Marketing essay

Film Marketing Essay

 

Space Jam raked in $230,418,342 in box office with just an $80 million budget, but for the film the earning didn’t stop there. Space jam was heavily marketed with so much merchandise from all sectors within the film, for example, during the 90’s Michael Jordan was ‘the’ worldwide basketball star and had his own fan base separate to the film, (Chicago bulls fans), warner brothers who made space jam had their own fan base because of the loony tunes, (bugs bunny, daffy duck E.T.C.), and all of these factors combined to potential million of dollars in merchandise, some of the items included, Space jam basketballs, NIKE got involved and released a pair of shoes worn by Michael Jordan in the films, there was two video games, a pinball machine, action figures and plush toys of the characters, and this is just some of the merchandise there was endless amounts of themed products to buy. The advantage of the merchandise was that there was a vast mix of fans and warner brothers accommodated the merchandise to fit this demand.

 

In the lead up to the film warner brothers created something very new to the market in terms of advertisement for a film, the internet was only just starting to become popular in the 90’s and warner brothers took this opportunity to create a website based on the upcoming film, the website would be considered very basic now but for the time it was new and exciting for fans as it was different. The website contained links to a theatrical trailer, information about the film, a section for kids, a link to several merchandise stores and links to flash games. This new approach to marketing the film created an exciting and eager build up for the fans; as well as the merchandise the website was created to accommodate for the variation in fans, for example it was orientated just as much for child fans of Loony Toons as it was basketball fans of Michael Jordan/Chicago bulls, and this created a bigger overall fan base.

 

As well as having references from other warner brothers television shows, the film included several references or ‘intertexuality’ from other films or television shows, two of the main films referenced in there is pulp fiction and ghost busters, the reason there are so many references in films is it because it opens up a level of banter for different audiences watching the film, for example, adults taking their kids to see the film, it offers them banter that they will understand and therefore increase the market potential for the film.

 

Fan culture within space jam was split into two main groups, firstly, fans of warner brothers/ loony tunes, and secondly basketball/ Michael Jordan fans. Warner brothers had to accommodate space jam for existing fans of loony tunes/Michael Jordan, for example, a child would see the film because they love bugs bunny, or an adult would see space jam because they are a fan of Michael Jordan. The aim was to bring the current fan groups into a new fan base; this could have been through different forms of advertising. For a child who loves loony tunes they may see the trailer on the television channel, in which they watch loony tunes, but for an adult who would prefer the basketball side of things they may see a poster such as the one below that portrays a more serious look to the film and may appeal to an older audience than the children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea of test screening is not as popular now as it was during the 90’s, a test screening is where the company offers around 200 people to watch their film before it is released in cinema, these people were chosen at random. The companies went by the rule that if 70% of the audience didn’t like the film then there was something wrong with it, and they got feedback on what the audience didn’t like and changed it; space jam was not changed from the original cut, as the test screening was successful. The reviews of space jam on public release were different on the other hand; 35% of critics liked it and 57% of the audience liked it. The reason the rating were so low could be for several reasons, as mentioned earlier, the film had to accommodate for two existing fan groups, Michael Jordan fans and loony tunes fans, the reason for the low ratings could have been because there wasn’t enough of the film orientated on basketball/ loony tunes for the certain fans liking, or the 57% of likes could all have been loony tunes and the other 43% that disliked it could have been basketball fans or vies versa. There could also be the factor that it was a children’s film, and the basketball fans were just there for basketball only; Personally I think it was the huge opposition in fans, basketball fans and children cartoon fans aren’t generally going to have a lot in common.

 

Space jam was released internationally; it was first released in the USA on November 10^th 1996, it was also released in the UK, China, Australia, pretty much the whole of Europe, the release dates were different though, the first release date was November 10^th 1996 in the USA, and the last was 28^th July 1998 in China.

After the film had been released in all cinemas they began to release VHS copies, the first VHS copy was released in 1997, the first DVD copy in 2003, a special edition in 2008, and then a Blu-ray copy in 2011. The reason there were so many re-releases is because they tried to get every possible bit of income possible, and this could’ve been from releasing it on new formats, or an ‘extended edition’, ‘Directors cut’, and so on.

 

Assimilation is how popularity of a film is judged and where the popularity can be measured, back in the 90’s not many people had access to the internet and therefore had to go by word of mouth, reviews in magazines/papers and so on. Now we have access to the Internet in so many different forms, mobile, tablet and pc. A website such as rotten tomato’s uses a rating system for films where there is a percentage of critics that liked it and a percentage of public viewers that enjoyed it, this gives people a better understanding of peoples opinions of the film.

 

Space jam is the highest earning basketball film that has ever been made, the CGI for the time was exceptional, and the film and all merchandise made $230,418,342 in total and still a loved film of children and adults today.