2. Other films they have distributed:
• Dances With Wolves - Western - $22 million
• The Amityville Horror (1979) – Horror/Thriller - $4.7 million
• Platoon – Drama/War - $6 million
• Robocop – Sci-Fi/action - $13 Million
• The Terminator – Sci-Fi/Action - $6.4 million
• Dressed to Kill – Thriller - $6.5 million
1. Orion Pictures – Silence of the Lambs
- $19 million
3. From the examples of other films that they have distributed, Orion
Pictures generally support low to mid-budget films. Many of their
low budget films have turned out to be great successes, grossing
much more than they cost to make.
E.g. – TheTerminator made 5 times its budget.
Out of the 6 examples, only Dances with Wolves, along with Silence
of the Lambs, cost more than $15 million to make ($22 mil), making it
the only non-low budget film. However, it grossed more than $184
million.This means that it made over 8 times its budget!
They also appear to distribute a wide range of genres, not just
psychological horror.
Orion
4. Other films distributed:
• Pompeii – Action/Drama - $100 million
• Evil Dead – Horror - $17 million
• Silent Hill – Horror - $50 million
• District 9 – Sci-Fi/Action - $30 million
• The Medallion - Comedy/Action - $41 million
• Planet 51 – Animation/comedy - $70 million
2.TriStar – Jacob’s Ladder - $25 million
5. Like with Orion pictures,TriStar are quite diverse with the genres of
film that they distribute. However, from the examples used, the
horror and sci-fi/action genres are quite popular.
Generally,TriStar support larger budget films than Orion, with only
one example being close to the ‘Low budget’ bracket (Evil Dead - $17
million). All of the films are mid to high budget, with the lowest being
Evil Dead which cost $17 million to make.The highest budget film
was Pompeii, which just breaks into the ‘Big budget’ bracket , as it
cost exactly $100 million to make. However , unlike Orion’s films,
Pompeii was not as successful compared to its budget. Even though
it made over $23 million, it was unsuccessful compared to its $100
million budget.
Also, lots of the other examples failed to make their budget back –
All of them failed to make their money back.
Tristar
6. Other films:
• The Dark Knight – Action/Superhero - $185 million
• All Harry Potter films – Fantasy – E.g. HP and the Sorcer’s Stone, $125 million
• Inception – Sci-Fi/Action - $160 million
• The Matrix trilogy – Sci-Fi/Action – Ranging from $63 million - $150 million
• I Am Legend – Sci-Fi/Horror - $150 million
• American Sniper – Drama - $58.8 million
3.Warner Bros –The Shining - $19
million
7. The examples show that, despite being known for developingThe
Shining, which is quite a low budget film at $19 million, they favour in
supporting films with a much bigger budget, especially since the
beginning of the 21st century. In particular, Sci-Fi films which have a
lot of expensive CGI and special effects. This is shown by most of the
examples’ budget ranging between $125 million and $185 million.
As well as this, they have been very successful distributors, with their
big budget films making back more than they cost to make. For
example , The Dark Knight made over $533 million, when it cost $185
to make.This shows that even the most expensive of the examples
still made back almost 3 times its budget.
In fact, not a single one of the examples made a loss, showing that
Warner Bros are a very successful distributor.
The examples show that they also distribute a range of genres, but
do favour sub-genres of Sci-Fi
Warner Bros
8. Other films:
• The Avengers – Action/Sci-Fi - $220 million
• Toy Story 3 – Animation - $200 million
• Finding Nemo – Animation - $94 million
• Guardians of the Galaxy – Action/Sci-Fi - $170 million
• Pirates of the Caribbean – Period/Adventure - $140 million
• Alice in Wonderland (2010) – Family/Adventure - $200 million
4. BuenaVista –The Sixth Sense - $40
million
9. The examples clearly show that Buena Vista support big budget films, with
Finding Nemo the only film that cost less than $100 million. ($94 million).
However these big budget films were very successful, with many making
much more than they cost to make. E.g. The Avengers made almost 3 times
its budget.
However looking at the list of films distributed by Buena Vista, it is clear that
they favour the children's animation genre, as shown by the list below:
BuenaVista
10. Other films:
• Avatar – Sci-Fi/Adventure - $237 million
• The Star Wars prequels – Sci-Fi/Fantasy - $113-115 million – comapared
with episodes 4,5 &6, which were made a decade or two before, and cost
between $11 million and $32.5 million.
• Home Alone – Family/Comedy - $18 million
• Mrs. Doubtfire – Family/Comedy - $25 million
• The Simpsons Movie – Animation - $75 million
Fox –The Omen - $25 million
11. Looking at the examples, Fox distribute a range of films genres. Examples
show that they do favour Sci-Fi films, shown by the fact that they distributed
Avatar, one of the most expensive films ever made, with some of the most
impressive CGI effects to date.
Avatar shows that Fox do distribute some large budget films. However, more
unlike big companies like Warner Bros and Buena Vista, they do also support
smaller budget films, such as Home Alone and the original Star Wars films.
As well as this, Fox has a second film company, along with 20th Century Fox,
called Fox Searchlight, who have distributed the psychological horror film
Black Swan, which had a budget of $13 million . They have distributed a
range of films some of their most successful, including Juno which cost just
$7.5 million to make, and Slumdog Millionaire, which just cost $15 million
Fox
12. Other films:
• Shrek – Animation - $60 million
• Saving Private Ryan – War - $70 million
• What Lies Beneath – Horror - $100 million
• American Beauty – Drama - $15 million
• Road to Perdition – Crime/Drama - $80 million
• Gladiator – Historical Epic - $103 million
DreamWorks –The Ring - $48 million
13. The examples show that DreamWorks support a differing range of
budgets, with the numbers ranging from $15 million to $100 million.
All of the films researched did make back more than they cost to
make, but they weren't quite as successful as some of the big budget
films made by other companies. For example, What Lies Beneath
(also horror), cost $100 million, so it is a big budget film, but only
made 1.5 times that, which is relatively low compared to the big
budget films of other companies such as Fox and Warner Bros.
AS well as this, it is shown that DreamWorks distribute a range of
genres as well as horror, such as war, drama and animation.
DreamWorks is especially well known for distributing some of the
biggest animation films ever made, such as Shrek, Madagascar,
Chicken Run and SharkTale.
DreamWorks
