Ownership Essay

Done in 45 minutes

"To what extent does Media Ownership impact the success of a film."

Media ownership impacts the success of films to a colossal extent. This is because larger industries such as Hollywood and Disney have major media advantages allowing them to promote their film without limits because they are parent company’s which dominate the majority of the film industry without much room for rising competition to break through.

Hollywood's dominance over the film industry is immaculate and is unlikely to be stopped any time soon. Once a company reaches the heights and becomes an international monopoly there is very little that can stop it. Independent films have no chance of catching onto Hollywood nor can they compete with Disney's worldwide promotional schemes or yearly profit. (Which was discovered to be 22.287 billion in the year 2020). As well as the yearly average film production of 400 by Hollywood, making no chance for new film companies to become nearly as successful. Because Disney has the advantage of 12 theme parks, there own movie app (with 130 million subscribers) and a gigantic income source from each film they make, they are able to conglomerate film industries around the world. A good example of this is when Disney bought 20 century Fox in 2019 for 71.3 Billion USD. Giving them access to National geographic in addition to Marvel characters. This lead to Disney's share of Hulu rising to 60 percent  as it gained Fox’s portion.

Comparing Hollywood to the New Zealand Film Industry shows us the differences in both marketing techniques and size comparison. In total, Hollywood has produced a total of 818 films while NZ has only made a few which didn't even make the heights which Hollywood can due to all the subsidiaries they own. The NZ film “what we do in the shadows” was a big hit internationally due to the outgoing promotional techniques they used. For example: Facebook posts from the characters. Dating profiles and changing the Wellington sign to an iconic movie name. However, Hollywood Made a movie campaign called “why so serious?” which promoted the Movie ‘The dark knight’ allowing millions of international players to interact and discover clues before the release of the movie.

Another advantage big film industries have when it comes to ownership is the access to famous movie stars and advertising campaigns around the globe cousin an international awareness of upcoming films being produced. For example, The ‘Elvis’ Movie included Tom Hanks, which gave audiences another reason to watch it. Richer film industries are also able to use more expensive/better quality equipment as well as make expensive and well thought through sets created by professionally hired directors and designers while the independent films have to make use of what they are willing to invest in, whether it be advertising or hiring famous actors.

Piracy effects every film industry as it lowers there revenue massively as well as reduces subscriptions to film sights such as Hulu or Netflix. 126.7 billion views from US movies are pirated every single year. This not only lowers there profits but can lower the overall interest in buying subscriptions all together.