...Motion Picture Industry November 24, 2013 Traci Wells MTH 410 Marilyn Simon Motion Picture Industry Creating a major motion picture to release to the masses can be a difficult task for any movie maker. Certain methods can be used to support and reassure the movie makers will have a return on their investments. The most effective method is the use of descriptive statistics, including the average, median, mode, range, and deviation of Opening Weekend Gross Sales (OWGS), Total Gross Sales (TGS), Number of Theatres (NOT), and Weeks in Top 60 (WIT60). Using a sample of 100 movies from 2005 it was found that all four variables were closely tied to determining a movies success. Using the date, the OWGS can help movie makes anticipate how much money a movie will make over its entire time in theatres. While this method isn’t always accurate, using the data from the 100 movies we see that the movie that had the best OWGS (Star Wars: Episode III) also had the most TGS, even though it wasn’t in the most NOT’s nor did it have the most WIT60. However, the NOT’s and WIT60 are also a factor. In the table below we can see the correlation between these factors. Star Wars: Episode III should be considered a high performance outlier due to its substantial TGS over all other movies regardless of the NOT and WIT60. Motion Picture | Opening Gross Sales | Total Gross Sales | Number of Theaters | Weeks in Top 60 | Star Wars: Episode III | 108.44 | 380.18 | 3,663 | 19 | Harry Potter...
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...Did you See That? The movie industry is one that has been around for many years and just keeps getting bigger. This case study gives numerous amounts of money that movies have made opening weekend and the total gross sales. It also provides how many movie theaters the film was in and how many weeks it was in the Top 60. By looking at this information and using descriptive statistics, we can come to some conclusions about this industry. Descriptive Statistics Variable | Sample Size | Mean | SE Mean | Standard Deviation | Range | Opening gross | 100 | 9.38 | 1.89 | 18.87 | 108.43 | Total gross | 100 | 33.04 | 6.32 | 63.16 | 380.15 | # of theaters | 100 | 1,278 | 138 | 1,379 | 3905 | Weeks in Top 60 | 100 | 8.680 | 0.0639 | 6.390 | 26.0 | Variable | Minimum | Q1 | Median | Q3 | Maximum | Opening gross | 0.0100 | 0.0625 | .0395 | 12.49 | 108.44 | Total gross | 0.0300 | 0.375 | 5.854 | 47.69 | 380.18 | # of theaters | 5.00 | 45.3 | 410 | 2732 | 3910 | Weeks in Top 60 | 1.00 | 3.00 | 7.00 | 13.00 | 27.00 | What Does this Tell Us? Opening Weekend Gross Sales: The mean or average of opening weekend in gross sales in $9.38 million. The range between the sales is large and can be as little as $10,000 to as high as $108.44 million. The five-number summary is .01, .0625, .0395, 12.49 and 108.44. The top 25% of the movies had an opening weekend gross sale amount of $12.49 million or more. While 50% of the movies grossed $395,000 or less and the other 25% at an...
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...Study: Motion Picture Industry Assignment 1 Prepared By: Table of Contents Introduction 3 Executive Summary 3 Data and General Analysis 4 CONCLUSIONS 12 Integrity Statement 13 Works Cited 13 Executive Summary In this report we will show, via descriptive statistics, how independent variables appear to contribute to the success of motion pictures. Using data collected from a sample of 100 motion pictures produced in 2005, we utilize the following variables: Opening Weekend Gross Sales (in millions of dollars); Total Gross Sales (in millions of dollars); Number of Theaters, and; Weeks in Top 60, to graphically depict their contribution to that success. We will also display the data in both tabular and graphical methods to allow management to make inferences about the data and ultimately enable decision making with reference to the data set. There are more variables and parameters available to determine each depicted variable’s contribution to the success (or lack of success) of the motion picture, but this report only analyzed, interprets and presents with reference to the four variables mentioned. Major highlights include: * 70% of the motion pictures in the sample had Opening Weekend Gross Sales of less than $10 million. * 73% of the motion pictures in the sample had Total Gross Sales of less than $40 million. * 45% of the motion pictures in the sample were shown in 250 or less theaters. * 65% of the motion pictures in the...
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...Kent Tsao RTVF 271 The censorship in American Film The earliest motion picture was initially exposed by a Californian Eadweard Muybridge around the year of 1875 with the bet of whether or not all four hooves of a horse are off the ground during racing, which the idea was further developed by a well known inventor Thomas Alva Edison and one of his employees William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, who was an electrical engineer and photographer. After a series of experiments on the mechanics and the film medium itself, Edison’s company, not only invented the devices that fundamentally change the world like telephone and electric and etc., but also introduced the first ever motion picture apparatus, Kinetograph, therefore “movies in America were born.” (Jon Lewis, American Film 10) The year was 1891, only 16 years apart from Eadweard Muybridge’s unintended discovery. Since then, the wind of motion pictures had been blew to European countries like Great Britain and France. 1895, two French people, Auguste and Louis Lumiere, as known as the Lumiere brothers first showcased the motion pictures using Cinematographe to general public thus declared the era of silent movies. Soon a year later, in 1896, Thomas Edison also showcased the motion pictures to the general public with Vitascope, the first time in America cinema history. After the success of nickelodeon parlors and other film houses, the early movies play a significant role of “emerging consumer culture, in which one paid one’s...
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...Motion Picture Production Code Hollywood’s morals were quickly declining and people were noticing. To prevent government censorship and continue operating without facing consequences like fines or jail time, Hollywood studios needed to change. This is when the Motion Picture Production Code was introduced to prevent the government from getting involved. Hollywood stars were involved in several risqué films and a series of off-screen scandals such as the murder of William Desmond Taylor and the alleged rape of Virginia Rappe by popular movie star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Many people felt the movie industry had always been morally questionable. Political pressure was increasing, with legislators in 37 states introducing almost 100 movie censorship bills in 1921. In 1922, Hollywood studios enlisted Will H. Hays to rehabilitate Hollywood’s image. The move to enlist Hays mimicked the decision major league baseball had made in hiring Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as league commissioner to quell questions about integrity of baseball after the 1919 world series gambling scandal. New York Times even called Hays the “Screen Landis”. In 1929, a catholic layman, Martin Qurgley and the Jesuit priest Father Daniel A. Lord created a code of standards and submitted it to the studios. Lord was specifically concerned with the effects of sound film on children, he considered children to be especially susceptible to their allure. In February of 1930, studio heads met with Lord and Qurgley...
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...This document is attributed to Jack Lule and Flat World Knowledge 8.2 Movies and Culture LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. 2. Recognize how movies reflect cultural attitudes, trends, and events. Indicate how movies influence culture. Movies Mirror Culture The relationship between movies and culture involves a complicated dynamic; while American movies certainly influence the mass culture that consumes them, they are also an integral part of that culture, a product of it, and therefore a reflection of prevailing concerns, attitudes, and beliefs. In considering the relationship between film and culture, it is important to keep in mind that, while certain ideologies may be prevalent in a given era, not only is American culture as diverse as the populations that form it, but it is also constantly changing from one period to the next. Mainstream films produced in the late 1940s and into the 1950s, for example, reflected the conservatism that dominated the sociopolitical arenas of the time. However, by the 1960s, a reactionary youth culture began to emerge in opposition to the dominant institutions, and these antiestablishment views soon found their way onto screen—a far cry from the attitudes most commonly represented only a few years earlier. In one sense, movies could be characterized as America’s storytellers. Not only do Hollywood films reflect certain commonly held attitudes and beliefs about what it means to be American, but they also portray contemporary trends, issues, and...
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...About ten years before the birth of noir cinema, guidelines for cinematic content in America began being enforced. The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association or MPPDA adopted a code which set forth a list of specific do’s and don’ts of the film industry (Medoff). The code was known for being exhaustingly repressive, forbidding almost anything that was deemed “bad” or anything subject to give audiences the wrong idea (Cook). The birth of noir during this era is fascinating because everything we know about noir is contradictory to this code’s repression of humanity’s darkness. This led to many arguments between producers and noir directors. Often, this dispute led to directors submitting to the producers and inserting what would...
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...Well I want to start off and give the opposite view of what people who are against my file sharing have to say. People say that file sharing is stealing and liken it to steal a physical piece of property (Mossberg, 2013). Artist are often hate file sharing because they feel they lose money from people sharing there cd and other property. Even artists have declared war on file sharing and claim they have lost money because of it (Smith, 2013). There are also big companies that have formed to and try and combat file sharing or “piracy”. Companies like the RIAA and MPAA have vowed and have worked with congress to end piracy. RIAA has what their view of file sharing is and how it hurts their industry. File sharing is not just an issue among certain media, software, and gaming industries. Many countries have very strict laws against file sharing. Countries like Sweden are very strict against file sharing (Healey, 2013). Iran is probably one of countries that have the most serve penalties against file sharing, China also is one that has harsh penalties on file sharing. Some of penalties might include them paying money or lengthy jail time for downloading off the internet. There is measures in place blocking a lot of sites and such...
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...December 4, 2012 Article Summary According to the first article How TV Affects Your Child, children under the age of six (including two-thirds of infants and toddlers) watch two hours of some sort of media screen a day. These hours increase to almost six hours a day for children ages eight to eight-teen years of age. This is a huge difference to what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends; children under the age of two years should not watch any TV (screen time could interfere with brain and social development) and children older than two years of age should not watch any more than two hours of quality programming a day (screen time could interfere with social, academic, and physically actives). There are a lot of positive attributes TV can offer: quality programming can teach young children the alphabet or interesting facts about nature and adults can stay current with the evening news. However, a little TV goes a long way. Children who watch violent media are less likely to trust the outside world and more likely to have aggressive behaviors. American children watch, on average, two hundred thousand violent acts on TV by the time they reach the age of eight-teen years old. All this violence gives children a mixed message. While us adults say it is “not nice” to hit the so-called “hero” shows hitting is the way to fight the “bad guys”. How is this showing our youth the difference between right and wrong? Young children cannot distinguish between what is real and...
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...a PG today are different. The culture of our country has changed and so has the standards in which the movies and rating viewed. In the early 1900s, filmmakers had to tailor their movie to the requirements of more than 40 local, city and state censorship boards across the country. The formation, in 1922, of what is now the Motion Picture Association of America, MPAA, helped by taking the first steps towards self regulation. It required it members to submit movies for approval prior to distribution. This process was governed by the Hays Code; which was named after MPAA’s first president, Will Hays. It imposed a detailed and extensive list of rules to filmmakers. It included that only “correct standards of life” could be presented. No depictions of childbirth, criticisms of religion, “lustful” kissing or “suggestive” dancing was allow. Under the Hays code, films were either deemed as moral or immoral and were approved or disapproved, but times were changing and so were the standards. The 1960’s were times of change in America and so again came change to the movie industry. Televisions were becoming color and people loved to go the drive-in picture show. Jack Valenti, the MPAA’s third president, decided in 1966 to replace the hays Code with a new set of guidelines. The MPAA created the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) in November 1968. CARA designated films with one of four types of ratings: G for general audiences, M for mature audiences,...
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...BBFC – This Is England. This is England is a British film written and directed by Shane Meadows in 2006. The film revolves around the life of a young boy facing social challenges, who later finds company with a young group of skinheads in 1983. The film highlights the origin of their subculture, which can be traced back to the 1960’s. The film also highlights the social issues that were dominant within the society, as well as the division between skinheads in the society because of their nationalist views. Becuase this film was produced in UK, the film had to undergo certain levels of scrutiny under media regulation bodies. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Media and Communication, media regulation is the “control and supervision of organizations exercised by external authorities through the application of rules.”(ODMC 2011). The setup of regulation bodies in a society stimulates domestic production of films, and guarantees public interest when watching films within the region affected. The British Board of Film Classification, commonly known by its abbreviation, ‘BBFC’, is a non-profit regulatory organisation in the United Kingdom, setup in 1912 as an independent body to bring a degree of uniformity to the classification of film nationally, and test their suitability for viewing in the home. The BBFC is the regulatory body for films produced and distributed in the UK. They examine “issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, sexual...
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...The Unfairness and Vagueness of the MPAA Rating System Many people take notice of a film rating, whether in the theater or on the DVD case. The American culture, especially, relies very heavily on these ratings. Oftentimes, there is almost an incredible amount of trust put in them. But where did this trust come from, and is it really deserved? The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) determines the ratings on almost every film that is produced today. Although filmmakers are not required to have a rating attached to their films, the MPAA has great power in its ratings. After a close examination of the MPAA movie rating system, it is clear that there are many flaws both because of its unfair rating of different films and also because of its vague guidelines. Before the MPAA's rating system can be critiqued, it is important to understand society's need for censorship, the difficulty in rating, and the history and past critiques of not only the MPAA's rating system, but the other systems that came before it. It is impossible to look at the rating system without questioning the need for it in the first place. Media censorship is tricky, because it must “protect both free speech and children” (Jordan 235). There is a very tricky balance between these two sides. The American government recognizes the right to free speech. This means that, technically speaking, filmmakers are allowed to be able to express what they want to express in the way that they...
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...and gun violence (Pollard 17). As time passed, many people grew upset that theaters would allow movies to show such scandalous material. In 1907, the government stepped in and gave the Chicago and New York police forces the power to pre-screen movies played in their cities and decide whether or not they should be shown – one of the first efforts to censor movies (Randall 11). Eventually the power to censor movies was given to The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America and its president: Will Hays; the system was nicknamed the Hay’s Code (Pollard 49). While the movie scripts were in development, the studios would submit the screenplay and the MPPDA decided whether or not to give it a stamp of approval on whether it was appropriate (Pollard 50-53). After years of court battles on whether it was legal to censor films, the courts ruled in the Miracle case that movies fall under free speech as a First Amendment right of an United States citizen (Randall 3-4). During this time, the MPPDA underwent a name change to become the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). With the name change, the MPAA shifted its focus from censorship, to giving ratings in order to assist parents. As a part of their new method, they developed their rating system to organize films into four different categories: G, PG, R, and X, with the PG-13 rating added later. The reason many people have been so upset about mature content reaching their children is that they believe it will negatively...
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...connect with its core consumers? Justify the strategies used by Disney. Disney runs a customer-oriented business that brings the company much profit. At the same time, it also has developed several ways to target its core consumers. In my opinion, what Disney has done to connect with them is quite essential. Firstly, Disney starts to involve new business. After 90-year development, customers expect Disney can create something new to make them interested. As soon as Disney realizes their demands, it introduces Disney Channel, Touchstone Pictures and Touchstone Television. It’s convenient for consumers to touch Disney works through this channel. Besides, many movies have been published in the name of Touchstone Pictures since 1984, such as splash , Armageddon and so on. It’ s the pricing policy of Disney that has successfully reached a whole new generation of children. For example, classic Disney films on video are sold at extraordinarily low price, so that the majority of family can afford to watch these movies. Once Disney attracts those children’s attention, they will become its customers sooner or later. Secondly, Disney concentrates on the Disney Difference . Taking advantage of ...
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...level, despite facing constant pressure in its film and broadcasting holdings. Disney creates, develops, produces, markets, and distributes content through an unrivaled range of media platforms. The company derives its revenues from five operating segments. Media Networks (43% of companywide business in fiscal 2014) includes ESPN, ABC, Disney Channel, among others, and generates sales from affiliate fees, ad sales, and the distribution of television programs. Parks and Resorts (31%) operate the company’s internationally prominent theme park and resorts holdings, such as Disneyworld, Disneyland, and a number of international locations. Studio Entertainment (15%) produces and acquires films for international distribution through Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, among others. Consumer Products (8%) licenses Disney’s intellectual property to...
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