The Kings Speech gained funds from many companies such as the Premiere fund who gave £1 million to the project of the film on the 17/06/09. The type of fund was from the source that is the national lottery that is played on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the UK. This fund was given to the See-saw Films limited/ Bedlam Productions. The Kings Speech was then given another fund , again given to the See-Saw films, however it was given by the development fund which awarded the film a sum of £21,080 on 22/07/09. This award was again given by the National Lottery fund.
See-Saw films is a independent film company which was founded in 2008. As well as The Kings Speech, See-Saw films has produced many more films like Oranges and Strawberries and Linear. The company finances films so different companies are able to publish them like the publicised company that is Momentum.
Bedlam productions is an independent film and television production company based in Soho in London and was officially established in 2011. The Kings Speech was actually the companies big break and first film, the film grossed a massive $400 million at the global box office. The company was then known globally at the Oscars as The Kings Speech was awarded 4 Oscars including Best Film and Best Actor for Colin Firth. The Film also was awarded 7 BAFTAs.
Momentum Pictures were heavily involved with the making and producing the film, The Kings Speech. The company was first formed in the year 2000 and from then on have been known as one of the leading independent motion picture distributors with many well known films like The Fighter, Lost in Transition and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This was the actual company that released the film in theatres throughout the world.
On the weekend The Kings Speech it was released which was 7th-9th January 2011, it was shown in 395 cinemas across the country, over the weekend the film grossed £3,523,102 and the average for each cinema was £8,919. The next weekend, the film grossed £4,401,926, 426 cinemas showed it and the average for the cinema was just over £10,000 and was still top in the UK box office. On the 4th weekend, for the first time another film took the top spot, this was the animated film Tangled. The Kings Speech's popularity grew over the coming weekends but depleted because of the growing number of people going to watch different films.
The film Black Swan was also touted to get many awards at the Oscars like The Kings Speech however the box office performance was below par because of the popularity of The Kings Speech, at its first weekend it came 2nd behind the Kings Speech gaining £2,762,429, were 356 cinemas showed the film. On its 3rd week of release, The film declined to 4th and only grossed £1,725,630 at the weekend but had more cinemas showing the film at 462. I think that overall, The Kings Speech did better than The Black Swan because of the better gross revenue and getting more money of the weekends however, The Black Swan performed better in getting more cinemas to show the film compared to the Kings Speech.
The film Submarine first came onto the box office at 12th with the weekend gross at £244,476 with only 60 cinemas however over the weeks the film declined and went down to 14th with a gross of only £128,408. The film was published by Optimum releasing who are also known for critically acclaimed Four Lions and spin-off film from a television show, In the Loop.
The most important age band for cinema -goers is the 15-24 year olds because this age group is the most likely to go to the cinema and is shown throughout the years from 1998 to 2010, this age demographic has taken about 40% of the distribution of cinema- goers by age with the highest peak at 1998 where 43% of cinema-goers in that year where aged 15-24. The lowest percentage of movie-goers was the 35-44 age demographic with only 20% of the age groups this is because this age group is less likely to go to the cinema because they have more important things to worry about like children, work and the household. Download activity was much lower for the 16-24 year old demographic was almost the same as downloading came to about 15% percent with legal and illegal downloads whereas cinema took about 15.4% this shows that more of the younger ages are more likely going to watch movies online because it's quicker, easier and costs less than going to the cinema, however if you look at the older ages, their percentage of downloading is far less compared to the younger ages because they are more likely going to be honest and actually going to pay for films compared to the youth because it is against the law.
The top UK films that appealed mostly to the 16-24 year olds were Kick-Ass and Four Lions, both which are very much action and comedy which fits the stereotypical films that this age group enjoy because these type of films are advertised at them with the violence and carnage in advertising campaigns. Other films that this age group watched were Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Karate Kid, these were watched because of the actors that were in it for example like Jackie Chan, a very all round actor who is loved by most age groups. The films, the Ghost and Burke and Hare were films that were watched by an audience which was 55+, this is because they are much more drama orientated films and would appeal to this older demographic.
The film Cemetery Junction, with it being a UK film, it is also universally liked by both the younger and older demographic, with 38% of the 15-24 year olds watched Cemetery Junction and 24% of the 35-45 year olds watched it, showing that his film was appealing for both the young and the old with advertising campaigns which could appeal to both ages.
The film Kick Ass was a critical and a box office success as the average rating for the film was 8/10, the film also gained a marketing success with the budget being $30,000,00 while the filmed grossed $48,000,00 it gained a big success over it's first weekends gaining £3,881,704 in the UK whilst gaining over $1,900,000 in the USA, however Cemetery Junction, with an unknown budget, it grossed £1,329,002 overall, with a massive £621,218. With the film being a very unknown film, getting over half it's gross in it's first weekend is impressive because it would not have had a major influence from the media unlike other Hollywood films like The King's Speech or Kick Ass. Cemetery Junction was produced by Columbia pictures which is a major American film company, the only reason the company may have went with this project because of the low profile, the company may have believed in it to get good publicity, this would make the company a lot of money as it will get most of the money grossed because of the advertising. Again, with Kick Ass, it had a major American backer, Lionsgate, even though it had a large budget, it still would gain most of the profit because of the advertising campaigns it sorts out.
On the Kick Ass website, it advertises straight away once you log on is "available on Blu-ray" which shows that the advertising campaign is straight away trying to sell merchandise to bring the accessibly of the film buy allowing the user of the website to buy merchandise. Also the website shows the trailer of the film to promote people who have not watched the film to advertise it even more showing the synergy with the website and the actual film.
Useful Links:
www.imdb.com
www.kickass-themovie.com
