Film Industry: Black Widow

Our first Film Industry CSP is Marvel blockbuster Black Widow.

For film, we only need to study the industries key concept - so this means the companies behind the film, the budget, the marketing and promotion and finally the box office success.

Reminder: industry terminology

In our Introduction to Media unit, we learned a range of media industries terminology that we may well be tested on in the exam. Make sure you know the following:

Conglomerate
Most major media companies are conglomerates that own a range of smaller companies (called subsidiaries). An example of this is Disney owning Marvel.

Vertical integration
Vertical integration is when one conglomerate owns different companies in the same chain of production. E.g Disney owns film studios, CGI specialists, film distributors and TV channels such as the Disney Channel. This gives Disney the chance to make money at every stage of production. Complete ownership = more profit.

Horizontal integration

Horizontal integration is when one company buys other companies at the same level of distribution. E.g Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 (at a cost of $1 billion) so that they could cancel out the competition by making money from both. Horizontal integration allows companies to widen their audience and find other ways to make money.

Synergy 

Synergy is when a company creates a brand that can be used across different media products and platforms. E.g Disney makes movies but then also has related stage shows, theme parks, merchandise, soundtracks and events.

Black Widow notes

Black Widow is the 24th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It raises many industry issues surrounding the production, distribution and exhibition of film in the digital age.  

Film franchise

A film franchise is a series of films or multi-picture stories, often including some of the same characters from film to film.

Franchises have become even more important than individual stars. They consist of connected universes (e.g. Star Wars, Marvel's Cinematic Universe, DC Extended Universe etc) and many sequels (or prequels).

Blockbuster movies

Black Widow is a blockbuster movie. A blockbuster is a major studio movie that's made with a large budget, big stars and often involves a franchise. 

A true blockbuster is extremely popular and brings in a lot of money. Typically, a blockbuster is a summer movie that audiences line up to see the first weekend it's released (which coincides with the school holidays and more family time).

Disney and Marvel

In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment for US$4 billion. The Walt Disney Company now owns Disney Pictures, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm and Pixar.

Walt Disney Studios are one of Hollywood's major film studios and generated an income of $2.4 billion in 2017.  This means that they can afford to make more expensive films, market them around the world at great expense and ensure that they are hugely profitable.  

Marketing and promotion

Star Power implies that people will want to see a film with a certain star in it. Most mainstream films and blockbusters will use Star Power to attract audiences to their film. The main star in Black Widow is Scarlett Johansson who is very well known and has established fans. 

Walt Disney Studios had a huge budget to make and market Black Widow although the success of the film was badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic closing cinemas. Some of the strategies used included:

• Traditional methods such as posters and teaser trailers on TV and in cinema.
• Stars of the film appeared on a range of TV chat shows and press events. 
• Film trailers were released on YouTube and in cinemas. 
• Specific IMAX promotions with 22 minutes of the film shot in 1.90:1 aspect ratio especially for IMAX cinemas.
• Section of the Marvel website with gallery, story synopsis, character posters and opportunities to buy or stream the movie.
• Social media profiles on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Social media and YouTube advertising was also heavily used by Marvel to promote the film including using tweets from audience members on massive billboards.

Star interviews and TV appearances:

Specific IMAX promotional videos:

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the film industry and changed the release strategy for many films. While cinemas are still the primary way of making money for the film industry, some movies are being released to streaming services alongside cinema - or bypassing cinema altogether. Watch this report on Black Widow with an interview with IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond:

Social media marketing

The film used tweets from audience members to help promote the film:

Was the film a global box office hit?

Black Widow’s success is difficult to judge due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Black Widow’s budget was $200m and it only made $379m at the worldwide box office due to the pandemic. Marvel would have spent well over $100m on marketing the film globally so the profit level is very low. Most Marvel films have made around $1 billion at the box office. 

However, this doesn’t take into account revenues through Disney+ so Black Widow may well still make Marvel and Disney a profit in the end.

Film industry: Regulation

Films in the UK are regulated by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

Black Widow was awarded a 12A by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).  It was deemed to have “moderate violence, injury detail”, yet was not too graphic.

With a 12A, no-one under the age of 12 can see the film unless accompanied by an adult. It is quite a new classification (1989)  and was introduced due to the large gap between PG and 15.

It is important that all MCU films are 12A at the most as the major film companies want to keep the young audience for:

• Merchandising opportunities.
• Better potential box office.
• 47% of cinema audiences were aged 7-24 in the UK in 2014.  Word of mouth and peer influence is important in generating interest.

Black Widow: blog tasks

See Ms Fowler's Google Classroom for tasks. When you have completed those, you can look at the extension tasks below.

Grade 8/9 extension tasks

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?

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?

Look at the Marvel Black Widow website and note down the different promotional devices used.

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?

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

Read this feature on whether there are too many Marvel sequels and spin-offs. Do you agree?

OSP: Marcus Rashford - Audience and Industry

The second part of our OSP Marcus Rashford case study focuses on Audience and Industry.

This completes our in-depth study of Marcus Rashford's online presence and brings in important questions about social media and regulation. 

Audience

Target audience: demographics and psychographics

What is Marcus Rashford’s target audience: 

• Demographics: CAGE?
• Psychographics?

Audience engagement

Instagram engagement rate is a measure of how much audiences engage with posts (e.g. likes, comments). An engagement rate of 1-3% is considered good and anything 6%+ is extremely high.

Marcus Rashford’s power as an influencer is shown by his engagement rate of 6%.

Source: https://starngage.com/app/gb/influencers/marcusrashford

Marcus Rashford's appeal to audiences

What is the appeal of Marcus Rashford to his audience? Think about his campaigns, use of social media and his website. Also, consider his appeal to different audiences.

Use Blumler and Katz Uses and Gratifications theory:

• Diversion
• Personal Identity
• Personal Relationships
• Surveillance/information

Industry

Marcus Rashford net worth

Marcus Rashford’s net worth has been estimated at around £16m (source: Sunday Times rich list). This includes:

• £200,000 per week from Manchester United (£10.4m a year)
• £2m endorsement deal with Nike
• Additional deals with Burberry, BT Sport, Coca-Cola and others

He is also the youngest person to top the Sunday Times Giving List for raising £20m for good causes.

Marcus Rashford commercial partners

Watch the following promotional videos from brands featuring Marcus Rashford.

• What do the companies get from an association with Rashford?
• Thinking about media language, how do these adverts create an emotional connection between the brand and audience using Marcus Rashford? 
• How do the clips help Marcus Rashford control or build his own brand?

Industries: ownership, control and regulation

Marcus Rashford’s online presence is partly driven by his excellent use of social media.

But who owns Twitter? Who owns Instagram? How much money do they make? How are they regulated?

These are key questions for GCSE Media students.

Twitter

• Twitter was started by Jack Dorsey in 2006. It now has over 200 million active users worldwide. 
• Twitter’s 2020 revenue was $3.72 billion. 
• Twitter makes most of its money through advertising – promoted tweets or ‘trend takeovers’.
• Marcus Rashford has over 5m Twitter followers.

Instagram

• Instagram is an image and video sharing site launched in 2010. 
• In 2012 it was bought by Facebook for $1 billion. Facebook and Instagram’s parent company is now called Meta – a global conglomerate.
• Instagram has over a billion active users worldwide and more than 25 million users in the UK alone.
• Instagram revenue in 2020 was $24 BILLION.
• Marcus Rashford has over 12m Instagram followers.

Instagram: a danger to teenagers?

• Over 40% of Instagram users are aged under 23.
• Research suggests that Instagram is damaging to mental health – particularly for teenage girls.
• Facebook’s own research suggested this – but they allegedly kept this secret.
• The research suggested one in three girls felt bad about their bodies and Instagram made this worse. It is also linked to increased anxiety and depression.

Media regulation: how do you regulate the internet and social media?

The government put forward the Online Safety bill in 2022 to try and add regulation of the internet to Ofcom’s role as media regulator. This includes:

• Sending threatening posts being punishable by jail sentences.
• Platforms like Twitter and Instagram having to actively prevent users seeing harmful material – or risk being fined by Ofcom.
• Platforms paying Ofcom to regulate their content.

Critics of the law have suggested social media is impossible to regulate – there is too much content – or users’ freedom of speech will be compromised.

Internet regulation: key questions

The internet is very difficult to regulate because it is global but governments are national. Also, corporations like Amazon or Facebook are now more powerful than some governments.

Media theorist Clay Shirky describes the change with digital media as going from: “Filter then publish to publish then filter”. 

Anyone can publish almost anything instantly and the audience then has to filter the content they engage with.

Here's Clay Shirky talking about how the internet is changing communication - watch the first three minutes:

Finally, here is Marcus Rashford talking to Sky Sports News about what should be done about online abuse: 

Blog tasks: Marcus Rashford - Audience and Industry

Work through the tasks on Google Classroom to complete your work on Marcus Rashford's online presence.

Extension tasks

How does Marcus Rashford's online presence reflect modern society and culture?

Read this Sky Sports interview with Marcus Rashford saying online abuse should be easier to stop. What does he think the companies should be doing to regulate it?

If you want to test yourself at A Level, try reading this chapter from A Level Media theorist Clay Shirky called Publish, Then Filter. How does Shirky suggest the internet has changed the way we engage with the media?