Ownership Essay: It can be argued that media ownership largely influences the success of a film. Conglomerates such as Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros, the Big 5, form an oligopoly, owning around 81% of the market share and therefore dominating the industry. Each of these conglomerates consists of countless subsidiaries, like Disney owning ABC, as well as the Marvel Franchise, and 20th Century Fox. With these corporations owning all these subsidiaries, it makes it a whole lot easier for their films to do well, having several resources and networks at their disposal to market and ensure the success of their film, pushing it to a global audience.
Ownership largely affects the production process of a movie. For example, a Hollywood blockbuster will have a much larger budget than that of an Indie film, as it will likely have one of the Big 5 studios backing the film up. For example, the new Avatar movie, Way of Water, was produced by 20th Century Studios, a subsidiary of Disney, and had a budget of 250 million US dollars, whereas New Zealand Indie film What We Do In the Shadows only had a budget of 1.6 million US dollars. This budget has to cover a wide range of costs, such as the actual making of the film, marketing, and covering the salaries of everyone involved. This is where Hollywood blockbusters have a huge advantage. Since they have such a high budget at their disposal, they are able to hire A-list actors, such as Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington, as well as the best CGI artist, directors, and producers to name a few in the case of Avatar. These big names create anticipation, as audiences will expect the film to be of a high quality, as all these highly skilled people have worked on it. In addition to this, these films are able to afford the newest and latest cutting edge technology, which in itself will also draw audiences into watching the movie. In addition to this, conglomerates are able to make use of the companies acquired by horizontal and vertical integration, employing these services for a much cheaper price as they own the subsidiaries. Indie films on the other hand, work at a disadvantage. Since they have no major studios backing them, they have to be creative in the way they fund their films. For example, Indie film What We Did In the Shadows was crowdfunded, and a TradeMe account set up, selling items from the house which features in the film. In addition to this, they are not able to afford the best of the best, and might need to outsource parts of the production process, which could cost them even more money.
Budgets and ownership also have a large impact on how the films are marketed. Conglomerates such as Disney are able to fully utilise their subsidiaries to maximise profits through synergy and cross media convergence, as they own various businesses which specialise in many different things. For example, Disney owns various TV networks, through which they are able to promote their films. In the case of Finding Dory, Ellen, the voice of the titular fish, promoted the film on her show, which is owned by a subsidiary of Disney. And since Disney owns so many companies, they have various places to advertise all of the upcoming films. In addition to this, since Disney is a multi-billion dollar company, other companies are much more willing to partner with Disney to promote the film. For example, when the first Black Panther movie was released in 2018, Disney sold licensing rights for the character to Lego, who were able to put out Black Panther themed sets, resulting in a mutually beneficial partnership. WWDITS, limited by their budget, once more had to come up with creative ways to market their film. For example, dating profiles were created for some of the characters on New Zealand dating site FindSomeone, and the Wellington sign was changed to ‘Vellington’, as that is where it was filmed. These stunts would have attracted a lot of publicity, making people curious about the film which used these unique marketing strategies.
The amount of money a film has also affects how it will be distributed. For example, films produced by Big 5 studios are more likely to be distributed by theatres and streaming companies, as these films are very likely to do well and to generate sales. In the case of franchises, such as Marvel and Star Wars, there are already existing fanbases, which these distribution companies know will attract audiences. In addition to this, movies produced by Big 5 Conglomerates are generally ‘cookie-cutter’ movies, using conventions and storylines which the companies know work, appealing to a wider audience, thus making them more money, which is the main concern of companies such as these. In this sense, there is a lot less creative freedom in making one of these movies, not wanting to risk profits by putting out an experimental film. On the other hand, Indie films have licence to be more creative, as they are not concerned about making a profit, but by representing a certain group or pushing a certain message. It is interesting to note that since so much of the media is owned by the Big 5 companies, that they too are able to push certain messages and agendas through their creations, but on a much bigger scale, influencing audiences for better or worse.
The distribution of Indie films looks a lot different to that of a Hollywood blockbuster. Since these films do not already have an existing fanbase, theatres and streaming services are less likely to show these movies. If an Indie film was to be shown in a theatre, it would only be in one room, with a select amount of viewings, whereas a blockbuster would have several rooms, with the movie showing over several weeks or even months. On the other hand, companies such as Disney have a large advantage, as Disney has its own streaming platform, Disney +, automatically having a platform to exclusively stream its movies to. Many other conglomerates have special deals with certain streaming platforms such as Netflix and HBO Max, only streaming their films through them.This means that consumers will have to subscribe to several streaming platforms to access all of these films, which would end up costing them quite the sum of money every month. This fragmentation of the market has lead to an increase in piracy, as viewers do not want to pay to access all this content. Theatrical films, such as the Way of Water, are pirated a lot more than Indie films, however, are less likely to suffer as they will still make a big profit to cover these losses. Indie films are affected much more severely even if they are not pirated as much, as they are not likely to make such big profits off of their film, so every cent counts.
Indie films are more likely to be distributed on free VOD platforms, or at film festivals, giving them an opportunity to gain exposure if they win any awards. For example, WWDITS won 17 Emmys, and various film festival awards. Since Indie films have such limited marketing and distribution opportunities, they are unable to do as well as one produced by a major studio The highest grossing films of 2022, all earning over a billion dollars worldwide, were all produced by Big 5 companies, two of them from Disney, illustrating the how the market is dominated by such companies.
However, it is not impossible for Indie films to do well. For example, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King made a whopping billion dollars worldwide. Platforms such as YouTube levels the playing field, as it is not owned by one of the Big 5 companies, and allows anyone, any studio, no matter size and importance, to upload content to the site. This is in line with Shirky’s end-of audience theory, which states that the audience is not passive, actually contributing to the media. YouTube enables Indie films to gain worldwide exposure, as they can post their film and trailers there, presenting them with the possibility to go viral, which can lead to more people watching their film.