1) Black Widow had many companies included in the making of it, with Marvel Studios being the main one. However, Walt Disney owns Marvel, making it the main company in charge of the production of the Hollywood blockbuster movie.
2) A conglomerate ownership is when a major media company owns other smaller companies, called subsidiaries. This links to Black Widow as it is a Marvel Studios film, however Marvel is a subsidiary as it is owned by Disney, which is a conglomerate - meaning it is its distributor.
3) Different aspects of the Black Widow movie trailer that makes it clear that it's a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster movie includes the fact that the cast consists of many huge names within the acting industry - with the main cast being Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), David Harbour (Alexei/Red Guardian) and Rachel Weisz (Melina Vostokoff). Also, it clearly portrays the name of the company that it's produced by, Marvel Studios, which is a hugely known company loved all over the world for its comic books and movies - it is also one of the most successful companies, again making it clear that Black Widow is a Hollywood blockbuster film. The trailer shows a large amount of special effects, indicating that it had a big budget as the CGI (computer-generated imagery) looks very professional and well-made. Another aspect is the costumes worn by the characters, they are all very detailed and intricate, perhaps implying that the movie had a great number of experienced costume designers working on their team.
4) Black Widow was promoted to audiences through film poster releases, teaser trailers and the movie being plastered on across billboards. This was because it was guaranteed they would be seen by a massive amount of people who come across them. The cast also partook in a number of things such as press tours, interviews, talk shows and panel events to discuss the movie and promote it to audiences. Marvel also marketed it on all their websites, giving it a whole section filled with a gallery, character posters and a story synopsis. Social media played a huge part into promoting the film too as it grows all the time which ensures a larger audience, big social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Twitter all consist of a significant amount of users which encourages a much bigger group of people to watch the movie.
5) Black Widow was made against a production budget of $200 million and it made only $379 million at the box office (which is considered to be less successful for Marvel films, as they usually tend to make as much as $1 billion) due to the fact that it was released during the pandemic which restricted many people from seeing the film.
6) I would consider it a fairly successful film in terms of Hollywood blockbusters, as the average amount they make is around $150 million. However, for a movie that is a part of the Marvel franchise, it wasn't as successful seeing as a lot of Marvel movies earn as much as $1 billion at the box office. The reason as to why this wasn't the case for Black Widow was because it was released when most places still had to undergo COVID-19 restrictions which meant that a lot of people were unable to go and see it at the time of its release, impacting its earnings immensely. Marvel would have also spent at least $100 million marketing the film globally and so profit levels were quite low.
7) The film industry in the UK is regulated by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification).
8) Black Widow was awarded with the age rating of a 12A, meaning nobody under the age of 12 can see the film unless they are accompanied by an adult. This was because it was deemed to have "moderate violence, injury detail" however it wasn't anything too graphic. Marvel mostly tries to stick to the 12A rating for their films as it is better for merchandising opportunities, ensures a potential better box office and 47% of cinema audiences were aged between 7 and 24 in the UK in 2014. Also, word of mouth and peer influence plays as a huge factor in gaining interest for their movies.
Grade 8/9 extension tasks:
1) I feel that Scarlett Johansson has the right to be frustrated with the multi-platform release strategy considering the fact that her lawyers reached out to Disney in 2019 with their own concerns of this strategy, however they still ended up going along with it. Also, this release tactic played a part in the general unsuccessfulness of the movie as a lot of people proceeded to rent the movie on Disney+ rather than watching it in theatres, which jeopardised the box office earnings and instead benefitted Disney.
2) IMAX is an important factor towards marketing as audiences may prefer to watch the movie in an expanded aspect ratio in order to fully take in and gather their own understandings of the movie properly, as well as to also feel entirely engrossed in the experience.
3) Marvel includes the movie trailer on their website in order to promote the film. They also provided featured videos, a plot explanation, a gallery consisting of shots from the movie, character posters and different ways to watch the film. They have also shown the release date for cinemas, Disney+, Blu-ray and digital.
4) Audience interaction is so important for film marketing especially in today's day and age as social media is something that is used internationally, this brings in a wider range of audiences from different places around the world to watch the movie. It is a good way to promote a movie as more and more people start to use the internet everyday so using it as a way to market a film cleverly makes more people aware of it and want to watch it. Also, many might watch it when it's trending, as it would be something that is the topic of conversation at the time as social media expands all the time, bringing in more people to talk about the movie. Positive reviews are especially important as a favourable reaction coming from the public encourages others to see the movie so that they can see if they'd enjoy it and develop an opinion for themselves.
5) The comments remark on the theme of spies and the espionage genre, describing it as alike to James Bond movies. This is interesting as it compares Black Widow to a typical James Bond film, as they share similar aspects in terms of characters, exotic locations, great action sequences, car chases, explosions and a villains' lair. Another riveting comment is about the controversy due to the presentation of Russian accents portrayed throughout the movie, and also the fact that they made one of the important characters, the villain's daughter Taskmaster, female whilst her comic book counterpart (Anthony Masters) is male. They described this to be due to the film's feminist and women independence theme. Another comment describes it as "easily one of the best 'stand-alone' Marvel films" and that it could make any non-Marvel fan become one; they also say that anyone who already likes Marvel would enjoy the movie. Given by the indication that it can make someone who doesn't like Marvel begin to like it, it implies that the film was well put together and enough to fully captivate someone who previously wasn't a fan. They also say that it is much better experience to watch the amazingly choreographed fight sequences on the big screen rather than on a small one, in order to become wholly immersed in it.
6) As an enormously die-hard Marvel fan myself, I don't agree with the statement that there are too many Marvel films. This is because there is a countless array of comic books that the movies are mostly based on, which contain never-ending amounts of storylines and plots, providing the opportunity for Marvel to display these on the big screen. Also, all the movies are important in regards to the entirety of the whole cinematic universe, which is why they are split into "phases" - what with Phase 1, 2 and 3 (also known as the Infinity Saga) all being wrapped up with the recording-breaking Avengers: Endgame which released in April 2019. Avengers: Endgame concluded many different storylines with opportunities for new ones, yet also perfectly ended some of the stories of a few characters we know and love - however origin stories and sequels based on these characters were also vital in order for them to achieve that. Phase 4, the start of the Multiverse Saga, just recently ended after the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever last month and Phase 5 is to be kickstarted by the upcoming film Ant-Man: Quantumania which is set to release next February. Nevertheless, character origin stories are essential to the plot as they account to something even more, and it helps us to get to understand the characters and their intimate yet uniquely written stories on a greater level. It's important for us as audiences to get to fully know these characters as they are bound to show up in later movies such as in any future crossover films, for now there are two that have been announced to be Avengers: Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars which have been said to release in 2025/2026. Additionally, every storyline within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is connected and interlinked with each other in one way or another as they all take place within the same universe, so other characters or incidents from other MCU movies may be referenced or hinted at in another movie based on an entirely different set of characters. This is why I believe that there is no such thing as "too many Marvel films" as they are all part of a substantial franchise which is constantly evolving, providing a vast quantity of potential for future movies including further origin stories which will all make up something even bigger at the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment