Mainstream vs Independent Questions

Avengers vs ‘71

1)What are the main institutions used for each of the films? (in terms of production and distribution?)Avengers – were distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture and the company which produced were Marvel Studios

‘71 – this film was distributed by StudioCanal which are a French-based company and the film was produced by multiple companies: Crab Apple Films, Warp Films, Film4, BFI Film Fund, Screen Yorkshire, Creative Scotland

2)How much money was used to produce each film? And 3)How much money was made from each of the films?Avengers had a budget of $220 million and at the box office it gained $1.520 billion in return

‘71 had a budget of £8.1 million and at the box office it gained $2.9 million. Unfortunately the film made a loss because it didn’t have the best distributor like the Avengers did.

4)How well known are the production companies for both the high-budget and low-budget film?Disney is well known over the whole world. Originally it produced cartoons which people fell in love with. It is now one of the big six production companies and probably the most powerful out of the six.

Even though CanalStudios is smaller, it owns the third largest film library in the world. The original function was to focus on French and European productions, but later made strategic deals with American production companies. StudioCanal's most notable productions from its early years include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, JFK, Basic Instinct, Cliffhanger, Under Siege, Free Willy, and the original Stargate movie. In those days, it was known as Le Studio Canal+. It has strong links to Universal Studios (Studiocanal and Universal Studios were owned by the same company between 2000 and 2004, hence StudioCanal co-produced a fair number of Universal's films).

5)List the differences between the high-budget film and the low-budget film in terms of the institutions.The difference is that the Avengers had huge names to their names like Marvel Studios which produce films only from their comic book and Disney have the money to distribute the film.

‘71 have a lot of small companies producing the film which is not necessarily a bad thing. Each company have their own way of doing things and when they were producing the film, they each had a separate task to do and when they put them together, they created a very good with each feature done very well

6)List any similarities that exist between the high-budget film and the low-budget film in terms of the institutions.The only similarity I could find was that both films wanted to produce a high quality film which they both did. Both distributed their films at film festivals and both had very good reviews.

7)What other films has the production company made? Were these as successful? Why/why not?

Marvel studios have made the whole series based on their comic books and have related all of them to lead up to the Avengers. At first they produced a couple of films from their comic books such as Fantastic Four to see if the people who enjoyed their comic books would enjoy them. They had a positive reaction from the fans and continued to make blockbusters.

The most successful producers from ‘71 were Film4. Film4 have their own channel which show films onto the TV when the films have stopped producing money out of sales. They also make small British Indie films which they distribute to smaller cinemas and then on their channel.

8)What genre of films does the company usually produce? Is this important when considering who could produce your film? Why?Marvel is owned by Disney. Marvel only produce films using inspiration from their comic books and Disney are the ones who distribute. Marvel will not be suitable unless you’re making a movie based on their comic books.

Film4 normally produce British Indie films because it is a British based company. This will be more suitable for low budget films who are looking at British culture.