Film Industries: Black Widow

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1) List the companies involved in the creation of Black Widow. You may wish to use Black Widow's IMDB entry to help with this - see the company credits page - but the answers can also be found above.

Production Companies

Distributors
  • Blitz (2021) (Croatia) (theatrical)
  • Disney+ (2021) (USA) (video) (VOD)
  • Disney+ (2021) (World-wide) (video) (VOD)
Special Effects
  • SSVFX (additional visual effects)
  • Virtuos (additional visual effects)
  • Digital Domain (visual effects and animation) (as Digital Domain 3.0)
  • Trixter (visual effects and animation) (as Trixter VFX)
  • Protagon (additional character scanning and Lidar)
  • Lidar Guys (additional character scanning and Lidar)
  • Legend3D (3D conversion) (as Legend 3D)
Other Companies
  • 4DX (4D presentation)
  • D-BOX (motion presentation)
  • Danjaq (copyright owner: "Moonraker", 007 Gun Barrel logo, and related James Bond indicia © 1962-2020) (as Danjaq, LLC)
  • Fly4less (helicopter company: Budapest)
  • IMAX (optimized for) (as IMAX Theatres)
  • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (copyright owner: "Moonraker", 007 Gun Barrel logo, and related James Bond indicia © 1962-2020) (as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.)
  • Skywalker Sound (post-production sound services) (as Skywalker Sound A Lucasfilm Ltd. Company - Marin County, California)
  • The Georgia Film Office (this project was completed with assistance from) (as the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development)


2) What is conglomerate ownership and how does it link to Black Widow?

Its when a big parent company own smaller companies called subsidiaries this links to black widow because its made by marvel which was bought by the conglomerate Disney 

3) Analyse the film trailer for Black Widow. What aspects of the trailer tell you this is a big-budget blockbuster movie?

The establishing shot right at the beginning indicates that the film has a big budget since its in a huge exotic location. A few seconds into the film the Marvel logo appears which is a well known and trusted brand it is also a synergy which makes it recognisable, it also instantly makes you think of other marvel movies which are blockbusters. The use of the realistic CGI throughout the trailer indicates that there was lots of money spent on the movie to make it feel real and give it more of an impact. There are also lots of big stars in the movie like David Harbour and Florence Pugh but there is also a very recognisable actor who is famous but also is in the MCU franchise as she appears in lots of other marvel movies, Scarlett Johanson. As a result of having all of these actors in this film it makes fans of the actors or other marvel movies Black Widow is in it attracts fans who have already seen marvel movies or movies the other actors were in like Stranger Things or Misommar. The stars also would have been paid a lot which also shows that the movie is a block buster.

4) How was Black Widow promoted to an audience? List at least three different methods used by the film's marketing campaign and why they were effective in promoting the film.

-Social media, the use of social media to promote the movie is easy and affordable and you don't need to advertise as much as you would in other ways of promoting the films since people seeing the adverts would post about it or tell other people, people with a lot of fame online may also see the advert and talk about it creating lots of word of mouth and fans of the people who talk about the film or the advert will also want to watch it

-Putting tweets from audience members on billboards, when someone sees their own tweet on a billboard they will probably share the fact that its on a billboard online. This is seen by other people who might have not seen the film and inspire them to go watch it, it also shows the people who have already seen the film that they could be on a billboard and get them to talk about the movie online again creating more word of mouth. The billboard is also seen by passers by and they could be inspired to watch the movie hearing about the movie from another normal person and not a movie critic.

-The stars appearing in press events and TV chat shows, this make the audience like the actors and see them as humans and not stars which makes the audience more inclined to watch the films as they might feel a sense of similarity with the actor. The actors appearing on chat shows not only give the movie more publicity but give the chat shows more publicity for talking about the movie which makes it easy for the actors to be on chat shows since the chat shows want them. 

5) What was the production budget for Black Widow and how much did it make at the box office?

The budget was $200 million (and around $100 million on marketing) and it made $379 million 

6) Would you consider Black Widow a successful Hollywood blockbuster? Why?

Considering that the movie was released during the pandemic I would say it was very successful even though it didn't make as much as other blockbusters and marvel movies because cinemas were shut so they would lose their main source of income which would be the opening weekend tickets and the amount they made at the box office doesn't take into account how much it made from Disney+

7) Who regulates the film industry in the UK?

British board of film classification

8) What age rating was Black Widow given? Why?

12a because they want to keep their audience young as 47% of the audiences were ages 7-24 in 2014, that age group also heavily uses social media and would create word of mouth online or would tell their friends about it and their is a lot of merchandising opportunities. 


Grade 8/9 extension tasks

If you want a top grade in Media, you should also complete the grade 8/9 extension tasks once you've completed the basic eight questions above. Try the following:

1) Read this Guardian report on Scarlett Johansson suing Disney over the release strategy for Black Widow. Do you agree she is right to be angry with the multiplatform release strategy?

She could've made a lot more money if it was just released in cinemas because the opening week made $80 million but it declined by 67% in the second week because of the fact that it was released on Disney+ and considering that this was her only stand alone film and her last i think she has a right to be mad.

2) Read this feature on how Black Widow shot 22 minutes of IMAX footage to give viewers an incredible widescreen experience in IMAX cinemas. Why is IMAX an important part of marketing a blockbuster movie?

It makes the people who watch the film in IMAX experience more of set and actors 

3) Look at the Marvel Black Widow website. What promotional devices do Marvel put on the website to promote the film?

They promote it on Disney+, the entire page is filled with black widow promotion, they sell merchandise like posters, they talk about the songs used in the movie and they promote news about the film and the fact that it can be seen in IMAX 

4) Read this feature on Marvel using a fan's tweet to help market the film. Why is audience interaction such an important aspect of modern film marketing?

Your more likely to reach people who might want to watch your film because if the audience knows that they could be featured on a billboard just for talking about the movie they will probably talk about it which create a lot of attention from other people on social media and create lots of word of mouth. A lot of fans of the movie or the actors in it might want to be recognised by one of them and therefore try to post a lot of positive things about the movie. People who dont know about the movie will see the attention is is getting online and want to go watch it and because of the comments being positive it makes the other people who see the tweets/comments more inclined to watch the film because people are not saying bad things about it

5) Look at this Guardian website page allowing Marvel fans to discuss Black Widow. What interesting opinions do you notice in the comments? 



Finally, you might want to read this feature on whether there are too many Marvel sequels and spin-offs. Do you agree that there are too many Marvel films?

I party agree because they can become repetitive but mostly I disagree because Marvel has made lots of stars that people have seen become famous and they feel connected to them and they can watch films because of them, the films have connections to other marvel films because of the MCU however that can become boring because their are no new ideas and everything is just building on whats already there but you could say that thats a good thing because it means you feel attached to the story and therefore want to watch more

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