Avatar is a 2009 American epic science fantasy film written and directed by James Cameron. It was produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million. Gross revenue $2,783,165,628. The film broke several box office records during its release and became the highest-grossing film to date in the U.S. and Canada and also worldwide, surpassing Titanic, which had held the records for the previous twelve years. It also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion. The development of digital technology allowed Avatar to be filmed in 3D which created depth perception. This means it is prolific because the growth in using 3D in films has started to increase, so the audience demand more from the film directors.
20th Century Fox is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fox Corporations and became owned by Rupert Murdoch in 1978. This helped the production because this gave it more financial backing. Also, using 2oth Century Fox meant that it would be produced, distributed and exhibited by them, this allows for cross-media convergence.
Synergic relationship with the Coca-Cola Company who collaborated with Twentieth Century Fox to launch a worldwide marketing campaign to promote the film. Special bottles and cans of coke when held in front of a webcam, enabled users to interact with the website's 3D features using augmented reality (AR) technology. This provides an example of synergic relationships because they are serving each other, by promoting the film and selling more products of coke.
A video game called James Cameron:The Game was released on December 1 2009, nine days before the first release of the film in the US this allows for the audience to engage and interact with the film before the film is released.
The hype for Avatar was built up before the release of the film because the promoting and advertising of the film started almost 2 months before the release of the film. 20th Century Fox did this to generate a lot of interest and make the audience talk about it.
The first promotions was exclusive pictures of the film by Empire magazine in October.
Posters of the film that were released were basic and only had the Avatar form of the main character which gives little clue to what the film was. Closer to the release of the film another poster was released, which gives a lot more detail and gives an idea to what genre the film may be. However the first trailer for the film was released in theatrical formats which is how film trailers were viewed 60 years ago.
Marketing:
Word-of-mouth would have been the most successful way of marketing this film as the hype for the release for this film was extremely high with the cross media convergence they used.
Some critics said the hype was so great that the film might be a significant disappointment at the box office.
The film was heavily promoted in an episode of the Fox Network series Bones. This shows that ownership of production, distribution and exhibition companies can make a film more successful.
Initially, they used 'below the line' advertising which includes reviews and interviews with the stars of the film to promote the film. Zoe Saldana did an interview promoting the film a week prior to the release of the film, and they used social networking sites to promote the film largely.
The positioning of the release of the film by 20th Century Fox contributed to the success of Avatar. The film was released in December before the Christmas Holidays so they can reach their target audience who are 15-29 year old.
They saturated the platforms so the more anticipation grew to watch the film making it more successful.
Exhibition
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the film on DVD and Blu-ray in the US on April 22, 2010.
Home exhibition has become increasingly valuable. The development of DVD and Blu-ray has made the demand much more higher.
20th Century Fox can increase their profits because some of the audience may have not gone to see it in the cinema. Also because this film has won many awards this would have helped them sell the DVDs to the audience.
How technological improvements have impacted viewing in the cinema: Digital technology has also impacted viewing films at the cinema. People can now book their tickets online to avoid the queue. Also, the ticket booth at the cinema allows people to get their tickets quicker and easier. In the case of the release of Avatar this would have been a benefit because the demand to see it would have been very high so the audience would go to different lengths to see it.
Piracy has led distributors to'day and date' in which the film is released in all media simultaneously. This is done because it costs the film industry money in lost revenue, because of the introduction of digital technology.
