This document compares the distribution options for a small, independent British film versus a large Hollywood blockbuster. Small British films typically have much smaller budgets of around £1 million that must cover both production and distribution. This makes it difficult for the film to get mainstream cinema releases or do widespread advertising. In contrast, large blockbuster films can have budgets over £100 million that allow for extensive market testing, early release date announcements, and hype-building previews and interviews. Hollywood films also benefit from backing by major media companies. Given its smaller budget and target niche audience, the discussed film in this document would be best served by distribution as a small British film rather than attempting a wide release as a blockbuster.

1. EVALUATION QUESTION 3

2. • When looking at what kind of media institution would distribute our film, there are two categories we
need to consider and compare. Firstly is it a small British movie? Or a Hollywood blockbuster. Both have
differing areas that would place our film into one of the two.
•
• Firstly we would need to look at what type of distribution our film would need. So for instance if we
wanted the film to be shown in cinemas, we would need to be producing trailers and posters. Maybe
even producing advertisements to be placed in popular magazines. Would TV companies such as the
BBC or ITV do small interviews with members of the cast? Many of these forms of advertisments can be
linked with larger Hollywood films, since independent British films don’t have the extra money to then
launch large campaigns after the film has been produced.

3. • So lets compare, to qualify a film to be a Hollywood blockbuster. For instance the recent release of the
blockbuster film Star Wars has just released that there overall budget for the making and distributing of
the film came to a whopping £140 million! With this vast amount of the money it gave them the power
to do multiple target audience researches, release the dates for the upcoming at least a year in
advance. Another benefit to have such a large budget it meant they could create hype for the film pre
and post production, by slowly releasing snippets of the film in the run up to release and members of
the upcoming cast. With so many huge stars starring in the previous films it created even more
excitement around the release since the public wanted to know what happened to their individual
characters after the last story had finished. Another benefit meant that many of the actors have huge
followings when meant they could create hype around them starring in the film.
• However Hollywood films normally have the backing of big media conglomerates such as warner
brothers and Lions gate films which help back the film and their distribution.
•

4. • All of this information put together means that smaller independent British films have a much harder
time producing and distributing a successful film. Many independent film companies will only have a
budget of £1 million, to produce and distribute the film in its entirety. This means its a lot more difficult
for the film to be shown in mainstream cinemas, which means its probably shown in small select
cinemas. It cant advertise thoroughly which means that most of the public don’t even know it exsists!
Most of the time when a independent company produces a film it means they are only producing for an
niche audience with a select interest so mass distribution can be unnecessary.
•
• Overall when putting all this information together I feel that our movie is best fitted to a smaller British
film, when creating our film we were very focused on targeting a smaller select audience. Personally I
think our film would have bigger impact on a smaller audience rather than the greater public.