'Skyfall' (2012) - Brief Case Study (WIP)

Skyfall 

  

Premiere:

Skyfall had it's premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London on the 23rd of October 2012, which was attended by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. It was the first film in the franchise to be released in IMAX venues, and was even released a day earlier on IMAX venues in North America a day earlier than in other venues, despite not having been filmed with IMAX cameras. The release of the film coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Bond series (having started with Dr. No in 1962)

Box Office:

Skyfall has earned $1.1086 billion worldwide, thus becoming the 14th film to ever gross over $1 billion at the box office (worldwide) alone - also becoming the first Bond film to do so.

Breaking Box Office Records:

Whilst it may have only been the 14th film to ever gross over $1 billion at box office, it climbed to the 7th highest grossing film of all time, the highest grossing film for both Sony Pictures and MGM worldwide, the highest grossing Bond film and highest grossing film in the UK.

Once taking inflation into account, Skyfall remains the highest grossing film of the Bond film franchise (surpassing Thunderball's $1.047 billion worldwide gross).

UK Box Office Records:

It holds a record for the highest seven-day gross with £37.2 million, surpassing the previous record set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 which grossed £35.7 million in it's first week.

By November 9th, 2012, the film had earned just over £57 million, surpassing both The Dark Knight Rises as the highest grossing film of 2012, but also the highest grossing Bond film of all time.

40 days after it's release, the UK gross totaled to £94.28 million, making Skyfall the highest grossing film in the UK (having surpassed the £94.03 million made by Avatar).

On the 30th of December, 2012, it became the first film to gross more than £100 million.

North American Box Office:

Skyfall received the widest opening of a Bond film in North America with it opening in 3,505 cinemas across the U.S.A and Canada. On the opening day alone it grossed $30.8 million in the U.S.A and Canada, before going on to gross $88.4 million by the end of it's opening weekend - making it the biggest debut yet for a Bond film in North America.

At the end of it's theatrical run, it had grossed $304,360,277, making it the 4th highest grossing film in North American in 2012.

Other Box Office Records/Grossings:

Switzerland: Opening weekend record with $5.3 million

India: Second largest opening weekend of a Hollywood film with $5.1 million

Austria: Second highest weekend opening ($3.4 million) behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 

France: $14.3 million grossed in the opening weekend
Finland: Largest opening weekend ($1.47 million) when excluding previews.

'Dr. No' (1962) - Brief Case Study (WIP)

Dr. No 

Premiere:

Dr. No premiered the 5th of October, 1962, at the London Pavilion, before being released to the rest of the UK to 168 cinemas 3 days later, meanwhile the North American premiere was much more low profile, being released on the 8th of May 1963, showing in 450 cinemas in the Midwest and Southwest regions of the U.S.A.. 

Box Office:

Dr. No  was shown at 168 cinemas across the UK, and managed to gross $840,000 in just the first two weeks, and became the fifth most popular film of the year there.

Despite having a very low key premiere in the states and being the first of the James Bond film franchise, it quickly returned it's budget of $1.1 million and grossed a total of $59.5 million. 

'Casino Royale' (2006) - Brief Case Study (WIP)

Casino Royale 

Premiere:

Casino Royale premiered on November 14th, 2006 in London at the Odeon Leicester Square, the Odeon West End and the Empire simultaneously. It marked both the 60th Royal Film Performance, and Queen Elizabeth II's third attendance to a James Bond premiere (having also been to the premieres of You Only Live Twice and Die Another Day)

Box Office:

In total, Casino Royale grossed $599,045,960 worldwide (having had a budget of around $150 million), making it the 4th highest grossing film of 2006 and the highest grossing installment of the James Bond series until Skyfall surpassed it in November, 2012 (having grossed $1.108.6 billion worldwide by the end of it's film run).

On its opening day in U.S.A., Casino Royale was the highest grossing film with $14,741,135, and by the end of the opening weekend grossed $40,833,156, coming second behind Happy Feet, however Casino Royale was played in 370 fewer cinemas.

Breaking Box Office Records:

It broke records on both it's opening day and overall opening weekend in the UK, grossing £1.7 million and £13,370,969 respectively. When it's box office run finished, the film had grossed £55.4 million, making it the most successful film of the year in the UK, and is the tenth highest grossing film of all time in the country (as of 2011).

'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' - Case Study (WIP)

Case Study

Name of Film: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Director: Marc Webb
Stars: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti and Sally Field.
Date Released: April 10th, 2014, London (Premiere), April 16th, 2014, UK and Belgium (Public)

How was the film marketed?

The marketing budget for the film is somewhere between $180 million and $190 million.

On July 17th, 2013, Sony revealed a the first footage of the film showcasing Jamie Foxx as Electro to encourage the attendance to their panel at the San Diego Comic-Con International, where they premiered a 4 minute trailer, which - although not publicly released - was eventually leaked onto the internet.
Meanwhile, viral marketing included a version of the Daily Bugle (a fictional tabloid newspaper seen throughout the Marvel Universe, but most predominantly in Spider-Man) on the blogging site Tumblr - which is known for it's ability to quickly share posts around the globe - especially when the post's main audience is a fanbase as large as Marvel's.
The director, Marc Webb, tweeted a photo of a message written in a Drawven language, stating that the first official trailer for the film would debut prior to the 3D screenings of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
On December 8th, 2013, it was announced that new footage from the film was to be shown at the New Year's Eve festivites at New York City's Times Square.

Further promotion of the film came with the World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) "Earth Hour" campaign, the cast being present at the launch of the event in Singapore, whilst the Spider-Man logo was lit up alongside Earth Hour's 60+ logo.
On February 17th, 2014, at the American International Toy Fair, Disney Consumer Products announced a merchandise product line for the film.
In March, 2014, Marvel and Gameloft announced the launch of a mobile game of the same name for tablets and smartphones, and was later released on consoles. Meanwhile Kellogg's also released an application featuring the film.
On April 1st, 2014, Evian released an advertisement titled "The Amazing Baby & Me 2" featuring Spider-Man alongside a baby version of himself to follow up their original "Baby & Me" advertisement from April 19th 2013.
They partnered with NBCUniversal for advertising. Spots for the film appeared on Bravo, E!, USA, Syfy, mun2 and Telemundo, as well as a customized page being made for the film on Fandango.
In May 2014, Marvel announced that Spider-Man's film costume would be available in the game Marvel: Avengers Alliance - a game originally released on Playdom's official website and Facebook, but is now available on iOS and android devices.

What are the producers stressing? What is the film's unique selling point?




Who is the audience?



Where and when was it released? Any significance?



How successful has the film been



How is success judged?



Have you seen the film? What is your opinion as an audience member?

Gone With The Wind

Why Was Gone With The Wind The Highest Grossing Film For 25 Years?

-Note: all cash values are from after inflation is taken into account-

One of the main reasons as to why Gone With The Wind was the highest grossing film (HGF) of all time for 25 years (without considering current inflation rates, in which case it’s the HGF of all time currently) is because of it’s ability to gain ‘classic’ status, and between it’s initial release to the end of it’s 25 years as being the HGF of all time, it had an additional 3 re-releases (1947, 1951 and 1961). These re-releases show that Gone With The Wind gained it’s classic status, and was well received by audiences outside of Depression-era America.

The fact that it’s also a historical romance - both genres being popular throughout the history of film - also means it would attract audiences at each re-release.

While it may be the HGF of all time after inflation, this is mostly because of it’s 8  re-releases that span a total of 60 years. In it’s initial release, it made only $506,000,000 in the U.S.A., so the remaining $2.8 billion came from it’s 8 re-releases.

Jack the Giant Slayer - Shot Analysis

Name of film: Jack the Giant Slayer
Director: Bryan Singer
Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor and Eleanor Tomlinson
Date released: March 1st, 2013 (U.S.A.)

1. Shot time: 1 minute, 25 seconds into the film

The shot used here is a medium-wide shot, allowing us to see all of the young Jack's room, instantly giving us a sense of what the time period it is and how poor Jack's family seem to be. This is mostly due to the lack of techonology - a few candles being the main light source outside of the scenes current thunder storm - and style of furniture - cruedly made wooden pieces, most likely made by someone in the family as it'd be cheaper/free - telling us that it was most likely before electricity was invented and before metals became a common and relatively cheap material so that even those with minimal wages could afford basic furniture such as beds made from it. The minimalistic colours (mostly dull browns and greys) continue to show us that they're poor - they can't afford the more expensive dyed clothing, or clothes made in more structured styles, only simple and cheap tunics.

The use of the lightning strikes lighting up the room and showing a large shadow towering over Jack's bed foreshadows how later on in the movie he'll be facing the giants.

Bette Davis - A Brief Biography

Who was she?
Born on the 5th of April, 1908 as Ruth Elizabeth Davis, Bette Davis was an American film, theatre and television actress, she's considered to be one of the greatest actors in the world of cinema history.

Whilst her first 2 years in Hollywood were unsuccessful - failing all screen tests in her first year, and when she finally debuted in 'The Bad Sister' (1931) the film was a flop, along with the films she appeared in after that - until fellow actor George Arliss elected her to play the leading role in Warner Brothers 'The Man Who Played God' (1932), finally making her way into Hollywood's limelight.

How did she contribute to Hollywood's Golden Age?

Bette Davis is seen to have mainly contributed to Hollywood's Golden Age - as well as the perception of females in movies - by breaking the typical mould of female characters to be kind and sympathetic (and essential there in the film to be either the love interest or sex object) through her first critically acclaimed role in 'Of Human Bondage' (1934) as the character Mildred Rogers - using the characters viciousness to show off a wider range of acting skills than most women were allowed to do in their roles at the time.