Film Director

In the film industry private ownership is when a company is not the

on the public exchange market, so members of the public can have
no ownership of the company. Most companies are privately owned
by a small group of people, who then are allowed to keep the shares
for themselves. However most major film studios are not privately
owned due to the fact they are generally owned by a larger parent
company, which is publically traded due to the sheer size of the
companies.
However this does not mean that all film studios are privately
owned, particularly the smaller companies. Companies such as
Smoke House Pictures and Aardman Animations are privately owned
by a small group of people. This means that certain people own the
shares of these companies and that it is not on the public exchange
market. For a film director these kinds of companies are preferable
to work with when developing their films as it gives them more
creative freedom.
Most of the major film studios are known as multinational
corporations due to their size and influence all around the world.
Walt Disney Pictures is possibly cited as the largest multinational
corporation in the film industry as it is so well known globally and
how it works in other countries. This is primarily because it is a
subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, which provides the funding
to make Walt Disney Studios multinational. For example when Walt
Disney will globally distribute a film they will have different sectors
working in each different country to distribute the film in that
particular country. These different sectors will work on multiple
different things in the country, such as marketing, finances etc.
Another way in which these corporations become multinational
corporations is about how the films can be made themselves. It is
commonly found that companies, especially for animation, will
create their storyboards where the home of the studio is and it will
then be developed in another country. Animation companies, such
as Pixar, will pen their storyboards at home in California and will
then have their films developed in India due to the cost of labor
being cheaper.
Most of the independent film studios are not multinational as they
do not have the fundings that the major film studios have to make
them multinational. The film distributors Artificial Eye are one of
these independent studios due to how they fund they fund their
companies. As opposed to 20th Century Fox who get their fundings
from their parent company 21st Century Fox, Artificial Eye will have
to sell their films to producers to get funding for the film they intend
to distribute. As mentioned before 20th Century Fox will get their
fundings from 21st Century Fox who is their parent company. 21st
Century Fox is what is known as a conglomerate corporation, as it is
a corporation that has many subsidiaries.
A conglomerate corporation is a very large media corporation that
has many different subsidiaries that make the company. In the film

industry all of the major film industries will be a subsidiary of a

larger conglomerate media corporation. Arguable the largest
conglomerate corporation on the planet would be the Walt Disney
Company due to the size of the company. Under the many
subsidiaries Walt Disney Co. own a film studio (Walt Disney Studios),
global theme parks (Walt Disney Parks and Resorts), television
networks (ABC, LWN, Disney Channels Worldwide, ABC Family,
Fusion, ESPN Inc.), a record label (Disney Music Group), publishing
(Marvel Comics, Disney Publishing Worldwide), and internet services
(Disney Interactive Media Group, Hulu). Even inside all of these
subsidiaries, they also own their own properties adding to what
Disney owns.
Through Disney being a conglomerate corporation they can also use
cross media to distribute their content. For example their subsidiary
Walt Disney Studios also owns their own properties, in this instance
Marvel Entertainment. Through ownership of Marvel Entertainment,
Disney has control of Marvels individual properties including
publishing and film. With the distribution of their film The Avengers,
Marvel also did a series of comic books to tie in with the release of
their film. This would be a primary example of cross media as they
were distributing their properties in two different ways. Furthermore
they also will do tie ins with other companies for video games.
When Disney released the sequel for the Avengers, Disney
subsequently worked with TT Games and Warner Bros. Interactive
Entertainment to develop Lego Marvel Avengers.
The video game Lego Marvel Avengers is an example of vertical
integration in media. Vertical integration is when two companies
work together to finance, distribute, and produce a property. Disney
has ownership of Marvel Studios, which the Lego game is using as a
source for their game. However Warner Bros. Interactive
Entertainment own the Marvel Properties in video games. Therefore
the two companies work together to distribute the game, as the
source of the games plot belongs to Disney but the game itself
belongs to Warner Bros.
Horizontal integration is the opposite of this, as it is when a studio
works by themselves to finance, produce, and distribute a media
property. The original Dracula (1931) film was produced, financed,
and distributed by Universal Studios. This was back at a time when
horizontal integration did not exists, so the films had to be made in
a vertical integration way.
As mentioned before with the video games, some properties will
have share of ownership on a property. As mentioned before Warner
Bros. own Marvel properties in videogames, however the source
material for the game is owned my Disney, under Marvel Studios.
This is a key example of share of ownership, as both companies own
part of the property.
Speaking of Marvel, Marvel is a key example of a merge or takeover.
In 2009 The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment
for $4billion. This subsequently meant that Disney owned all (to the

most part) of the Marvel properties, so they had control over what
happened at Marvel. This included Marvel Studios, which meant that
all films that were produced by Marvel Studios are distributed by
Walt Disney Studios and the profit goes to Disney.
With the use of cross media, there comes a regulation that
corporations must follow to be able to publish their content. This is
the regulation and control of how much control companies actually
have over different media sectors in the country. This is done so that
the companies do have a monopoly of media sectors, and so that
the press remains free which is important in a democratic country. In
the UK 20% of media ownership is capped in the total circulation. In
the case of Disney this is very important that cross media
regulations exists due to the size of Disney. Due to the fact that
Disney own almost every form of media distribution (a movie studio,
theme park resorts, broadcast networks, cable channels, news
channels, a sports network, a record label, publishing services, and
internet services), it is important that cross media regulation is
there to stop Disney having a monopoly of content.
There are multiple different sources of income that bring money into
a company. Ways in which companies can bring in their source of
income are:
Selling a product or service
Selling shares publically
Getting private investment
Getting government/ taxpayer investment
Voluntary donations
Product diversity is a form of business development that helps
businesses diversify their product range by modifying pre-existing
products or adding to products to the range. This means that
business can increase sales to existing customers and enter new
markets. The businesses can do this by strategically planning
through market research, product adaptation analysis and legal
reviews. The perks of this is that it opens up a new market,
increases the profit from the new or modified product. This is done
in the film industry through many different forums, some also
including cross media. Many film studios will have their theatrical
release, but will then release the directors cut on DVD to boost the
profits. However some may choose to use cross media to expand
their film. For example, the film Zombieland was never scheduled
for a sequel, so alternatively Sony teamed up with Amazon Studios
(a subsidiary of Amazon) to create a Zombieland television show.
While this was a good idea, it did go to show that product diversity
does not always work as the show was cancelled after the pilot
episode aired.
Profitability of product range is how much profit a company will
make from a product that it sells. Unprofitable products, to the most
part, are unlikely to be sold again as it would not make any more
money. In the film industry the general concept is that if a film does
not make any profit, it is unlikely to have a sequel. For example, the

film Eragon had a budget of $100 million and it made $75 million at
the US box office. This immediately tells the producers that the US
audience (which is their target audience due to the size of America)
is not interested in the film, so people will not go to see a sequel.
However a film such as The Avengers by Marvel/ Disney made $1.5
billion at the box office on a budget of $220 million, so it was no
surprise a sequel was released.
Organizational objectives are objectives that a company has in
regards to what shall be happening in the future of the company.
The CEO or shareholders or executives at the business set them.
The objectives are generally about sales, rates of growth, profit, and
the value of the business. Film industries often do this, especially
with the current superhero trend. Many studios, particularly at
Marvel/Disney will have the organizational objectives that plan out
what films shall be released.
Licenses and franchises are companies where people set up
different businesses under the same or common name. However
companies have to pay either an initial or ongoing fee to the owner
of said franchise. Of course this is good for smaller businesses as it
means they have the instant attraction of the business name.
However it does restrict the businesses on what they are able to do
as these franchises will have certain codes, regulations and rules.
In business competitors are rival companies that produce similar
products. There are many different types of competition as it could
be on a local scale (two supermarkets), national scale (two
television channels), or international scale (two fast food chains). In
the film industry this would be a different film studio. There are the
major 6 studios which all rival with each other; Warner Bros.
Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures,
20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures.