operating under a small budget of $45 million which severely restricted their ability to advertise the film as they could not compete with films of a much larger budget. Dredd did advertise well however their distribution was poor as it was only available to view in 3D in most cinema's and to view it in 2D the consumer may have to travel to a larger cinema than their local cinema. This was not a massively popular choice as customers did not want to pay more for the inconvenience of the uncomfortable glasses and travelling longer distances. Although the film received mainly good reviews from film critics it did not succeed in popularity and is generally considered a 'flop'. Another reason for its apparent lack of success was due to it being released in the same calendar year as the film 'Raid', which contained a very similar storyline to Dredd which caused a large amount of consumers to split and view one than the other. This supports the statement that marketing and distribution effects a films success as much as the production practice.
An example of a film which balanced both of the factors mentioned would the 'Grand Budapest Hotel' as it incorporated various marketing techniques as follows; the production company Fox search light (Subsidiary of 20th century Fox) released the film on Ultraviolet blue ray which enabled consumers to view the film in a variety of formats such as regular DVD players as well as blue ray players. Another marketing technique they used was the sale of film memorabilia online to promote the film, items such as fake moustaches were sold on online auctions such as Ebay. Another factor they used in the distribution of the film was releasing recipes which gave the consumers step by step instructions on how to bake the famous Mendls cake which features in the film. Furthermore another technique they used was the transportation of a large scale model of the Grand Budapest Hotel around the world to theatres showing the film, this gave the consumers and idea of what the hotel looked like in real life. Finally a major factor which played a large role in the films success was the release of a website dedicated to the film to inform fans. All of the factors mentioned above were largely responsible for $172 million boxoffice profit from a 'modest' $31 million budget. The again supports the theory that if the films is marketed and distributed in the correct format it can be a success no matter what the budget.
In conclusion when considering the audience for the film, if it appeals to a global audience the viewing figures are gonna increase massively. I overall would agree with the statement as I believe although a large scale budget will get you so far, if you market and advertise cleverly in the right places, the film will in turn be a success.
