12 Years a Slave is a 2013 historical drama film directed by Steve McQueen and based on Solomon Northup's 1853 slave memoir. The film tells the story of Northup, a free black man from New York who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery. It stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup and was filmed on location in New Orleans and nearby plantations. 12 Years a Slave received critical acclaim and over $187 million at the box office.

1. CASE STUDY TIMELINE
FILM | DIRECTOR |YEAR
12 Years A Slave - Steve McQueen - 2013
12 Years A Slave is a 2013 historical drama film
and an adaptation of the 1853 slave narrative
memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon
Northup, a New York State-born free
African-American man who was kidnapped in
Washington, D.C., in 1841 and sold into slavery. After meeting screenwriter John Ridley at a
Creative Artists Agency screening of Hunger in
2008, director Steve McQueen got in touch with
Ridley about his interest in making a film about "the
slave era in America" with "a character that was not
obvious in terms of their trade in slavery."They developed the storyline but finalised the
vision when McQueens partner found Solomon
Northup’s1853 memoir Twelve Years a Slave
After an extended development process, during which Brad Pitt’s
production company Plan B Entertainment backed the project,
which eventually helped get some crucial financing from various
film studios (such as New Regency Productions), the film was
officially announced in August 2011 with McQueen to direct and
Chiwetel Ejiofor to star as Solomon Northup, a free negro who
was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South.
The casting was decided where Chiwetel Ejiofor
stars as Solomon Northup with Michael Fassbender,
Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti,
Lupita Nyong’o,SarahPaulson, Brad Pitt, and Alfre
Woodard all featured in supporting roles.
With a production budget of $20 million, filming
began in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 27, 2012.
As a way to keep down production costs, the majority of the filming took
place in the greater New Orleans area mostly south of the Red River
country in the north of the state, where the historic Northup was enslaved.
Among locations used were four historic antebellum plantations:
Felicity, Bocage, Destrehan, and Magnolia. Magnolia, a plantation in
Schriever, Louisiana, is just few miles from one of the historic sites where
Northup was held.
After seven weeks, filming finished on August 13,
2012.

2. The first trailer for the film was released on the 15th
of July 2013 on Youtube.
12 Years a Slave premiered at the Telluride Film
Festival on August 30, 2013, before screening at the
2013 Toronto International Film Festival on September
6, the New York Film Festival on October 8, The New
Orleans Film Festival on October 10, 2013, and
Philadelphia Film Festival on October 19, 2013.
12 Years a Slave was commercially released on
October 18, 2013 in the United States for a limited
release of 19 theatres. The film was initially
scheduled to be released in late December 2013, but
this release date was postponed due to further test
screenings.
During its opening, limited, release in the United
States,12 Years a Slave debuted with a weekend
total of $923,715 on 19 screens for a $48,617
per-screen average.
The following weekend, the film entered the top ten
after expanding to 123 theatres and grossing an
additional $2.1 million.
It continued to improve into its third weekend,
grossing $4.6 million at 410 locations.
The film release was expanded to over 1,100
locations on November 8, 2013.
On November 15, 2011, Summit Entertainment
announced it had secured a deal to distribute 12
Years a Slave to international markets. The film
was distributed by Entertainment One in the United
Kingdom.
A soundtrack album was released digitally on
November 5 and received a physical format release
on November 11, 2013 by Columbia Records. In
addition the album features music inspired by the
film by artists such as John Legend, Laura Mvula,
Alicia Keys, Chris Cornell, and Alabama Shakes.

3. During its marketing campaign, 12 Years a Slave
received unpaid endorsements by celebrities such as
Kanye West and Sean Combs which aided in the
word-of-mouth and viral hype marketing for the
independent film.
12 Years A Slave’sDVD release was on March 4,
2014 (USA).
12 Years a Slave received almost universal acclaim
from critics and audiences, for its acting
(particularly Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender
and Lupita Nyong’o),Steve McQueen’sdirection,
John Ridley’sscreenplay, its production values, and
its faithfulness to Solomon Northup’saccount.
The Film review site, Rotten Tomatoes, reported
that 97% of critics gave the film a "Certified Fresh"
rating, which was based on 258 reviews with an
average score of 9/10 which is extremely high and
fairly rare for an independent film.
As of May 20, 2014, 12 Years a Slave had earned
$187.7 million including $56.7 million in the
United States.