AICE Media Studies Blog, Short Film

John Wick Chapter 2 was released in January 30, 2017 with a worldwide Box Office of $171,529,184. It was released for streaming on May 23, 2017. Afterwards it was put out on Blu-Ray and DVD on June 14, 2017.  This is a simple distribution model. DVD and Blu-Ray sales are at the moment $30,127,681. Releasing digital copies first, gained popularity in 2012 by Twentieth Century Fox. We would like to do this model of releasing the film digitally a month or two before releasing it physically. Since physical copies roughly made 18% of the total worldwide Box Office revenue, we would like to follow through with a similar plan.

Our  film would ideally follow a distribution model that is traditional. A traditional model sends films to wholesalers and then to retailers. A direct model goes around wholesalers and go straight to retailers. This retains the rights for DVD, VOD, etc.; however, this requires lots of cash. Producers like to chose the direct distribution because they make more money off of it, but this model is more difficult. Bong Joon-Ho experimented with the direct model by releasing his film Snowpiercer simultaneously on the release date. In 2012, Twentieth Century Fox developed a plan to release movies digitally before DVD and Blu-Ray. We could spend money on marketing instead of direct distribution so more people will watch it. AMC and Cineplex are lenient on having films in theaters for less than the traditional 90 days, and more than 17 days. So if its unsuccessful we can pull it from theaters after 17 days, and cut a deal with a VOD/Streaming service, and then DVD.

Our first example of digital distribution is the Accountant. It was a film that was distributed in 2016 by Warner Bros Studios. It was released in theaters on October 14 2016, and was released on DVD & Blue-Ray on January 10, 2017. It is also available on multiple VOD platforms such as Amazon, YouTube, and Google play. It made $153 million in box office, and $18 million in video sales. The amount it made on video sales was still a significant amount however its possible that it could have more if it was released sooner. That may be something that we consider.

Hell or High Water has a very specific marketing campaign. Its posters and trailers are focused on the story. The poster goes for tonal accuracy, and the trailer lays out the story. For social media, the film has a website that is not very special. The film relied on word of mouth and TV Spots. The film had many commercials that depicted the atmosphere of the film. Our group would use many TV Spots in between shows that our target demographic would watch to spread the word of our film.

Change opening credits. We did not enjoy the font or color of our original opening credits. We decided to change the color of each credit to match a different chip located on the table. We thought this was an original and interesting idea.

 As a class we analyzed some prominent commercials from Super Bowl LII. In this we determined the Audience and the Techniques that were used to appeal to this audience. In an NFL commercial the film dirty dancing was parodies in a comedic way, usage of this film may attract the audience of it to the NFL. This would include a older audience, and possibly a more feminine audience. This commercial induced Odell Beckham, which may attract younger viewers due to his age and appeal, and Eli Manning which may attract older viewers due to his age and appeal. Another product was a Doritos and Mountain Dew cross commercial. This add included iconic celebrities, Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman, and older 90s rappers. These rappers may appeal to the 90s generation and the well known celebrities appeal to everyone. The Amazon Alexa commercial featured a wide range of celebrities. Gordon Ramsay, Cardi B, Rebel Wilson, and Anthony Hopkins all have different appeals thus widening the range of in...