Yesterday crib notes

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)