ben, chris and me case study of blokbuster\

4. Institutions
All previous 6 Star Wars were released by
Lucasfilm. However on October 30, 2012, Disney
announced a deal to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05
billion, with approximately half in cash and half in
shares of Disney stock.

5. Distributors
The three main distributers for the Star Wars force awakens film were:
George Lucas, 20th Century Fox & Disney.
20th Century Fox was actually not George Lucas's first choice for a
distibutor of the film, having been preceded at least by Universal Studios,
who turned his offer down. Lucas convinced Fox to supply the financing
for Star Wars. In 1977, the company's risky investment paid off when Star
Wars became an enormous hit. Fox's stock skyrocketed, and despite the sale
of Star Wars merchandising and sequel rights to Lucas, the company still
made strong profits.
Despite The Walt Disney Company's 2012 purchase of Lucasfilm Ltd. and the
release rights to all future Star Wars films, Fox still retains original
distribution rights to Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope "in perpetuity" in all
media worldwide. Fox also retains theatrical, nontheatrical, and home video
rights worldwide for the franchise's five subsequent films through May 2020,
at which time ownership will transfer to Disney.

6. Disney and 20th Century Fox
Disney is heavily involved with TV as they have their own TV channel ‘Disney
Channel’. They also have a interactive website for children, but no presence
on online streaming services like Netflix.
20th century fox, who’s parent company Fox Entertainment Group, have a
high TV presence, owning the right to successful shows such as ‘The
Simpson.’

7. SFX

8. Stages of production
In film and television, this process begins with script
development and conceptualization; securing stages,
actors, and completing live-action shoots follows, and the
process ends with the use and creation of ground-breaking
technologies to add breath-taking effects and immersive
sound.
Cinematographer Daniel Mindel stated that The Force
Awakens would use real locations and scale
models over computer-generated imagery to make it
aesthetically similar to the original Star Wars trilogy.
JJ Abrams stated "I think people are coming back around
to practical effects. It feels like there is sort of that gravity
pulling us back toward it. I think that more and more
people are hitting kind of a critical mass in terms of the
CG-driven action scene lending itself to a very specific
type of action scene, where physics go out the window and
it becomes so big so quick." To The droid BB-8 was a
physical prop that was developed by Disney Research,
rather than being a CGI created droid.

9. Marketing
This was the marketing used in
China, they had hundreds of Storm
troopers placed on the Great Wall of
China. The imperial, regimented and
military feel towards the troopers
created a huge enthusiasm and
excitement around the film in China.
The expensive marketing technique
more than paid off. However it was
not as successful as Abrams would
have wanted as it seemed to have
fell short in the Chinese box office. It
did manage to bring in a very
successful $52.6 million in the first 2
days, but it failed to knock Avatar of
the top spot.

10. Marketing
The latest instalment of the Star Wars series had a marketing budget of
around $350 million. However the high price of marketing clearly paid off,
as it was the fastest film to reach $1 billion at the box office and is
highest-grossing worldwide opening of all time.
Throughout the pre-release phase, there was heavy emphasis placed on
director J.J. Abrams’ insistence on using practical effects and real
locations as often as possible. The original films, released from 1977-1983,
were known for their “lived-in” aesthetic, and much of the action was
captured in-camera (and not added in via computer graphics).
Therefore there was a clear slant in marketing towards the older, hard-
core fans, with emphasis on more real, practical effects rather than CGI.
However the real excitement of marketing during the trailers came in the
second teaser trailer. When the iconic theme song, created by John
Williams, was played it was a marketing success.

11. Technology
Although the film did include advanced and complex amounts of CGI
technology, Abrams did try and created a more practical effect based film.
Many of the special effects were real, such as explosion being used rather
than being edited in later. This was mainly due to the fact that Abrams
wanted to keep with the original feel of the series and felt that extensive
use of CGI would simply ruin the series.
However as seen in the SFX slide, there was an extensive use of blue and
green screening. This was due to the fact that without it many of the shots
would simply not be possible although Abrams did try and use many real
life locations.

12. Locations of certain scenes

13. An Interview with the director

14. Games/ Toys

15. Clothing and collaborations

16. Competitions and unique items

17. Who was the Target
Audience

18. Target Audience- Trailers
• Although the Star Wars has such a huge following
all across the world, much of the trailers
produced for the movie was focused upon general
film going audiences (16-24 years old) for this
fact. Many of the characters shown are young
and have snappy dialogue with action being
heavily featured within the trailers.
These fans could watch the trailers and still
pick up on the details but it was focused on
people who may have either seen the
originals but was not a dedicated fan or
people new to the franchise. These may
include younger audiences or new audience
markets like China were this would be the
first Star Wars film opened in Cinemas.

19. Target Audience- Posters
There are two main posters for Star Wars: The Force Awakens:
- The Western Release
- The Chinese Release
Both are very similar however there are small differences within them like the
controversial smaller scaling of Finns character on the Chinese poster that fit
the Chinese demographic were very few have ever seen a black person.
However the poster had a very ‘original’ Star Wars feel to it that
meant that dedicated fans would better like the poster.

20. Online Presence

21. • Star Wars: The Force Awakens had a huge online
presence from official Twitter, Facebook and Websites
that updated fans and followers about news concerning
the upcoming movie before its release. After its
release, the social media sites continued to update
fans and make regular posts.
The website is also an important
factor in advertising the film and
providing extra information for
fans as well as unique content
like wallpapers. Here it is!
http://www.starwars.com/the-
force-awakens/downloads/
Finally, many fan social media
accounts and popular online
figures like Youtubers played
video games related to Star Wars
and helped advertise the film
before its release.

22. Cross Promotions

23. Star Wars has always had a huge following of merchandise following the
films and so almost always has many pairings and cross promotions with
large companies like Lego, Facebook and even Nestle!
This is to help both companies have extra publicity and profits as both
can benefit from the advertisement and success of the other. People
enjoy Star Wars and Lego and so when a product is released, people will
go see the film because there is a Lego kit available and people will buy
the Lego kits because they enjoyed the film.

24. Box Office

25. • Currently, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has made 1.961 billion USD
worldwide, making over 1 million dollars everyday for 46 days even after
the realise of the movie.
• In the UK Box Office, it has currently made $176.5 million making it the
highest grossing film in the UK, surpassing Skyfall.
• In the US Box Office, it has currently made $895.4 million, again making
it the highest grossing film in the U.S.
• In the Chinese Box Office, it has currently made $33 million
It is the first film to earn more than $300 million in a single week
domestically and is the highest grossing film of all time.

26. Exhibition and
Exchange

27. • The film was released just before the Christmas break so many people
had time off to go to the cinema and watch the film with their family as
the film was a 12A, increasing the size of the audience. Furthermore, at
its release it had almost no competition from other films and was also
shown in every major cinema chain in both the U.S. and U.K. as well as
IMAX screenings in many IMAX cinemas.
• The film was highly popular across the world, but received its highest
popularity in America and had opening takings of $529 million in the
debut weekend alone, making it the biggest grossing debut weekend
ever.
However the film has yet
to have a DVD release and
is not available for
streaming.

28. Pre Production

29. The Story so far in 90 seconds…
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/star-wars-the-force-
awakens/story-so-far-90-seconds/
• The force awakens takes place 30 years after the
events of Episode VI. The first order has risen from
the ashes of the Empire and there is the resistance
against them. A classic story of good versus evil.

30. Poster and Release dates
PLACE RELEASE DATE
(December, 2015)
USA 14th
Indonesia 15th
Australia 16th
Across Europe
(including UK)
16th

31. Production Companies
Both Disney
(Big Six)
The Director,
JJ Abrams
Company

32. Distribution Company
• The Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures were the
predominant distributor, internationally across the
world.

33. The Main Cast
Han Solo
------
Harrison
Ford
Luke
Skywalker
------
Mark
Hamill
Princess/Genera
l Leia
------
Carrie Fisher
Kylo Ren
------
Adam Driver
Rey
------
Daisy
Ridley
Finn
-------
John
Boyega
Poe Dameron
------
Oscar Isaac

34. Production
Cost
• Walt Disney
Studios chairman
Alan Horn told the
press that the
budget for the new
film is between
$175 M and $200
M.
Marketing
Cost
• It is said that
up to $66
million was
spent on
marketing this
movie.

35. Billboards

36. Posters

37. Trailers
Official Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE
88 million views in 3 months.
Teaser Trailer 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOVFvcNfvE
76 million views in 1 year.
Teaser Trailer 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngElkyQ6Rhs
76 million views in 9 months.