Three production companies - Lionsgate, Lee Daniels Entertainment, and Smokewood Entertainment Group - worked together to produce the film Precious based on the novel Push by Sapphire. Precious was distributed in the UK by Icon Film Distribution. In its opening weekend, Precious grossed $13 million in the US box office, though it was outsold by A Christmas Carol which grossed $30 million that same weekend. While Precious performed well domestically, it struggled internationally due to cultural differences and lack of awareness of the source material.

1. Producers and
Audiences
By Drew
Goldsmith, KWE

2.  The aim of this presentation is to explore
some of the factors which the producers and
distributors would have decided upon before
release.
 The box-office figures are the result of many
amalgamated factors such as advertisement,
fan base exploitation, merchandising, etc.

3.  Precious is a movie-spinoff
of the book
‘Push’ written by
Sapphire.
 The book is famous for
being controversial for
the time it was written
because the subject
matter of the book
hadn't truly been
explored in such depth
and clarity.

5. Awards

6.  Three production companies work in alliance
to produce this film:
 Lionsgate, Lee Daniels Entertainment and
Smokewood Entertainment Group.
 Icon Film Distribution distributed the film for
all media in the UK (2009).

7. Lionsgate Entertainment is a Canadian-American
entertainment company. The company was formed
in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 3, 1997, and is
headquartered in Santa Monica, California. As of
November 2013, it is the most commercially successful
mini major film and television distribution company in
North America and the seventh most profitable movie
studio

8. Lee Daniels is an Academy Award® nominated
filmmaker whose work is trademarked by
authenticity and candour, providing audiences with
a unique and refreshing experience and character
insight with each of his projects. Daniels was the
first African American to be nominated for
a Director's Guild of
America Award for
"Outstanding
Directorial
Achievement in
Feature Film" on
behalf of PRECIOUS.

9.  Formed in 1999, Icon Film Distribution is one of the
UK’s leading independent film distributors generating
in excess of £150m at the box office with a library
of over 200 titles
ranging from
mainstream hits such as
Paranormal Activity, 30
Days of Night,
Transporter 3 and What
Woman Want to
specialist break-out
titles.

10.  On the weekend of release Precious, shown
in 694 cinema, raised $13,161,600
(£8,395,135) which fell behind Disney’s A
Christmas Carol, released the same week,
that had a weekend release gross of
$30,051,075(£19,157,285).
 The film then went on to have an overall
gross of $47,536,959 (£30,375,053). Precious
reached 90 in the opening box-office chart
for 2009.

12.  It's important to note a film's target audience
– middle-aged to elderly black people in
specific but more vaguely for 15-40 year old
of all ethnic origins.
 Aimed for those who have read the book.
 During this time there wasn’t any major
holidays occurring in the US so that could be
the reason why the film did as well as it did
(General Audience).

13.  The target audience for the film typically
live in these types of areas so that could be
the reason why people from the areas
watched the film.
 They can relate to the story and the ideas of
the plot as they have experience life in the
areas set in the film.

14.  The most popular cinema screenings of
‘Precious’ weren’t the inner city multiplexes’
screenings but the inner city neighbourhood
‘intimate’ screenings.
 This links to the place in which the film is
set; in the ghetto.

15.  Although performing pretty well in the
United State, the same can’t be said for
Europe and other international audiences.
This could be because the subject matter
doesn’t resonate within foreign audiences
due to cultural difference and general film
interest.
 Also, the book hadn’t been translated in
multiple languages so there wasn’t any fan-base
prior to the release in foreign countries.

16. The role of the marketing department:
 Create visibility among new audiences
 Generate a buzz (Generate talk about the
film)
 Poster Design
 Trailer Production
 Use social media (Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram) to help generate the required
social buzz effectively, through movie pages,
fake character pages, etc.)

17. The film’s print campaign features some of the
most visually compelling poster art in recent
memory. Despite a supporting role by Mariah
Carey, Lionsgate has forsaken the typical ‘big
face’ approach of trading on a star’s head shot
to sell a movie. Instead, the posters use bold
colour and sophisticated graphics to create an
evocative tone.
Sarowitz, poster art professor, actually favours
the campaign’s other poster — a large-scale
painting of “Precious” with the face muted out
(below, right). “The film is about self-worth
and identity, and the blurriness reinforces that.

21.  On Demand (AT&T, Bresnan, Charter On
Demand, Comcast, COX, DirecTV Cinema,
Dish Network, Mediacom, Cablevision, Time
Warner Cable and Verizon)
 Pay-Per-View (DirecTV Cinema and Dish
Network)
 Digital Download (Amazon Video on Demand,
Blockbuster, Cinemanow, LionsgateShop and
iTunes)
 Game Console (PSN and Xbox Live Store)
Ready to stream on all platforms!

23.  On May 24th 2010, Precious was released on
both DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK by Icon Film
Distribution. Both versions of the film have a
numerous amount of special features
featured on the discs such as audio
commentary with director Lee Daniels, a
precious ensemble featurette, actors’
audition tapes, a conversation
with Sapphire and Director Lee Daniels,
Deleted Scenes and many more.

24. The film obviously was met with both good and
bad reviews, like most films, but this films
success is often compared to films such as ‘For
Colored Girls’ and ‘The Color Purple’, both
majorly successful films depicting similar
issues as ‘Precious’.
 http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jan
/31/precious-review-philip-french
 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/movie
s/06precious.html

26. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_%28sou
ndtrack%29
A OST (Official Sound Track) was released as
the same time as the film was released to
boost sales of the film as many people who
bought the album may have been encouraged
to buy the film or vice versa.

28. Interviews (Magazines) and Podcasts:
Telegraph and Interview Magazine

29. Oprah Winfrey continued to promote the film after its release on more than one
occasion. She was seen promoting the film at festivals and even on her own TV
show!

30.  T-Shirts similar to the ones worn in
the film were created to be sold
along the film as merchandise.
A movie tie-in version of the book
Was created where only the cover was
changed. The movie tie-in book pushed up
sales by 10%!