timed essay question 2

 

Explain how economic contexts are linked to the production and distribution of films. Refer to Disney’s The Jungle Book (2016) to support your points.

Disney is a diversified mass media conglomerate company that was founded in 1923 with the sole purpose of creating animations. Its first major feature film was Snow White in 1937, and since then the company has grown, diversified, expanded, and become much more financially powerful than ever before. Disney is easily one of the best-known companies in the world, with a far and wide reach from the place it started.

The production cycle of a film begins with investing in a product, then marketing and advertising it, and finally selling the product to the cinemas to be shown to audiences. The success of the film depends on the company and their financial position to produce and distribute it. Due to its massive profits and ability to make money, Disney controls both production and distribution, being able to eliminate any chances of external error. Since it is such a large and powerful company, it owns these subsidiaries which minimises the price it takes to work through the cycle. Disney can use this cycle to its advantage to recreate older films that are possibly unknown to a current audience, thus creating a new, postmodern product that manages to draw in profit and new fans at once. One such example of a film that was remade is The Jungle Book

The 2016 Jungle Book, a live action and CGI animated remake of the 1967 original, was distributed to 70 countries. It cost $175m to create, thus it needed to make a large profit to be able to continue the cycle. Audiences around the globe had to be interested in the movie – and this was achieved by releasing many teaser trailers, posters, and special promotions. At the box office, the film made $960m, giving a profit of $785m from the cinematic release alone. With the inclusion of other revenues, Disney now had well over $1b to expand and make more expensive products with expensive budgets. With more money, films can be made of higher quality, and so become more likely to draw in a more impressive revenue. The film was a success, much like the majority of Disney films.

Disney is fuelled by a capitalist business model. It targets its two main audiences – long-time fans of the Disney products and young children who enjoy the magic that Disney provides – through many types of product. Disney’s brand identity has been around for many decades, so audiences can be given a product with the Disney label and they convince themselves that it must be of high quality, so they enjoy it more. With this brand identity, Disney manages to retain its audiences, creating more profit with each cinematic release. Disney likes to play safe and not take risks, avoiding losing their fanbase at the expense of being put in a box that stops them from creating revolutionary works that can change the minds of their audience. People are entertained by Disney, and also use the company as part of their personal identity and for social interaction. The reception of the films is often positive, but never without criticism. The negative points are usually along the lines of the company continually rehashing similar stories and not putting in the effort to create new and interesting tales, but it makes sense from the point of view of the company if they are making profit and minimising their spending.

In conclusion, Disney as a company is very effective in controlling the production and distribution cycle to allow them to make the most money they can - and probably will - continue to gain profit and gain subsidiaries for a long time.