audience and institutions essay - ownership and funding

 Media ownership and funding is very important in regards to the success of a film. The oligopoly; the Big 5 dominate the film market share which largely benefits them and the media content they produce. Their power creates competition for smaller indie creators who often don't have the funds to come out on top, however there are exceptions. Despite the Big 5's large advantage, there are small indie creators and New Zealand films who have been able to get their names out there. This levelled playing field links to Shirky's 'end of audience' theory. The theory simply states that the audience not only consume media but produce it too, coining the term 'prosumer'. 

Large companies frequently benefit from franchises as they build fan bases. Franchises are movies that feature sequels and prequels which can be created a few years after one another or even a decade or two. Since people are typically more at ease with ideas they have seen before and because it will always be appealing to a fan base who has already seen the original movie, large-scale film companies like the Big 5 have the financial gain necessary to produce these types of movies and are almost always guaranteed success. They can also gain a greater following since as more people watch the new releases, more of the older ones will be seen as well. Harry Potter and Top Gun are two instances of this. In 2001, the first Harry Potter film was released, and it made $1.022 billion at the box office. The Warner Bros-produced franchise continued with 7 additional movies and grew to be one of the most popular movie series. Three of the eight movies are in the top 50 highest-grossing movies ever made. Because the films were based on J.K. Rowling books at the beginning, they already had a sizable fan base, which undoubtedly contributed to their popularity. People frequently watch the original of movies like Top Gun. Top Gun: Maverick, produced by Paramount Pictures, came out in 2022 and is based on the original 1986 picture with almost the same name: Top Gun. Top Gun: Maverick made $1.288 billion at the box office and received a 96% rating on rotten tomatoes. The fact that the original movie had already attracted a sizable fan base contributed to the film's enormous success. The film also had a large number of the original cast members, which attracted additional viewers to the original film. The Big 5 are able to saturate the market and increase exposure of their companies through these movies and many others.

Disney, one of the Big 5, was a huge conglomerate firm with a 25.5% market share in 2021.  As a result, it is the media organisation that is most powerful worldwide. The Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars, both of which are under Disney's ownership, are the top two highest-grossing franchises. In 2018, Disney alone produced all three of the highest-grossing movies in the country: Black Panther ($700 million at the box office), Avengers: Infinity War ($679 million at the box office), and Incredibles 2 ($609 million at the box office). Because of their numerous acquisitions, such as Marvel (bought in 2009 for $4 billion), Fox family (which became abc family and freeform and was bought in 2001 for $2.9 billion), Capital Cities (the owner of abc, which was the owner of espn; which was bought by Disney in 1995 for $19 billion), and Fox (bought in 2019 for $71.3 billion), Disney is able to dominate the market and be so successful. These are a few instances of horizontal integration by Disney. Disney's acquisition of Pixar in 2006, which cost $7.4 billion, is another notable example. Disney was able to further integrate into the animation industry thanks to Pixar's animation studio, which resulted in some of the most commercially successful animated pictures, including the Toy Story movies (1995–2019), The Incredibles (2004), and Monsters Inc. (2001). Their theme parks serve as an illustration of their vertical integration. Their theme parks bring in $20.3 billion in income, which is twice what their studios do. The most popular theme parks in the world are their 12 parks, which are distributed across the globe. Every year, more than 58 million visitors visit Disney World alone. 

Large conglomerates have a better chance of succeeding since they have more money to fund the production and promotion of their films thanks to their numerous subsidiaries. One of my own case studies, Spider-man: No Way Home, which had a $200 million budget, serves as an illustration of this. Sony, a member of the Big 5, provided financial support for this movie. The film featured many a-list actors including Tom Holland (68 million followers on Instagram) his accolades include a British Academy Film Award, three Saturn Awards, a Guinness World Record and an appearance on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list. Some publications have called him one of the most popular actors of his generation. The film also featured recent two time emmy award winner Zendaya (151 million followers on Instagram). The marketing campaign created speculation around whether or not there would be cameos from the former spider-mans (Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire). This was the key marketing strategy as the idea interested many people from different generations. Two different trailers were released that peaked most of the audience's interest in watching the film. It is said the initial marketing plan was to make the plot line seem as though it were a civil war between Spider-Man and Doctor Strange which panned out to be too deceiving to fans as they had already figured past actors and characters would re-surface. The secrecy and anticipation of this became the main marketing strategy like mentioned before. In the opening weekend the film earned $200 million (USD) and $1.901 billion (USD) in box office making it the highest grossing film worldwide last year.

The huge popularity of Hollywood movies has increased rivalry for smaller indie films. Indie refers to not being a part of or linked with a large record or film corporation, hence these movies don't have nearly the same budget as the ones that were before stated. Although it is more difficult for them to succeed, it is nevertheless feasible. What We Do In The Shadows (WWDITS), a New Zealand independent film directed by Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi, is an example of an indie film's success. Due to the high production costs, the movie had to be crowdfunded; they were able to reach their $400,000 goal through intensive advertising.The movie was a great hit, earning $6.9 million worldwide and serving as the inspiration for two spin-off television series. Even now, Taika Waititi is a well-known celebrity, having both directed and starred in movies like Thor Ragnarok. Although the film has different financial worth from major Hollywood productions, WWDITS is a perfect example of an independent film that can succeed. To promote the movie, they mostly used the internet. They created a trade me account to sell goods from their "vampire house," a facebook page where they posted humorous comments and posts while posing as the vampires from the movie, and even dating profiles to promote the movie and the dating website. Although not the most popular application of cross-media convergence, it is unquestionably still successful. Additionally, they would give interviews to anyone who requested them and appear at fan events in costume. As many people admired the personalities of these directors and wanted to support them, this helped grow their fan base. They even replaced the W with a large red V on the Wellington sign in our capital city, which now reads Vellington. Through all of these marketing choices, they were able to effectively reach a wide range of consumers and build a devoted following, both of which were crucial to the overall success of the movie. Although the funding was different, this is still an example of how money can be have advantages especially towards the success of a film. 

In contrast to the Big 5, where making money is the main objective, the government-owned New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) supports movies that highlight NZ history, culture, and natural beauty. Instead than focusing on making money, we want to promote tourism and our stories. The films are more culture-focused since they don't prioritise making money, like one of their more recent productions, Whina, which tells the life story of Dame Whina Cooper, a revered Mori matriarch who worked relentlessly to advance the rights of her people, particularly women. Among their more well-known productions are Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2018), The Power of the Dog (2021), and Shadow of the Cloud (2020). 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.

Because of the internet, independent movies now stand a better chance of being successful. The internet and technological advancements have improved the effectiveness and efficiency of how we consume media. It may be done through a variety of platforms, including Netflix, YouTube, Neon, Amazon Prime, and a lot more. The fact that 4338 billion people worldwide are online is amply demonstrated by the millions of subscribers each of the above sites has. For all movie studios and directors, advertising is now far more effective thanks to the internet. It's an easy, cheap way to get their movie out there which is an advantage for the small indie flicks. It also proves that money is not entirely the answer anymore when it comes to successful films and how anybody can produce successful media. This links to Shirky's 'end of audience' theory and the platforms of YouTube and Tik Tok. YouTube now has over 2.6 billion monthly users and is an active channel that can be used to promote and advertise for free.