Audience and Institution Essay
Film; Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied.
Marketing in the film industry is extremely important. You have to research your audience and how you can appeal to them. Marketing can determine whether or not a film will be successful, it is a way to attract different types of viewers and introduce the film to the viewers.
Without a doubt, the marketing portion of a film is extremely important because it influences the chances of a film being successful or a failure. When studios put the time, effort, and money into their marketing strategies then they are more prone to a positive outcome. In an article written by Roos, Dave, “Why do movies cost so much to make,” it states that “Marketing makes up a huge chunk of modern movie budgets -- $35.9 million on average -- largely because the fates of many Hollywood releases are sealed in the first week.” Good marketing can boost a film's gross tremendously within the first week, because it allows more people to become aware of the film, and it gets them excited to watch it. If you don’t invest in your product then no one else will. That's why marketing is important, because you're investing in your film by showing it to the world and proving to them why it’s worth their money and their time. By doing this then you’ll gain the interest of the people, this is a way to guarantee that your film has a fighting chance. If there's no effort placed in the marketing of your film then no ones going to know about it, meaning that it will most likely fail. You cannot expect people to take the time out of their day to research into your film without giving them a reason to do so.
In addition, the marketing of a film is very important because it is a way to attract all types of audiences. Marketing is a great way to make people feel like they were considered or that they’re special. When people feel like they were considered then it makes them more engaged. The movie Black Panther earned around $361 million in its first weekend alone by investing a lot of money in marketing. Marvel introduced the movie to the world as the first ever mostly all black cast, superhero movie. It showed the african american community that they finally got the representation they deserved, it made them feel like they were finally appreciated. Black Panther also made money due to marketing by doing many commercials with Lexus, which introduced a new car that was inspired by the movie. They did a fashion show for people who are in the fashion industry, especially black designers, they created games and toys based on the movies for the younger audience, and they debuted the trailer during an NBA Finals game, where they knew there was a wide range of viewers. They did many things as a way to market the film, but one of the most important ones was directed towards the citizens in Saudi Arabia; the film ended the 35-year long movie ban that was going on in their country. Another movie that proved that marketing had a huge impact was Furious 7. They did many things including cross promotions with the phone brand OPP, and the video game brandForza Horizon 2. They had many special events that allowed the fans to interact with the stars of the movie and interact with the movie itself. The biggest marketing strategy that occured was a song tribute, on the movies soundtrack album, to the late Paul Walker, who was an important part of the cast and a role model to many people everywhere. Due to him passing away during the film process, many fans of him and the franchise watched the film as a final goodbye.
To sum it up, marketing is the best way to introduce a film to audiences. When films are new then they have to build a fan base because no one is interested in something they’ve never heard of, that’s where marketing comes in. Marketing lets people know what the film is about and it’s potential. It makes them more familiar with the film and in some circumstances it can be used to remind them of it. For instance the movie Jurassic Park first debuted in 1993 and ended in 2001, a lot of fans believed that the last movie was going to be the final one. Little did they know that Universal Studios was planning on doing another movie for the franchise 14 years later; if they didn’t market the movie then fans wouldn’t have been aware that another one was being made and they wouldn’t have earned much new fans. The new movie would’ve failed dramatically because there would’ve been no recognition, but to prevent this they partnered up with many toy companies, they made commercials that gave a preview of the park, they set up a movie marathon on comcast tv, they released the iconic music for the film, and set up a website. An article titled “ Jurassic Park Franchise Box Office History,” by the numbers, states that “ It’s actually the biggest 24-hour Friday in box office history,” “ Jurassic World earned an estimated $64.3 million.” Due to it’s amazing choice of marketing it managed to break records and earn millions of dollars in a short amount of time. The same thing occurred with Spiderman Homecoming, the spiderman movies were originally all filmed with another actor that was older, and the franchise ended up ending. Fans missed it so much that marvel decided to rebrand the film with a new actor and a younger audience. They already had their previous audience but they were much older and they wanted to draw the attention of more children and teenagers. To do so they had to market to the younger audience, they did this by putting spiderman on cereal boxes, making new toys inspired by him, they even released the merchandise before the movie so they could gain more recognition. The numbers website stated that the film made $50.5 million on it’s opening day. By choosing to market to both kids and adults the film earned around $10 million more ,on it’s first day, than the original film.
In conclusion, marketing is very important when it comes to determining the success of a movie. Marketing is how people become aware of a film. I often find out about films by seeing commercials, ads, or movie posters when I’m coming out of the theater. When film studios make the effort to present their movies to me I often feel like I am considered and I get excited. I spend most of my time watching movies, so when I am presented with the opportunity to watch a new one I will most like look further into it, especially when I see an advertisement about it more than once.
