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 millions 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 ‘intertextuality’ 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
was based on several critical opinions, firstly, Janet Maslin, a well
know critic said, ‘visually, it's a mess: the
attempts to blend 2- and 3-D animation with live-action and computer-generated
images produce scenes that are fuzzier than the storyline', this view was also
backed up by Rob Vaux who said,’ This film was
made very quickly by animation standards, and the haste shows’, these were two
views of critics, but members of the public said things such as, ‘Cute,
rambunctious, generally amusing rather than outright funny, this clever mix of
live action, highlighted by the unequalled skills of basketball superstar
Michael Jordan, and animated Looney Tunes antics will be a must-see for kids’,
there is a clear confliction of views, some people, (mainly critics in this
case), are looking at the film from a technical aspect where as others are
looking at it from a children’s point of view, so maybe the ratings do not
reflect what people think of the film as there are so many different ways
people could look at it and different aspects it could be judged on, as mentioned earlier,
the film had to accommodate for two existing fan groups, Michael Jordan fans
and loony tunes fans so there are going to be endless different views/fan
groups on the film; so for me personally the reviews don’t do the film justice.
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, an example of this is a re-release on each new playback platform, for example, they released a VHS copy which was the original, then a DVD and DVD special edition when DVD was the main platform and in 2011 they released a Blu-ray format to accommodate to the new technology.
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