Welcome to the fourth instalment of this media series, produced for Education Wise. My name is Alex Blundell and this time we are going to look at the distribution, advertising and marketing of the 20th Century Fox film Taken 3.
a) Distribution Channels
The definition of "distribution" is getting a product to an audience and the way in which it is advertised and promoted - this means how the film is shown to the public in an attempt to make them interested in seeing it. Another key phrase in this section is "technological convergence" - this means different technologies coming together, like on a smartphone. On a smartphone, we can make calls, take pictures, play games and browse the web - all of these activities previously required one device each.
Taken 3's distribution will have been affected by technological convergence because it makes it a lot easier for an audience to view the film. For example, our version of the internet today, called Web 2.0, can be used to shop, watch videos, communicate and basically do anything we want. It means that someone could buy the film on the web as a DVD or Blu-ray, stream it online, or download it, as the web is multifunctional. Also, since the internet is available worldwide and the majority of the population has access to it, the film gets more publicity and more people will watch it. In addition, cinemas now use digital projectors to show films instead of the heavy and expensive film reels used until the 1990s, so now cinemas are a part of the Digital Screen Network. The digital projectors are re-usable and a lot cheaper, as they play the film from a hard drive and the same hard drive can be used for each cinema screen. With a film reel, which was an analogue type of media, individual ones had to be used for each screen, which cost a lot of money. Since Taken 3 uses digital projectors, it can be distributed more cheaply and can be more widely available, which is useful for 20th Century Fox as it wants to release its blockbuster films on an international scale.
Taken 3 can be viewed in a variety of ways. It is available on DVD and Blu-ray, it can be rented on Netflix (but not streamed), it can be downloaded from iTunes and Google Play, and when it first came out in January 2015, it was in cinemas globally. When the film had only just come out of cinemas, it would have been premiered on Sky Movies and shown on Sky for a while. This is because, as a 20th Century Fox blockbuster, the film has a mass mainstream audience, which means that it would have had a high demand from the public. Sky and 20th Century Fox knew that they would make money by showing it on Sky channels as enough people would pay to watch the film.
Out of these viewing methods, Netflix, iTunes and Google Play can be used via a form of converged technology. For example, Netflix could be viewed on a smartphone, which is many things in one device, as I mentioned earlier, as well as a computer or laptop, which is converged technology as it can browse the web, play music, watch films, send messages and all sorts of things. It could also be viewed on a smart TV, which is converged technology as it can watch TV, view pictures and go to various different streaming sites. If you were to purchase the film on iTunes or Google Play, you could watch it on your smartphone or laptop also, which are both forms of converged technology. These methods of viewing make the film easy to access for people all over the planet, generating the profit that a conglomerate like 20th Century Fox need.
Taken 3 made $326,479,141 in the cinema box office worldwide from a $48,000,000 production budget. In America, it has also sold just over $13,000,000 worth of DVDs and $8,000,000 worth of Blu-ray. This means that Taken 3 has made a profit of around $300,000,000 from these formats alone, not including other online formats, for which data isn't available. This would have been 20th Century Fox's aim, as most of the films it makes are aimed at a mass mainstream audience and are released all over the planet. The budgets are large, but the profits are even larger. This would have been helped by converged technology making the distribution of the film easier, so that it is quickly and easily accessible for a global audience.
b) Advertising and Promotion
The marketing of a film is very important if the company that made it wants to make a lot of money from it. One way that 20th Century Fox promoted Taken 3 was by teaming up with LinkedIn and getting Liam Neeson to make a promotional video. In the video, Neeson, the main protagonist of Taken 3, says that you should go to LinkedIn's website and "follow the instructions exactly" to enter a contest, the winner of which Neeson would "find your LinkedIn profile, review it and record a video of myself endorsing your particular set of skills." His dialogue plays on famous lines from the original film Taken, and the video itself shows clips from Taken 3. All of this creates hype and awareness around the new film.
20th Century Fox also promoted the film using social media - for example, on Twitter, it posted "consider your keyboard Taken" with a link to downloadable Taken 3 emoticons for your phone. When people used them, the film was shared with others as they saw the emoticons, and awareness was raised. 20th Century Fox also posted a "new take on a classic song, the 12 Skills of Christmas" on Twitter, with the hashtag "#Taken3" to spread the word about the new film and get people talking about it.
Finally, the film would also have been promoted in billboards and on buses in the city, because it is a blockbuster film aimed at a mass mainstream audience. It is also aimed at the urban venturer demographic, so the city advertisement helps raise awareness for the target audience.
Taken 3 was promoted largely through new media, such as television adverts and trailers in the cinema. However, it was also promoted heavily through the cheaper method of the internet, where it is free to post anything and people can interact with content. In 2002, David Gauntlett said that the internet had changed from a "static, one-way form of communication (Web 1.0) to a two-way, interactive medium (Web 2.0)." Therefore, Web 2.0 is very useful for companies like 20th Century Fox to promote their film because whatever they post can be commented on, shared and viewed all around the globe in seconds to raise awareness. For example, they might post tweets on Twitter, put posts on Facebook and upload trailers or promotional content to YouTube, like the Liam Neeson example above.
Based on the viewing figures and revenue generated for Taken 3, it appears that the marketing was a success. The film had a $48,000,000 budget, but generated over $325,000,000 in the worldwide box office, not to mention over $20,000,000 in DVDs and Blu-ray in America alone. So although the film had a large budget, clearly many people all over the world turned out to see it and so a large profit was made, thanks to the advertising and promotion that 20th Century Fox did.
In order for the marketing to be successful, 20th Century Fox needed to use cross media platforms to promote the film, meaning a range of different platforms. They used the Web, TV, cinema, billboards, radio, magazines and newspapers to place adverts for Taken 3, which creates awareness for the population, as it is likely that each person will be viewing at least one of these types of content. In a way, it would have been difficult to escape advertisement for a blockbuster film like Taken 3.
In addition, 20th Century Fox's subsidiaries would have played a part in making the film's promotion so successful. Since 20th Century Fox is a large conglomerate, it could have got the companies it owns to advertise Taken 3 in its products, whatever they may be. For example, if a subsidiary produced a film, we might see Taken logos or references to the Taken trilogy in the film, creating synergy for 20th Century Fox and raising awareness in more of the population.
Cross-promotion would also have been used to promote Taken 3. 20th Century Fox and Sky are both subsidiaries of 21st Century Fox, so 20th Century Fox would have worked with Sky to make more money when the film had just come out of cinemas. Sky would have paid 20th Century Fox to premiere the film exclusively on their Movies channel, and in turn, Sky would make money as more people would be interested in subscribing to their service to see the blockbusters first. This is an example of a cross-promotion as both companies make money and get benefits from the partnership, and since they are a part of the same conglomerate, 21st Century Fox, the conglomerate as a whole makes profit.
Thanks to the internet, the audience of a film can now contribute to the promotion of it by leaving ratings and reviews on film websites, or by leaving their opinions on social media sites. For the amount of profit it made, Taken 3 has surprisingly poor audience feedback - for example, on rottentomatoes.com, only 45% of viewers liked it. Comments were left such as "We can only pray that this is the final instalment. It is surprising that Kim can even walk out the door without having a mental breakdown!" and "The only redeeming factor for a 'Taken' film at this point should be the action, but the frenzied editing does not even let you enjoy that." Indeed, it seems that the majority of the audience thought that the amount of times that Kim has become endangered over the three films is unrealistic and tedious, while poor editing was also a common complaint.
Usually, when audience feedback is poor, like it is for Taken 3 on the whole, the film's revenue and viewing figures suffer because people see what audiences thought about it and don't go to see the film. Taken 3 was a huge box office success, however, which might still be down to the past glory of the original Taken film and the fact that the series is now a franchise.
Thanks for listening to another educational resource! I've been Alex Blundell, and I'll see you again next time.
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