Owner ship is sadly one of the
biggest parts of media in this age mainly due to money and expenses available
to use on the product, especially in a conglomerate like Disney because they
have a higher budget and need to 'play it safe' and make a four quadrant film
that can easily be enjoyed and consumed. In my opinion a bigger budget makes
designers make safer choices, Disney used vertical integration most of the time
because the conglomerate of Disney own all the other branches to create other
products, huge conglomerates such as Disney integrate allot, meaning that when
they spread (synergy) across other sectors such as publishing, TV and video
games, they work with companies and institutions that they already own or have
created or used before in the past for its other products such as ABC news, ESPN
(cable) or even its theme park, the advantages being that because it's all 'in
house' so is the profit, because the fact that Star Wars the force awakens is now owned by
Disney (Lucas sold it for $4.05 billion)this factor causes Star Wars to have many key in products such as Lego's
other TV shows (on the Disney channel) video games, action figures and many
more, even oranges, this made Star Wars the dominant market leader in more than
just the film industry helping it to sell its product to more audiences such as
the Lego fans instead of the Star Wars and film fans.
Whilst Little media ownership may cause losses in their overall profit
because of the fact that for them to integrate to other sectors, this would
cost allot more and new agreements would need to be signed because they must
work with other separate companies and
institutions that specialize in that specific area, doing this causes the
company to share out its profit to any companies that have helped them create
other linked in products. this might be why Ex_machina who only had a budget of
15million didn't have the money to essentially hire another company to help
make other products by doing this would forces the company ,DNA ,to split out
the profit to the other companies that have helped to sell its merchandise or
other products, meaning that even if lots of people wanted Ex_machina products
DNA alone wouldn't be able to provide it, which in turn could be why they aimed
for specific audiences in the first place. If DNA did cross intergraded and
take that risk and profit loss ,in my opinion, it would be more of a successful
film because it would of placed its brand in other markets such as the toy
industry which then could of caused more initial buyers or viewers of the products, it still could
but it may be too late to do so since its already well peaked, if it released
other products to other industry it would of essentially marketed its self to
possibly larger audiences if they did do this before the films relies it may of
sold more tickets and it could of made money on the other product it realised
even though some of that may be split to the other helping company.
This can effect companies and products because having the money and
backing to make your product known increases the amount of potential consumers
on DVD or cinema, Star wars did this by already having a big name from generations
ago and is also well known for Lucas films and Disney and all the connotations
that come with colossal names like that, the products where nearly another form
of marketing which benefitted the product especially since they did most the
other products in house or if not, like when they collaborated with dice to creator
the new star wars battlefront it not only benefitted Disney and Lucas but also
dice because branding a video game with a name like that brings in allot more customers
than say an Ex_machina game, the Star Wars products also made it to adverts and
billboards which means it was seen by many people, specifically the Lego sets which
leaked key points of the film, such as the Ray speeder set which was realised before
the film which could incise hype among fans because at that point many didn't
know the new characters, this in my opinion is better than actual marketing
because it has added profits that come with it and is more versatile than just trailer,
However the down fall on marketing through products is with films that are low budget
like Ex_machina that never would be able to brand its self on Lego or action figures, video games which confines it to the simple trailers
which are generally aimed at niche audiences if Ex_machina managed to relies a Lego
set or game it would draw fans from those sectors making the amount of people
who know the film larger which in turn may increase viewers but as Ex_machina
was a low budget and only manger name backing it was universal which focused on
the marketing side it could not be possible for it to relies any tie in
products.
Hypothetically it is interesting to think what would have come of the two
films if Disney made Ex_machina and DNA made Star wars, maybe star wars would
take more risks and be more innovative maybe thousands of kids would be
dressing as Ava or rein acting scenes in the play ground.
in conclusion ownership is the key point of money and it is hard to
create anything without money so a company backed by a minor production enterprise
will never flourish and bloom like one backed and produced by one of the big six
hope fully this may change and films will be backed accordingly to creativity
and good story but as it stand it all depends on money and that is mostly the limiting factor for companies to create
other products
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