American Conglomerate Film Company

The American Conglomerate Film Company I have chosen to use as my case study is Universal Pictures. This company, also known is Universal Studios INC. is an american based film studio which was established on April 30th 1912 (as Universal Film Manufacturing Company) by its founders Carl Laemmle, Pat Powers, Mark Ditenfass, William Swanson, David Horsley, Charles Baumann, Adam Kessel and Jules Brulatour. Its headquarters still resides in California, U.S. and is formally named Universal City. Universal Pictures have accumulated many awards wining and successful films over their 100 years of existence. these include Steven Spielburgs, Jurassic Park Franchise and ET as well as classics such as Frankenstein and Dracula. It is currently owned partly by the Parent Company who also owns NBC and Universals Parks and Resorts. Universal Studios Inc, is one of the worldwide and prominent film companies.

I chose to use this American Conglomerate as my case study as it is well known across the world and therefore as well as being an interesting case study, it will also have lots of information and data concerning it existing across the internet. As well as this, due to it being one of the oldest of all of film companies in the modern world, I will be able to show its development through time as well as talking about how its films have done the same.

The universal logo has followed the same basic style throughout its 100 years, despite it becoming more modernized over the last 25 years. The logo includes earth with the universal title spread across it, or wrapping around it like a ring. this gives us an idea of the message universal want to address about there company, being worldwide and also being known as the best because of doing so. As well as this  as the text wraps around the earth we can see that they want to include the image that they are connected to everyone as well as connecting everyone on earth together through film. The font of the logo is bold upper case letters with a white and gold theme running throughout. In the animation of the logo as the sun sets behind the earth the text rises upwards. This again shows universals importance. The logo has changed throughout the years, with it in more modern times gaining colour and more noticeably the 3D affect. this points out the changes in the film industry also as 3D has become a worldwide popular aspect to watching films. 

As well as this I have chosen to use the companies production of Jurassic World as my film case study as at this moment it is the companies highest grossing film to date with it gaining $650,518,931 world wide in 2015. As well as this, the film has many different elements which I am able to discuss including it advertisement and also endorsement deals with toy companies such as Lego. Moreover, due to the film being part of a well known and loved franchise made by Universal pictures, it will give me various perspectives of it launch and how audiences have reacted to it . 

Film Promotional Research

Film promo research Jurassic World from jessicahooker6

Case studies- Jurassic World from jessicahooker6


Exchange and further exhibition: in the cinemas where the film was held, which was in all theatres across the world, mostly in western world countries, before the film merchandise for it was given out. This included free posters, as well as drinks with the characters and film poster on them or the same on other food and beverages. As well as this dinosaur and other amusement statues or displays were put up to again advertise and gain popularity for the film itself.

To what extent does media ownership have an impact on the successful distribution of media products in the media areas that you have studied?

Universal Pictures is one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, consisting of subsidiaries such as NBCUniversal, a company formed in 1926. Universal pictures produces high budget Hollywood movies. It is part of the oligopoly of the big 6, allowing it great power throughout the film industry.

One of its biggest tent pole movies is ‘Jurassic World’, released on June 12^th 2015, which had a production budget of $150,000,000 allowing a massive tent pole movie to be created. Universal were certain this film would generate enough money to comfortably find any other smaller film the company wished to make. Due to the size of the company, Universal were able to distribute their film completely independently in the UK and in the US they distributed the film themselves. Also with a slightly differing audience in those specific countries, it made the film more appealing to them individually rather than just appealing to a general audience worldwide.  They spent millions of dollars on marketing, securing a profit of $1.6 billion, with it also being the fastest film to reach the billion mark in cinema. They used social media to enable them to produce a Twitter page, Facebook page and an interactive website designed to be for the park featured in the film; with it including a map of the ark and description of the attractions. Due to Universals massive ownership patterns, they were able to launch synergistic campaigns, such as a collaboration with Starbucks and Mercedes, with the later producing a GLE Coupe car to be used in the film and using the slogan ‘Alpha Car’, thereby linking to the alpha dinosaurs in the film itself. A campaign with other smaller companies and shops also including that of Starbucks and Pandora were featured in the film. Their brand logos were shown in a high street shopping plaza in the theme park of the film. The film was filmed using top end technology such as image cameras, 35mm and 65mm, and edited on non-linear software. All of which making the films in the cinema a more prestigious experience, creating a demand for screening. This also helps deal with rising levels of piracy which is a continuing and increasing problem in the films industry for companies like that of Universal Pictures. However director Colin Trevorrow, also included the use of film stock in order to ‘match the visual aesthetic’ of the previous trilogy and gain a greater dynamic of light in for jungle scenes. This linked the previous films to the new instalment for the fans of them.

Formed in 1983, Working Title Films is a British independent film company producing commercial films for wide audiences as well as smaller more indie films. It released The Theory of Everything (TTOE) on January 1^st 2015 which continued the company’s awareness and success. The film was directed by James Marsh, who although not an up and coming director, mainly focused on documentary’s and indie genre films. Therefore with this film being a biopic, it would be suited to his techniques. The production for TTOE was quite large of $15 million, allowing for the money to be used to create a smaller more independent film which included some factors seen in other bigger, Hollywood films like the visuals of the camera, with the film using the same Kodak 35mm camera as Jurassic World. The Theory of Everything was distributed by Working title Film with some funding for the film and marketing coming from Focus features and big six studio Universal Pictures. This therefore showed that the film companies wanted the film to reach a wide audience in the US as well as the UK. Also the film was first shown in the Toronto International Film Festival in late 2014. This allowed critics and small audiences to see the film and make ‘word of mouse’ reviews using social media, thereby making a smaller interest in the film before its actual release. Also using YouTube and other broadcasting networks, with Twitter and Facebook also being included, the company was able to release short clips of the film as well as featurettes of what the production progress included; creating further excitement for the film. However the film also focused on the more traditional methods of marketing with trailers, posters and interviews whether that be on radio or TV; with the UK (The graham Norton Show) and the US (The tonight show) being focused on. All of which were also included in the marketing plan for Jurassic world. With Jurassic World using conventional and new methods of distribution, that film specifically would have a much wider audience access than the smaller independent film. This follows the codes and conventions of a blockbuster, tent pole film rather than a critically acclaimed film.  TTOE, although having a large budget did not include 3D or IMAX into its production unlike that of Jurassasic World. The film directors and producers foxused specifically on the story and how the film was made rather than keeping up with the modern technology of cinema; which is also particularky expensive.

However it could also be determines that the success of a film comes from the awards its nominated for or wins and its critical acclaim rather than its profit. TTOE, which won and was nominated for Acandemy Awards ad Baftas like Best Actor; which was won; was more directed at this type of success in the film industry rather than that of the tentpole, blockbuster Jurassic World. TTOE used these nominations in their maretting campaign, featuring them in trailers and posters in order to attract their specific taregtted audience. Which was much older and mature than Jurassic World. This would have contributed to its siginificant success in the box office also. With the companies of each film having some link to universal pictures, it suggests that media ownership does have an impact on the success of the films distribution, priiarly due to the amount of funding necessary and also the audience the company is able to access with it.