Week 26 Flashcards
Valuing Marvel
-2009: Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment for around $4 billion
-2023: Worldwide box-office earnings of “Marvel Cinematic Universe” films were estimated at $28.7 billion
-1972: music promoter Steve Lemberg had acquired the stage, film, music and radio rights to nearly all Marvel’s characters in perpetuity for $2500!
Blockbuster
-Blockbuster: an aerial bomb capable of destroying a city block
-The emergence of the summer blockbuster changed the Hollywood landscape in the 1970s
-Distribution
-Marketing
-Merchandising
-Jaws
Hollywood
1917: break-up of Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company
-Emergence of the Hollywood “Studio System”
The Studio System
-Studio contracts
-Vertical integration
-Production
-Distribution
-Exhibition
-Integrated majors and minor studios
-1960: roughly marks the end of the Studio System
The Decline of the Studio System
-Decline began in 1950s
-Major studios’ monopoly broken up (the Paramount decision, 1948)
-Labour movement made inroads
-Rise of TV
-Steady decline in film production
-Studios’ survival threatened
New Developments
-New openness to risk
-The “Auteur renaissance”
-Scorsese, Coppola, Altman
-The “Film School Generation”
-“Blaxploitation” Cinema
-Shaft cost $1.5 million, earned $7 million
-May have saved MGM from ruin
Top Grossing Films Before Jaws
The Godfather/ worldwide gross of $86 million as of 1975.
The Sound of Music/ 1965
Gone With the Wind/ 1939
The Sting/ 1973
The Exorcist/ 1973
Jaw’s Box Office
Cost: 12 million (approx)
Gross: $260 million (USA) / $470.6 million (worldwide)
First film ever to break $100 million mark
-Earned more than all of the other studios’ 1975 films combined
Jaw’s Marketing Campaign
-Before Jaws, little TV advertising
-Jaws: 3-day campaign of saturation TV advertising
-Also print & radio
-Advertising budget: $700,000
-1975: the birth of the modern “marketing department”
-Today: marketing costs may equal half of the production costs (or more).
Marketing a Blockbuster: Avengers Endgame (2019)
-Estimated production budget: around $350 million
-Estimated marketing budget: $150 million
-This amount is now standard for blockbuster films
Distribution: “Open Wide”
-Long-established practice: “platforming”
-Open in one city, then gradually widen release
-The Godfather (1972) opened in 6 theatres and earned $302,393 during its opening weekend (expanded to 323 theatres within a week).
Jaws 1975
opened in 409 theatres and earned $7 million during its opening weekend
The Summer Blockbuster
-Summer releases a new trend ca. 1970
-Earlier, cinemas closed or reduced screenings during summer
-Late 1960s: air-conditioned theatres became norm
-Today: summer= “tentpole” season
-Most blockbusters released either during summer or between US Thanksgiving and New Year.
-Recent winter openings for Quantumania are a part of a shift toward a perpetual, year-round blockbuster “season”.
Merchandising
-Played prominent role for first time with release of Jaws
-in advertising the film
-& producing revenue for studio
International Media Conglomerates
-Holding companies (Warner Media)
a new form of vertical integration
