Explain the appeal of low to medium budget films to Hollywood conglomerates.

Three female African-American mathematicians who work at NASA play a pivotal role in astronaut John Glenn’s launch into space. Meanwhile, they also have to deal with racial and gender discrimination at work.

A conglomerate is a combination of multiple business entities operating in entirely different industries under one corporate group, usually involving a parent company and many subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company. Conglomerates are often large and multinational. For example: Disney, Samsung, google. Hidden figures is made by Fox 2000.

• Budget Size: 25 million USD
• Box Office: 236 million USD
• With a budget of $25m Hidden Figures is a low to medium budget Hollywood film, an industry category which has recently been recognised for its profit potential.

A $15 million film, which is considered a small-budget film in Hollywood, might have a promotional budget that’s higher than its production budget. This is because many films that don’t have a built-in audience (like those based on best-selling books like “The Hunger Games”) need to get people into the cinema. Romantic comedies or some children’s films need to promote themselves via TV commercials and media advertisements, posters etc, and those costs add up quickly. For a film budgeted between $40 and $75 million, its P&A budget might be over $20 million.

“on the other hand media play a pivotal role organising how people make sense of the world.”

Globalisation (in terms of media ownership)

Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration

Vertical integration is an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company.

Gatekeepers

Regulation / Deregulation

Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers

Neo-liberalism

Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR