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

• Define what a conglomerate is and how Fox is one
• If a film has very good rating, then a large conglomerate would want to get involved in order to have bragging rights that they produced the film.
• Low budget films mean the company doesn’t need to work as hard to create a profit.
• Explain the revenue from the film
• $6.88 Million was spent on marketing the advertise the film, however it has been shown to be a profit potential due to the good reviews left by critics and the multiple awards it has won, for the film itself and the individual actors/actresses.
• By creating a successful film with another small film company , Fox 2000 can create the film using the least amount of money possible in order to give them profit and they can attract a wider audience – the audience that enjoys watching Fox 2000 films and the audience that enjoys watching films that are produced by Levantine Films or Chernine Entertainment
• Fox 2000 is a monopoly of the film industry, so Fox 2000 is a conglomerate that gets involved as low budget films are becoming more commonly known for their huge profit potential.
• The Fox 2000 company is owned by Walt Disney, a large conglomerate that dominates most of the industry sectors. Disney is known for its very popular films, therefore people would know it would be a successful film due to it being produced by a company that is owned by Disney. (could mention cultivation theory as Disney films are sold everywhere)
• By creating many films under the Fox 2000 trademark, the cultivation theory can be applied as people will know it is a good film due to being produced by Fox, the dominant film company within the film industry.
• The cultivation theory can also be applied because Fox 2000 is such a large film company, most of the successful films have been produced and released under the Fox 2000 branding.
• It was a small budget film that costed $25 million dollars to produce.
• It is a hybridization of the history, biography and drama genre of film, which attracts the audiences that enjoy these specific genres.

Why is Fox 2000 a conglomerate?

• It is owned by 20th Century Fox
• It has been bought out by Disney
• It has 17 Fox-branded companies and owns over 175 other companies that have been bought out by them but don’t trade under the Fox trademark.

American Biographical Drama

Directed by Theodore Melfi

About female black mathematicians working at nasa to plot the trajectory for project mercury and other missions.

Released 25th December 2016 by 20th century fox

budget 25 million – box office 236 million

Levantine Films produced the film with Peter Chernin’s Chernin Entertainment

Fox 2000 bought the rights

fox explored role of low budget film making in its wider strategy

low to medium budget films became noticeable as a profitable area

risk taking cannot occur with big budget films in comparison to low budget films won’t cause as big a loss

Film was a success with a 844 percent increase in profit

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93% based on 262 reviews

• Media concentration / Conglomerates = this is a company which owns numerous companies involved in the distribution of mass media enterprises. An example of a conglomerate is the BBC.
• Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) = this is the world wide integration of media through the cross-cultural exchange of ideas.
• Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration 
• Horizontal integration is the process that a company or an institution uses to increase the production of goods.
• vertical integration is when a company integrates multiple stages of a production line to a small number of production units.
• Gatekeepers = Media organisations that filter information to the public
• Regulation / Deregulation = A regulation is a law, or a rule that is put in place by an authority and
• deregulation is the opposite – it is when you remove rules, procedures and laws from a certain industry.
• Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers = The free market is an economic system which is based on supply and demand that has very little or no government control whereas a monopoly is when a company dominates a certain sector of an industry.

Production company: Fox 2000 Pictures and Chernin Entertainment.

Distributed by: 20th Century Fox.

Release date: December 10, 2016 at the SVA Theatre and then December 25, 2016 in the United States and January 6, 2017 in Canada.

Running time: 127 minutes.

Budget: $25 million.

Box office: $236 million.

Based on: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly.

Awards: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture, Bandung Film Festival for Imported Film, BET Award for Best Movie, Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Foreign Film and MTV Movie and TV Award for Best Fight Against the System.

Critic reviews: “This drama about a trio of African-American women doing maths wonders for Nasa has few subtleties, but is done with such verve it’s hard to dislike.“- Simran Hans (The Guardian)

• Media concentration / Conglomerates = this is a company which owns numerous companies involved in the distribution of mass media enterprises. An example of a conglomerate is the BBC.

• Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) = this is the world wide integration of media through the cross-cultural exchange of ideas.

• Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration =Horizontal integration is the process that a company or an institution uses to increase the production of goods. However, vertical integration is when a company integrates multiple stages of a production line to a small number of production units. Horizontal integration contrasts with vertical integration

• Gatekeepers = A gatekeeper is a role given to a person who filter certain information for distributing out on public service broadcasts.

• Regulation / Deregulation = A regulation is a law, procedure or a rule that is put in place by an authority and deregulation is the opposite – it is when you remove rules, procedures and laws from a certain industry.

• Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers = The free market is an economic system which is based on supply and demand that has very little or no government control whereas a monopoly is when a company dominates a certain sector of an industry

• Neo-liberalism = this is a form of liberalism that tends to favour free market capitalism.

• Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR = General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU law that states that there needs to be protection against data for all individuals and citizens withing the EU and European Economic Area.

• Know the appeal of Low-Medium budget films
• Know what Hollywood conglomerates is
• Know the difference between low and medium budget films
• Know where Hidden Figures fits in with low and medium budget films

• Media concentration / Conglomerates – A small number of businesses in an industry own a large amount of the market, shows patterns across a multitude of media industries.
• Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) – Cross-culture of media industries globally
• Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration – Vertical = production company has control over distribution / exhibition, horizontal = production expands into other areas of one industry
• Gatekeepers – media organisations that filter information to the public
• Regulation / Deregulation – regulation = laws that media firms have to follow, deregulation = rules become less strict to create more competition
• Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers – economic system based on demand with little or no government control
• Neo-liberalism – chacracterised by free market trade and deregulation of financial markets
• Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR – Media companies have their own right to a product they produced or distributed, so need to be protected to stop pirating and people ‘stealing’ the product and making a profit out of it

• Media concentration / Conglomerates – A large bussiness or company, a combination of multiple bussiness entitles operating in entirely different industries under one main group/ bussiness.
• Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) – Media globalisation is the combination of media through the cross-cultural exchange of ideas.
• Vertical Integration – A larger company/ conglomerate that aquires a smaller company in the same industry.
• Horizontal Integration – The aquisition of a bussiness/ company which is operating at the same level of value as the bussiness/ company/ chain in a similar or different industry.
• Gatekeepers – Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for spreading, whether for publication, broadcasting, the internet or some other mode of communication.
• Regulation – Regulation is an abstract concept of management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends.
• Deregulation – The removal or limit in government power over a particular industry, usually to create more competition within the industry.
• Free market – A free market economy is a type of economy that promotes the production and sale of goods and services, with little to no control or involvement from any central government agency. … A free market economy is opposite to how a command economy works, where the central government gets to keep the profits.
• Monopolies & Mergers – ownership of different kinds of media (TV, newspapers, magazines, etc.) by the same group.  Media mergers are a result of one media related company buying another company for control of their resources, successful media companies usually buy out other companies to reach a larger viewing audience in order to increase views and profit.
• Neo-liberalism
• Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR

Hidden Figures is a low to medium budget Hollywood film with a budget of £25 million produced by Fox 2000

It had large appeal as it was released at the same time as a resurgence of feminists and black lives matter. This film promotes both and as it is a radical text opens to new audiences whilst being able to guarantee viewership through their established brand loyalty as a Hollywood conglomerate

The influx in indie films is due to the large potential profit margin due to their low production cost and high revenue sometimes matching larger budget films. This can cause a shift in the dominant ideology as more radical films are being released giving a larger variety of outlooks on the world. Even though most of the films are backed by major conglomerates like Fox 2000 who do still impose an emphasis on reactionary films and narratives but allow some diversity.

These sort of films weren’t previously taken on by major conglomerates as it could reflect badly on them and problems with shareholders and partners could damage the business so by aiding production but allowing smaller groups to be at the front of radical pieces

Base facts

Domestic Box office $169,607,287

International Box office $62,164,429

Worldwide Box office $231,771,716

Australia largest grossing country outside US $11,816,146

Total Domestic video sales $32,378,085

FOX vertical integration

owns or has a stake in 23 companies

made by FOX 2000

video release by FOX home entertainment

Accolades

MTV awards Best fight against system radical

BET awards best movie best actress(Taraji P Henson)

Music nominated for 9 won 2

Advertising/marketing

on fox website, banner, art, links to Facebook twitter, “Videos” containing trailers and behind the scenes, full cast and crew list, links to Instagram accounts, links to soundtrack

trailers on TV ads on social media and online. Major promotional partners were Black girls code, trying to get more black women into the digital space, and IBM

The relative size of the film: With a budget of $25m Hidden Figures is a low to medium budget Hollywood film.

what do you think was the appeal of this film to fox studios: The appeal to fox studios was the films profit potential, due to films target audience it may increase fox’s audiences as well for example more people will watch fox studios which will increase their numbers of viewers which may increase further profits.

What was the appeal of this film to audiences: The subject matter of the film also links to contemporary concerns and debates about race in the US. he film is also targeted at an audience often ignored by Hollywood due to age, gender and race and thus can be explored in terms of the social and cultural context in which it was produced. Hidden Figures also deals with US history and the contribution of particular groups e.g. race.

Was The Film A Success: The film one multiple awards in 2017 and 2018 including a BET award for best movie in 2017.