Audience and Institution Practice Essay

DISCUSS THE IMPACT OF FUNDING ON MEDIA PRODUCTS

In the world of media, there are many aspects that lead to creating and releasing a successful film. One of the factors that go into that is the amount of funding that is put into the process. The amount of money put into the filming, distributing, and advertising correlates to how well it will do. While sometimes, they do not make a lot of money because of the storyline, despite the budget, that is not usually the case. 

To elaborate on that, funding is such an important aspect because it determines things like casting and production value. For example, the Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, was released in 2017 and made around $1.3 billion. I believe that a big reason was that the actors that were hired were very internationally well-known. Emma Watson, who played the main character was previously in the extremely successful movie franchise, Harry Potter. That, alone, can be a motive for fans to want to watch it. When it was released, that was one of the main reasons that I went to the theatre to watch the premiere. Although, casting alone cannot determine the grossing of a movie. Ugly Dolls is a good example of this because of how poorly it did after its release. With such big stars, like Nick Jonas and Kelly Clarkson, one would expect it to at least break even, but it only made around $32.5 million. That being said, the marketing strategies used by the film were weak and only had a few ways of promotion. Therefore, the amount of funding put into those details was not enough for it to be a hit. 

Another reason that funding makes a big impact on media products is that, without it, movies wouldn’t be able to be as vastly distributed as they tend to be. Spiderman Homecoming was one of the highest-grossing films of 2017 and part of that was because of its marketing strategy. They did a lot of synergy and cross-promotion with big companies like Target and General Mills. They funneled in money into advertising before the film came out to get viewers excited. This was all possible because of all the money the directors put into everything, which ended up being a good move on their behalf. Everything stems from that because money runs everything in the film industry. The creators of The Lego Movie Part 2 took a similar approach and spent a good amount of their funding cross-promoting companies like Discover and Burger King, which allowed them to reach bigger audiences. The movie hit theaters and grossed around $192 million, over double of what it took to make it. 

In conclusion, funding is a major part of the media industry. It provides possibilities for better casting and marketing strategies, which can then lead to higher grossing films and successful franchises. Money is what keeps the industry moving, after all.