The document summarizes the production, distribution, and marketing of the 2014 film Paddington. It was produced by StudioCanal and Heyday Films, directed by Paul King, and had a $55 million budget. Paddington had a widespread global release in over 40 countries and 30 languages. An extensive marketing campaign included a Paddington Trail of statues across London designed by celebrities, partnerships with brands like Nintendo and Heathrow Express, and a charitable auction that raised $930,000.

1. Production, Distribution & Exhibition

2. Production
• Director - Paul King
• Producer - David Heyman (Producer of
Harry Potter)
• Production - Heyday Films + StudioCanal
• Distributed by StudioCanal

3. Paddington has been around since 1958
• Based on the book, ‘Paddington Bear’ by
Michael Bond.
• A built in fanbase! – Fans of the original novel
will already be loyal, these people would have
read the books to their children &
grandchildren and so there is a massive
fanbase.

4. Production
• Film was first announced in September 2007.
• Production began September 13th 2013.
• Budget - $55 million (£31m)
• Paddington was the most expensive film
produced by French production company,
StudioCanal.
•

5. Box Office:
• UK release date - 28th November 2014
• US release date – 16th January 2015
• UK OPENING WEEKEND - £5,191,930 (502
Screens)
Topped the box office for two weeks.
• US OPENING WEEKEND - $25,205,000 (3,303
Screens)
• It was StudioCanal's highest opening film.
• The second-highest 2014 family film debut in the
country behind The Lego Movie.

6. Global
• Translated into 30 languages and having sold
30 million books, there’s no doubt that
Paddington has worldwide appeal – which is
why StudioCanal released the film in 40
countries.

8. Global
• Week ending 9th December 2014 - topped the
box office in France.
• Week ending 24th December 2014 - topped the
box office in Australia.
• Paddington’s homeland, Peru, also got the film in
its first week, where it did a tidy $405,000 – less
than other kids’ fare there this year, like Mr
Peabody and Sherman ($491,000), but higher
than Interstellar ($369,000).

9. Home Media:
• UK Blu-ray, DVD and streaming release date –
23rd March 2015
• US Blu-ray, DVD and streaming release date –
28th April 2015

11. Paddington 2
• On April 28th 2015 the sequel to the film was
confirmed for release in 2017

12. Distribution
• Classification:
• BBFC - PG certificate.
• November 2014 the British Board of Film
Classification (BBFC) gave the film a PG
certificate for its UK release and advised
parents that the film contained "dangerous
behaviour, mild threat, mild sex references
[and] mild bad language."

13. Audience concepts
• Target Audience? Demographics – age/gender/socio-economics?
• Primary: 5 – 15, Both genders, E / Secondary 20 – 75 (older fanbase – 1958
book published). Both Socio-economics – A-E
• Who would take a Preferred, Negotiated & Oppositional reading?
• Preferred: children/ Negotiated: parents/ Oppositional:Teens, people who
question stereotypes.
• Uses and Gratifications?
• Entertainment
• Young and Rubicam?
• Mainstreamers
• Mass/Niche?
• Mass – global release – 40 languages.
• Active/Passive?
• Passive: preferred reading – nothing to question & believe ideologies. Active
audience: neg/opp reading and will question believability.
• Two Step Flow theory?
• Producer & actors will hype up the film during premiere and chat shows.
• Hypodermic Needle?
• Romantic view of immigration & Patriarchal ideologies.

14. Marketing & Distribution
• The marketing for Paddington, consisted of
traditional and digital strategies
• Posters & billboards:

15. Individualcharactersposters

16. Promoted on TV through trailers.
(Youtube/social media)
• Teaser trailer
• Official trailer
• Trailer 2
• International Trailer

17. Marketing
#Paddington Trail
• 50 Paddington statues
(sponsored by 50
separate companies,
brands and
celebrities) were
placed in key
locations across
London throughout
November and
December 2014.

18. Brand/Celeb endorsement/Two-
Step Flow
• The partners worked together to secure headline
sponsorship from Barclaycard- and a further 50
brand partners to sponsor individual statues,
including- Intel, BT, Hamleys, Chelsea FC,
Amazon, First Great Western- The campaign also
sourced 50 celebrity ambassadors, ranging from
David Beckham to Hugh Bonneville, Sandra
Bullock to Boris Johnson, Emma Watson to
Benedict Cumberbatch, who each created
bespoke designs creating a multi-coloured trail
that couldn’t fail but capture public imagination
and media attention.

19. PR Campaign
• The Paddington Trail was launched to the press
by Premier's PR team with a fanfare on Monday
3 November ahead of the overnight installation
of all 50 statues and the opening of The Trail to
the public.
• TV, radio and news agencies all attended the
launch to interview statue designers Hugh
Bonneville (Mr Brown in the Paddington film) -
and artists Michael Howells and Ryan McElhinney
resulting in regional, national and international
coverage.

20. #PaddingtonTrail
• An interactive web hub was created in
association with London & Partners, allowing
visitors to download maps of the trail, learn
about all the bears, and engage further with
the partners and celebrities.

22. • This was supported by live social media
engagement, a global photo competition, and
ongoing PR activity – which covered all major
print and online press, bloggers, and
broadcast coverage, including Take That
painting a statue in the Graham Norton studio
on prime time BBC One.

23. Photo Competition

25. NSPCC
• The Paddington Trail campaign concluded with
a charity auction which saw all 50 bears sold
to buyers from across the globe raising funds
for NSPCC. The gala event helped to sustain
further awareness and ensure overwhelming
positive sentiment surrounding the new
Paddington.
• The online auction raised £930,000 for the
charity.

27. Selfridges
• Selfridges came on board as the retail partner, creating
‘The Paddington Curiosity Shop’ and Christmas windows,
and retailing statue miniatures in aid of the NSPCC.

28. Synergy
• Several brands got involved in the promotion
of Paddington prior to its release on 28th
November 2014.

29. Nintendo 3DS
“Paddington:
Adventures in
London”
Released
August 11th
2015 for
Nintendo 3DS

30. Paddington’s Party App

31. Heathrow Express
Heathrow Express
promoted the film by
letting children travel
free from 4th November
to the end of the year
and by offering free kids
meals during the half
term prior to the film’s
release

32. Warbeartons
Warburtons (promotional
partner) invested
£2.5million to promote
the film by changing name
to “Warbeartons”. This
was the only time in it 138
years that the name has
been changed.

33. Robertsons
Robertsons
gave away 10
solid gold pin
badges as part
of their cross
over marketing
campaign.

34. Visit Britain
• VisitBritain wanted tourists to ‘see Britain through
Paddington’s eyes’ as part of its marketing campaign.
• The ‘Britain is Great’ campaign teamed up with the
Paddington movie and encouraged tourists to take
selfies using the hashtag #PaddingtonsBritain.
• Campaign branding was also been placed in the film
itself, with VisitBritain’s marketing director Joss Croft
saying: “the film demonstrates the warm welcome that
Britain delivers to all our visitors - albeit in this case an
ursine Peruvian”.