2. Summary Of Films
• Brick is an American neo-noir thriller film written and directed by Rian
Johnson in 2005, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Brick was distributed by
Focus Features, opening in New York and Los Angeles on April 7, 2006. The
film's narrative centres on a hardboiled detective story that takes place in a
Californian suburb. Most of the main characters are high school students. The
film draws heavily in plot, characterization, and dialogue from hardboiled
classics, especially from Dashiell Hammett. The title refers to a block of
heroin, compressed roughly to the size and shape of a brick.
• When his brother is killed in a robbery, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides
to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns
of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge's intentions of driving off the
native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for the precious material scattered
throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will
fix his legs, Jake gathers intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded
by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate
the Na'vi people with the use of an "avatar" identity. While Jake begins to
bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien
Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination
tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for
the fate of Pandora.
3. What are the main institutions used
for each of the films?
• Focus Features and Bergman Lustig Productions
(Brick) – these companies have made a few
famous and successful movies however they are
not as well known and popular as the
institutions from avatar.
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Dune
Entertainment, Ingenious Film Partners
(Avatar) – these are all well known companies
with titles to many other films.
4. How much money was used to produce
each film?
• Budget: $475’000 (estimated) - Brick
• Budget: $237,000,000 (estimated) – Avatar
• As you can see there is a massive gap in the
budgets from each film. This has paid off from
the income that has come in from each film,
therefore the more money put into a film, most
of the time, more is come out from it.
5. How much money was made from each
films?
• Opening Weekend: $83,574 (USA) (2 April
2006)
• Gross: $2,060,589 (USA) (9 July 2006)
• Opening Weekend: $77,025,481 (USA) (20
December 2009) (3452 Screens)
• Gross: $2,782,275,172 (Worldwide) (25
November 2011)
6. How popular are the institutions used for both the
high-budget and low-budget films?
• The high budget films have a lot more famous a list actors and
actresses listed and a lot more nominees for several different
awards. They obviously have a much bigger budget therefore a
much bigger outcome budget. They are also a lot more well-known,
as people would recognise the popular institutions when they hear
them however not so much for the low budget institutions .
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is one of 6 of the most
famous and popular American Film Studios of 2011. Some other
very popular films they have produced are; Star Wars, Alien, Home
Alone and many more… It has also made famous TV programs such
as Family Guy and American Dad therefore is very famous with the
American crowd. Even though Focus Features is part of making low
budget films some of them have turned out to be a lot more
successful than expecting, including Billy Elliot and The Pianist
which have been put up more many awards and had a satisfactory
economic outcome.
7. List the differences between the high-budget film and
the low-budget film in terms of the institutions
• Well to start, 20th century fox is a co-operation therefore is a
very highly rated, popular company having extremely famous
films and making a much bigger profit from each films.
Whereas focus features is a small company and therefore
some of there films aren't anywhere near as popular or make
even half the profit of some of the films produced by 20th
century fox productions. A lot of very famous actors and
actresses have a higher expected pay therefore 20th century
fox institution would be able to afford them and even several
of them in one film; this would also advertise the film
because of the popularity. And on the other hand, low budget
films with not so a-list stars they are not as famous therefore
would not be advertised as much.
8. What other films has the production company
made? Were these successful? Why/why not?
• 20th Century Fox company –
• Home Alone
• Titanic
• Ice Age
• The Devil Wear’s Prada
• John Tucker Must Die
• Borat
• Taken 2
• Night At The Museum
• Focus Features
• The Pianist
• One Day
• Beginners
• Burn After Reading
• These few movies that I have picked out from each institution are all of their most popular
ones. They are all movies that have been nominated for awards and some even winning
them. Therefore they are all successful, just at different levels. For example Home Alone
was very popular and went on to making 3 sequels. It included famous celebrities and
make a very reasonable profit. This was very good for 20th Century Fox as it was a major
high for the company. However, the film One Day was a famous film, especially for Focus
Features.
9. What genre of films does the company usually produce? Is this
important when considering who could produce the film? Why?
• 20th Century Fox company mainly producers
dramas and family movies. Because of there
high reputation, I believe they stick to this
genre as they know they have done well in it
and can carry on producing good films that will
continue to make a really good profit. Most
institutions are well known more for the genre
than anything else. For example Pixar is well
known for children animations and Disney
films therefore if they bought out a gory horror
it would be extremely slagged off and have a
bad reputation.
10. What audiences do each of the institutions aim to appeal to? Is
this reflected through their film choice, or does this vary?
• 20th Century Fox seem to aim their films at a wide
variety audience. They all range from PG to 15
certificate. However the genre for each film is very well
targeted. If its aimed at children, it is also very
acceptable for adults to watch, and more so enjoy. E.g.
Home Alone.
• Focus Features seem to focus at a more of a mature and
intellectual audience. There films are more serious and
social drama’s; where an audience can sometimes relate
to them. A lot of them are set in the past therefore an
older audience would be able to understand a lot more.
For example; The Pianist, a film about a Jewish man
struggling for life during the war.
11. Which institution do you feel outperforms the other and could claim
to be more successful, considering your research? Explain your
reasons
• I believe 20th Century Fox institution defiantly out
performs Focus Features, this is because it has produced
a lot more films and most of them have become very
successful and made a massive profit. Also this company
has been around a significant more years than Focus
Features. This has given them a head start and also
allowed them to have a much further and better
reputation. Fortunately they haven't had many hiccups
therefore kept up there very good reputation. I still
believe Focus Features are a good institution and have
made there fair share of successful movies. They haven’t
been producing films for that long therefore if they carry
on they could further to produce more good movies and
become more popular.
