Despicable Me 2

Budget $76million
Opening Weekend $83million

It was produced by Illumination Pictures as well as Universal.
The target audience for this film were kids (3-5 year kids, tweens) and the secondary audience for the film was families with kids (especially parents). In the USA, the hispanics were found to be the demographic which used social and digital media the most therefore they were targeted through digital resources.

Publicity Tactics: Publicity tour with the cast of the movie to further engage the audience to drive buzz for the film. They would target shows on NBC which is owned by Universal (horizontal integration). Programmes included the Ellen show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It also targeted Telemundo. (what the hispanic community would be likely to watch)

Other ways in which the film was promoted was through Facebook campaigns such as offering free tickets when sharing a photo of minions. Twitcams on Twitter allowed the stars of the movie to promote the film.

"Watch and win" was the process of giving away free tickets if the audience had a promo code which are shown on NBC channels which are owned on Universal as well as on kids programmes on Telemundo such as promotion on 'Dora the Explorer' targeting the hispanic children as well as their parents if they are watching.

Finally, there was a minion app which is an interactive game with the minions. App features exclusive extras such as trailers.

Recent successful/ highest grossing British Films

The Inbetweeners Movie

The Inbetweeners movie (Ben Palmer) was released in 2011. Its budget is an estimated £3.5 million and its gross in the UK was £41.8 million with the weekend opening grossing £13.2 million. However, it did not gross as much in the US as it only grossed $35,995 however the movie was only shown on 10 screens therefore it didn’t have as greater impact on the US film market. The reason for the lack of impact is that The Inbetweeners movie had only British production companies and none of the ‘big six’ American distributors didn’t distribute the film onto the US film market therefore the film had little chance of being successful in the US. Also, the Inbetweeners success comes from the fact that it was a ‘one-off- film from the highly successful TV series in the UK therefore it inherits all of the fans from the TV show. Finally, the opening weekend of the film was within the school holidays therefore many students would have had a lot of time to go and see the film, instead of just usually on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The Inbetweeners movie ranks as the 6th highest grossing UK film.

The Full Monty

The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo) released in 1997. With a budget of $3.5 million, in the opening weekend grossed just under $3 million (this is including UK and US) and overall grossing $52.2 million for the UK film industry including an estimated $46 million in the US which put into context, is astonishing for a UK film to do so well within the US film market as there hadn’t been this level of success for a British film in the US film industry. However, even though Channel Four Films developed the film, The Full Monty had backing from Twentieth Century Fox in the production stages as well as in the distribution stage therefore the Fully Monty was distributed across the US. In addition, because no other ‘big six’ contributed to the distribution, Twentieth Century Fox was able to profit from single-handedly distributing the Full Monty worldwide. The Full Monty is 4th on the list of highest grossing UK films.

http://thefilmreview.com/features/top-tens/top-10-grossing-british-films.html

The role of film critics and how important are awards in marketing films.

Bad film reviews can be publicised and allow the film to gain a buzz. Philomena (Frears, 2013) was able to use a one-off criticism to their advantage as a marketing technique. This is because a review branded Philomena as an 'attack on catholics' therefore to market Philomena, the criticisms were placed in the marketing campaign so the audience can 'decide for themselves'.
Film critics obviously have some sort of impact but are not as influential because of the rise of the sites such as IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Mark Kermode's Blog. In addition, for example, mass consumers will go and watch the film regardless of the critics because such films which have such as a mass appeal or a hugely saturated films, people will go and see the film regardless. Furthermore, the fans of a film which has inherited a book series or a sequel, will always attract audiences even though the reviews may be terrible as consumers want to see the film because the audiences want to see the film regardless of the bad nature of the film. In contrast, the people with a niche group of film are more likely to listen to the film.
In this digital age, films are marketed over social media sites have led to the rise of the blogger and online reviewers through sites such as YouTube and potentially other streaming sites. An example, of a successful film critic YouTuber is Jeremy Jahns who has just over 600,000 subscribers.

Award Nominations boost a film's popularity as if a film is nominated or win an award then it gives this sense that these films will be great films. Furthermore, when films with a chance of a award nomination are released in November so it gains attention and has a chance of winning an award in February and March. This is time for the film to release DVD materials or re-release the film if it does well at the Oscars.

Independent British films rarely break into the UK film industry and cinema, this is because these films do not have any distribution or any American financial backing from the 'Big Six'. Co-production is vital to the success of British Films as they need these 'Big Six' to help them and unfortunately these British Films aren't getting these distribution backing therefore these UK films cannot break into the UK film cinema.

Another issue with British Film is that it lacks an issue of 'identity' as the films are too gritty, realistic and potentially depressing therefore it turns the viewer of from going to see the film. Even British comedies still focus on class and realism as sometimes British Films are too close for comfort whereas American Films are in effect the opposite. Self-deprication is foundation of British comedy which is why Working titles are so successful as American like this type of humour.

Essay Practice. 'How important are stars for US and UK film producers?'

Stars are important as:

• Film stars are guaranteed to make producers a huge profit. US Film stars such as Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Adam Sandler all return a profit of over $100 million minimum every film therefore producers can make a film which nessecarily might have a poor narrative or lack of real film quality, however because these stars are in the film, the films make a profit. For example, Adam Sandler in 'Grown Ups' returned a profit of $162,001,186 even though the budget for the film was only $40million. This demonstrates how films that critics hate, can still make a huge return in the box office.
• British Film Stars such as Colin Firth is a brilliant example of the success of british film stars such as in "Love Actually" and most renowned for his role as King George VI in 'The King's Speech". The appeal of the monarchy which was able to appeal to both of the film industries such as the American obsession with the 'British Monarchy' as well as well as the fan base of Colin Firth. This is a marketing technique as audiences want to see the stars based that they like the star instead of going to see the film on the basis of the appeal of the film's storyline.
• Iconic Classics such as the first Star Wars don't have major film stars but one of the best trilogy ever to have been produced. 
• Other Factors to consider is that emergence of CGI and other special effects attract huge audiences. An example is Avatar. This film had a budget of $237,000,000 and in the US it grossed $760,507,625. This film had no major stars and its appeal came from the CGI. Other films inclue
• It is also important to consider the role of the director, i.e. is the director a master in his field (Scorsese, Spielberg,Nolan) therefore films which have brilliant directors, they can market their films on the basis of the strength and popularity of the director and less importantly on the star.

Arguably, the stars are the most important factor of a successful film for US and UK film producer. Whereas there are other factors which contribute to the success of a film, film stars are incredibly important for film producers.

US Film Stars such as Adam Sandler proves that his importance for a film producer as in film which Adam Sandler  features in, on average he returns a $100 million profit even though the films in he is in, the critics hate the films. An example of Adam Sandler's successful film "Grown Ups" (2010) returned a profit of $270million worldwide which is a huge return in comparison the budget of the film ($40million). This demonstrates that producer don't necessarily need a film that has narrative or storyline, as long as they can market the film on on the basis of the appeal of the star instead of the reality of the film. Other Actors such as Tom Cruise are guaranteed a $50 million retrn