case studies

The Revenant (2015, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

Based on the book the Revenant by Michael Punke, which was based on the life of Hugh Glass.

Inarritu has a good track record of success as he directed Birdman (2014)

Stars: Leonardo Dicaprio and Tom Hardy

Budget: $135 million was orgianlly only $60 million

Release pattern: had limited release in the US on 25th December 2015 which made it eligible for the 88th academy awards and had a worlwide relase on January 8th 2016

Box Office: 518.4 million USD

5/5 The Guardian                                     82% Rotten Tomatoes

4/5 Mark Kermode for the Guardian

The Big Short (Adam Mckay, 2015)

Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Carekk, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt

Awards: won 2 oscars (best writing for an adapted screen play and best motion pciture of the year),nominated for 3 oscars and won 2 BAFTAs

Release date: 23rd December 2015 (USA) and 22nd January 2016 (UK)

Budget: $28 million

Box office: opening weekend $10 million and gross in USA over $70 million

2/5 The Guardian                                  88% Rotten Tomatoes

4/5 Mark Kermode for The Guardian

Legend (2015, Brain Helgeland)

Stars: Tom Hardy and Emily Browning 

Brian Helgeland both wrote and directed the film and also wrote the script for L.A. Confidential

Budget: $25 million

The film was released in the US later and Black Mass (2015, Scott Cooper) was released in the US around the same time as Legend was released in the UK. It starred Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dakota Johnson so this could affected box office takings as US audiences would have been attracted to this film with well known actors.

Box office: 43 million USD

62% Rotten Tomatoes                                     3/5 Mark Kermode for the guardian

Jurassic World (2015, Colin Trevorrow)

Stars: Chriss Pratt, Bryce Howard and B.D. Wong

Budget: $150 million

Many merchandise tie-ins dinosaur figures, T-shirts, lego sets, cups and a range of offical toys. they also set up their own offical website, which revealed the new dinosaurs 3 months before the release date and a offical facebook page (Cross Media Convergance)

Part of the Jurassic Park franchise as this is the 4th movie in the franchise

USA Gross over $650 million and made over $1.5 billion world wide

Rotten Tomatoes - 71%                                    IMDB - 7.1/10

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)

Budget: $300 million 

Box Office: over $2 billion worldwide

Stars: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) , Daisy Ridley (Rey) and John Boyega (Finn)

Mechandise: vast amounts of it including: tading cards, comic books, toys, clothing, books and games. - this could be due to the fact that Lucas films was bought by Disney and they love Cross Media convergence, merchandise and frachises.

92% Rotten Tomatoes                               5/5 The Guardian

Suffragette (2015, Sarah Gavron)

Stars: Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter, Carey Mulligan and Ben Wishaw

Advetising: film posters, trailer, stars appeared on the Graham Norton show

Budget: $14 million

Gross: $4.6 million (US), $14.8 million (UK) and $32 million (Worldwide)

73% Rotten Tomatoes                              Empire 'wonderfully involving'

IMDB 6.9/10                                              Time Out 3.8/5