Marketing of Studio and Independent Films

The marketing, distribution, and promotion of films has changed in the last decade as the result of changes in ancillary markets, notably the continuing development of sales to cable and other television outlets and the growth of the home video industry both as a rental market and as a sales market. In addition, there have been changes in the structure of exhibition which has contributed to new methods of distribution and promotion. Costs have also been a factor. The film business has become more expensive and more risky, but at the same time the potential for high returns has continued as an incentive for producers. Indeed, this potential has itself contributed to the increase in costs because it has created a blockbuster mentality that causes studios and producers to throw everything into a few large movies in the hopes of producing high grosses at the box office. This has always been a risky venture, but it appears to be getting even riskier as costs rise so high that grosses have to be extremely high in order to reach break-even. Independent films tend to cost less to produce and so can address more controversial and less obviously commercial material, but such material still has to be marketed. The way independent films are marketed and the way major studio productions are marketed shows both very different techniques and different outcomes, as will be seen with reference to the independent film The Doom Generation and the studio feature Get Shorty.

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, such as Get Shorty, has to reach the widest possible audience to make back that money. Every element in the marketing mix is intended to see to it that the film does reach that audience. The subject matter of the film itself identifies it as a mass-market product offering comedy, romance, crime, and a Hollywood setting, each an element that might appeal to a different segment of the audience or whose mixture might have such an appeal. Doom Generation, on the other hand, is a low-budget film with a story that lacks mass appeal, with a soundtrack that has a specific appeal to a particular group, and without the major stars that a mass market film would have. The budget for this film would be less than 5 percent of the budget for Get Shorty. This means the film can make its money back with fewer screens and fewer paying customers, but in some ways it is more difficult for the film to achieve that smaller revenue because of the greater difficulty in identifying and finding the specific audience that can support the film. Get Shorty opened with double-page ads in major newspapers featuring a photograph of the four principles--John Travolta, Rene Russo, Gene Hackman, and Danny DeVito--all wearing dark glasses, an image intended

Category: Film - M