The Market

General points about the market:

• 11 films are released in the UK in an average week - the market is saturated and too many get lost or shouldn't have been made in the first place; the first weekend is hugely competitive and decides all
• Good filsm don't make money - big name stars and sequels do
• Avatar - conceived by James Cameron before he made Titanic, but the technology didn't exist. Sky and The Sun used extensively to advertise the film. People are basically herd animals - they went to see it because of the amount of publicity and because of others going, not because of conscious choice
• Films currently make around 25% from cinema, 50% from DVD sales and 25% from TV rights and spin-offs.
• Consider the huge influx of 3D cinema/film - how important do you think this is in the market?

Research task: Box Office

Research audience figures for the UK, US and Internationally:

• Top films at the box office and how much money they made
• How much was spent making them
• Top independent films
• Top foreign films
• Which films had highest DVD sales

Look at the last 2 or 3 years for which you can find the data. Compile data covering the bullet points above and draw a set of conclusions.