1. Making the high notes…
Creating brief revision bullets
My Beautiful Laundrette
2. DBRC FES ESSMLA
Director Danny Boyle, ‘writer’ Richard Curtis
Marketing lead on THEIR names; THEIR past films …
Featuring flipping Ed Sheeran (global star)…
Slumdog Millionaire (Oscar winner! Link to critical
credibility … boost male/older appeal?)
Love Actually (now classic rom-com; signifying
“chick flick”, escapism)
3. BBALA
British but American … Los Angeles
A humble Londoner seduced by glamorous
powerful American record executive
Our hero moves to LA to succeed
BUT…WT are actually making a dig at the
US!!! He rejects the surface, unfulfilling
American glamour to come back to Britain
for his girlfriend and to become a teacher
4. JFK + China
Theatrical release in 63 territories (JFK shot
in ‘63)…
Plus China!
64 terrs is huge; unthinkable for an Indie
like Warp…NOT unusual for WT… as a
subsidiary of a big 5 vertically integrated
conglomerate, NBCUniversal
Co-Production with Perfect Pictures, a
Chinese co, so gets round the China quota!
5. Gant -6
Although the action switches to the US,
we start and end in the UK with a British
lead. Like BJB and World’s End (and the
Bond movies) we would expect UK appeal
to be stronger than for US
So we don’t see the Gant rule: $73m US v
$18m UK = x4 multiple
(that’s 10-6…Gant-6)
6. Triple 26
$26m budget
$75m marketing spend (triple 26)
Includes $4m on prints alone – more than
most Warp films’ budget
That high spend happened after the Beatles
song rights were set to change hands before
September release, so it was PUSHED UP to
June to avoid a court case with Paul
McCartney (summer Macs)
That is of course the peak box office period
usually reserved for tentpoles/blockbusters
7. Summer Macs
The high (triple budget) marketing spend
happened after the Beatles song rights were
set to change hands before September
release, so it was PUSHED UP to June to
avoid a court case with Paul McCartney
(summer Macs)
That is of course the peak box office period
usually reserved for tentpoles/blockbusters
Easter, summer, Xmas/New Year = the 3
peak periods because … school holidays
8. PE or PFE
Perfect Entertainment (Vogue quote used in
marketing) Perfect fluffy escape
The escapist nature of the film was judged
ideal for the covid context. American
audiences especially demand feelgood
endings
The phrase from upmarket women’s
magazine Vogue, “perfect entertainment”, is
featured heavily in the marketing, including
in social media posts for the PVOD and DVD
releases – denoting the film’s fluffy nature
9. BO2B6 or BOB6
Box office to budget multiple of 6
Global box office of $150m represents a x6
multiple of budget, very healthy
TV and PVOD brought in a further $80m
10. 2B or not 2B
RC has generated nearly $2bn box office
from the various rom-coms he’s directed
(well over this if you add those he only
wrote)
