Juan Monroy — American Film Industry: Class 14: Hollywoods Second Century

1 Conglomerates
- 1.1 a large company with holdings in multiple media industries
  - film
  - television
  - radio
  - music
  - publishing
  - Internet
- 1.2 maintain control over
  - production
  - distribution
  - exhibition/consumption
- 1.3 Media Conglomerates
  - 1970s conglomerates were from a variety of industries
    - Kinney National
    - Gulf and Western
    - Coca Cola
  - Modern media conglomerates
    - strictly media companies
    - “synergy”
    - use content from one medium in another
- 1.4 Big Six
  - Time Warner
    - Warner Brothers
  - News Corporation
    - 20th Century Fox
  - Comcast
    - Universal Pictures
  - Walt Disney
    - Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax, Pixar
  - CBS-Viacom
    - Paramount
  - Sony
    - Sony Pictures (formerly Columbia Pictures)
- 1.5 Holdings of Big Six
  - Movies
  - Television
  - Music
  - Theme Parks
  - Newspapers
  - Magazines
- 1.6 New New Blockbusters
  - Four “S” of blockbuster movie scale
    - size
    - scope
    - speed
    - sound
  - Financial Focus on…
    - production costs
    - marketing
    - box office revenue
  - franchise films
    - sequels and prequels
    - based in popular literature
    - adaptations of TV, Comic Books
  - appeal to widest possible audience
    - lowest common denominator
    - international audiences around the world
2 Marketing
- 2.1 follows consumer research methods
  - focus groups
  - test screenings
- 2.2 advertising intensity
  - begin marketing 6–8 months before a film’s release
- 2.3 trailers
  - teaser trailer
  - story trailer
- 2.4 Whither the auteur?
  - is the filmmaker the author?
  - is it the marketing department?
  - is it the test audiences?
3 Distribution
- 3.1 saturation release
  - “In Theaters Everywhere…”
  - 4,000 - 5,000 screens
  - domestic revenue heavily based on the opening weekend
- 3.2 marketability vs. playability
- 3.3 popularity of box office returns
  - everyone seems to know what the highest grossing films of a weekend
4 Innovations in Exhibition
- 4.1 reliable exhibition platforms
  - film
  - VHS
  - digital video
- 4.2 multichannel sound systems
- 4.3 stadium seating
5 Technology
- 5.1 IMAX screenings of popular films
- 5.2 Three Dimension
  - Dolby Digital 3D
  - Real 3D
- 5.3 Hight Frame Rate
  - 48 fps
  - The Hobbit files.hfrmovies.com—The_Hobbit_An_Unexpected_Journey_Trailer.m p4 <http://files.hfrmovies.com/The_Hobbit_An_Unexpected_Journey_T railer.mp4>
  - David Bordwell on “The Gearheads”www.davidbordwell.net—the-gearheads http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2012/05/13/the-gearheads/
- 5.4 Direct to Home
  - the failed experiment of Tower Heist
  - Comcast cable subscribers
  - Universal Pictures
  - National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) protested
6 Piracy
- 6.1 MPAA Content Thefts mpaa.org—types-of-content-theft http://mpaa.org/contentprotection/types-of-content-theft
  - Camcorder
  - Optical Disc
  - Theatrical
  - Peer-to-Peer
  - Streaming
  - Screener Theft
  - Signal Theft
  - Illegal Public Performance
- 6.2 Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act" (COICA)
  - allowed the Attorney General to censor the Internet in the name of copyright enforcement
- 6.3 Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)www.eff.org—coica-internet-censorship-and-copyright-bill <https://www.eff.org/issues/coica-internet-censorship-and-copyrigh t-bill>
  - Internet Blacklist
  - Target List
- 6.4 The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP or PIPA)
  - Injunctions against websites
  - Third-party providers can be subject to court orders
7 All designed to combat declining theatrical audience