Ownership (audience and institutions essay) - study break homework

To what extent does media ownership impact the success of a film?

Films owned by large conglomerates like the oligopoly; the Big 5, instantly have an advantage in regard to the success of their films. Due to the ownership of their many subsidiaries; the Big 5 are able to successfully advertise their films through many different avenues by the use of cross-media convergence. A subsidiary is a company that is owned by a much larger, parent company. For example; Disney's acquisition of Fox in 2001. Although there is a clear advantage for film companies like the Big 5; this doesn't mean smaller indie films can't be successful especially when there are organisations like the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) around.

Franchises are a very common advantage to large conglomerates as they establish fan-bases. Franchises are movies that contain sequels and prequels which can be produced a few years after one another or even a decade or two. Large-scale film companies like the Big 5 have the financial gain big enough to produce these types of movies and are almost always guaranteed success due to the idea that people are usually more comfortable with ideas they have seen before and it will always be attractive to a fan base that has already seen the original movie. They can also attract an even larger fan base as new people want to watch the new movies which will also make them go back and watch all the original movies. An example of this is Harry Potter and Top Gun. The first Harry Potter movie came out in 2001 and gained a revenue of $1.022 billion at box office. The franchise, produced by Warner Bros went on to contained 7 more films and became one of the most successful film franchises. Out of the eight films; three are among the 50 highest grossing films of all time. The films were originally based on books by J.K Rowling and therefore a rather large fan base had already been established which probably added to the success of the films. Top Gun is an example of a film that people go back to watch the original. Top Gun: Maverick, produced by Paramount Pictures, came out in 2022 and is based on the original 1986 film with almost the same name: Top Gun. Top Gun: Maverick earned $1.288 billion at box office with a rotten tomatoes score of 96%. The film was a major success which was due to it's already major fan-base that was attained through the original movie. The movie also featured many of the original actors which made watching the original movie more attractive to the audience. Through these films and many others; the Big 5 are able to saturate the market and make their brands more well known. Disney being apart of the Big 5 is a large conglomerate company which owned 25.5% of the market share, as of 2021. This makes it the most dominating media institution out there. The top two highest-grossing franchises are the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars which are both owned by Disney. In 2018 all three of the highest grossing films in the USA were produced by Disney alone, these movies being Black Panther which earned $700 million on Box Office, Avengers: Infinity War earning $679 million on Box Office and Incredibles 2 earning $609 million on Box Office. Disney is able to dominate the market and be so successful because of their many acquisitions such as Marvel (bought in 2009 for $4 billion), Fox family (became known as abc family and freeform which was bought in 2001 for $2.9 billion), Capital Cities (the owner of abc which was the owner of espn; which was overall bought by Disney in 1995 for $19 billion) and Fox (bought in 2019 for $71.3 billion). These are some examples of Disney's horizontal integration. Another major example is Disney's acquisition of Pixar in 2006 which was bought for $7.4 billion. Pixar's animation studio allowed Disney to integrate further into the world of animation which produced some of the most successful animated films like the Toy Story movies (1995-2019), The Incredibles (2004) and Monsters Inc (2001). An example of their vertical integration are their theme parks. Their theme parks generate a revenue of $20.3 billion which is twice as much as their studio revenue. Their 12 parks spread worldwide are the most visited theme parks in the world. Disney World alone brings in more than 58 million people annually. Due to their many subsidiaries; large conglomerates have a greater chance of success as they have more money to produce and advertise their films. An example of this is one of my own case studies; Spider-man: No Way Home which had a budget of $200 million. This film was funded by Sony which is apart of the Big 5. 

Due to the Hollywood films major success, significant competition is created for smaller indie films. Indie meaning not belonging or affiliated to a major record or film company which therefore means these films don't nearly have the same budget as the films that were mentioned before. It does make it harder for them to succeed but it is not impossible. An example of an indie film's success is 'What We Do In The Shadows' (WWDITS) which is a New Zealand indie film that was directed by Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi. The film had to be crowd funded due to the production costs being too high; they managed to acquire their budget of $400,000 through intensive advertisement. The film was hugely successful in that it grossed $6.9 million worldwide and became the basis of two spin-off tv shows. Taika Waititi has even gone on to be an A-list celebrity; directing films like Thor Ragnarok and even starring in them himself. WWDITS is a prime example of an indie film that can too be successful although it has a different ownership type and financial value than that of the big Hollywood films. They primarily used the internet to advertise the film. They made a trade me account selling items from their 'vampire house', they had a facebook account where they would upload funny comments and posts posing as the vampires from the film and they even set up dating profiles as they teamed up with dating websites to advertise both the film and the website. Like I said; not the most common use of cross-media convergence but definitely still effective. They would also do an interview with anyone that asked and would show up to fan events dressed up in their costumes. This helped create a fan base as many enjoyed the character of these directors and wanted to support them. They even changed the Wellington sign in our capital city to say Vellington; replacing the W with a big red V. Through all these marketing decisions they could really reach a variety of audiences and establish a solid fan base which deemed very effective in the overall success of the film.

In comparison to the Big 5 where money is the primary goal; the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) which is owned by the government funds films that promote NZ stories/culture and also show off our beautiful landscape. Money isn't the main goal, rather getting our stories out there and tourism. As money isn't the main objective, the films are more culture focused like one of their more recent films Whina which is the story of Dame Whina Cooper, the beloved Māori matriarch who worked tirelessly to improve the rights of her people, especially women. of their more famous films have included Shadow of the Cloud (2020), The power of the Dog (2021) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2018). Their budget is made up of Government funding, Lottery Grants Board funding, income from films, interest and reserves. Their total current budget is around $26 million.

Indie films now have a greater chance of succeeding due to the internet. The development of technology and the internet has made the way in which we consume media more effective and efficient. Whether it be through the many outlets like that of Netflix, YouTube, Neon or Amazon Prime and so much more. 4338 billion of the world's population are connected to the internet which is clearly evident in the millions of subscribers each of the outlets above have. The internet has made advertisement so much more efficient for all film companies and directors. It's an easy, cheap way to get their films out there which is an advantage for the small indie films.