Phil Lord

Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience
as they do upon good production practices.
During the production process of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, both marketing and distribution
techniques and technologies were well utilised to ensure that the film was successful. The
techniques and technologies were used alongside good production practises to increase its
popularity across all audiences.
Good production practises are very key aspects to include when producing successful films; these
are seen to have been used during the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. A main
production practise used to allow the fil to be well distributed and marketed was the companies
involved. One of these companies was Lucasfilm Ltd.; this company was involved in the production
of the previous Star Wars films in the franchise. This made Star Wars: The Force Awakens much
more successful because the previous films in the franchise were incredibly popular and received
high ratings; this meant that people expected the seventh film to be just as great as the same main
production company was involved. Another company involved with the production of Star Wars: The
Force Awakens was Bad Robot Productions, the production company owned by director J.J. Abrams.
This company is incredibly well renowned for being involved with the production of several other
popular films, such as the Star Trek trilogy (2009, 2013 and 2016), Super 8 (2011) and Mission:
Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011). Due to these films being massively successful, people expected
Star Wars: The Force Awakens to be equally good as the same production company was involved.
The final company that was involved with the production and distribution of Star Wars: The Force
Awakens was Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, a distribution division owned by the multi-billiondollar parent company The Walt Disney Company. This company has been used to distribute all of
the motion pictures created by The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary companies since 1953,
including The Avengers (2012), The Lion King (1994) and the Toy Story trilogy (1996, 1999 and 2010).
These films were incredibly successful, without a single one receiving a box office figure less than
$370 million; this shows that this company is very experienced in distributing popular and well
received films, therefore increasing the expectation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens being a
success.
During the marketing stage of the production process of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, many
different techniques and technologies were used to ensure that the amount of people interested in
watching the film was high enough to make a profit. On November 28th 2014, LucasFilm Ltd.
released on 88 second teaser trailer that was screened in selected cinemas in the US and Canada. It
was also released in worldwide cinemas in December 2014. This teaser trailer was also released on
YouTube and iTunes on the 28th November 2014, with a record of 58.2 million views in its first
week. On April 16 2015, the second teaser trailer was released. This was shown at the opening panel
at the Star Wars Celebration in California. The teaser trailer was viewed 30.65 million times within
the first 24 hours of release. The first official trailer was released on October 19th 2015, alongside
the theatrical release poster. This trailer was shown during the halftime break of Monday Night
Football before it was released online. The trailer received 128 million views in the first 24 hours,
breaking the world record. 16 million of these views came from the Monday Night Football airing.
These trailers brought an exceedingly large amount of attention and anticipation to the film and they
mainly consisted of the most impressive shots from the film in an attempt to advertise it to look as
good as possible. Also, due to these trailers being distributed to the public through cinemas and
social media, they will be seen by millions of people from many different audiences.

Phil Lord
As well as these trailers, other below-the-line marketing methods were used to build anticipation
over Star Wars: The Force Awakens. J.J. Abrams and many of the actors and actresses in the film
attended the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International, where they showed behind-the-scenes
demonstrating the use of practical sets and effects in the film. Also, in August 2015, Disney and
LucasFilm Ltd. presented a sneak preview at the Force Awakens at Disneys D23 Expo 2015. By
marketing the film through these popular conventions, the films audience was increased by millions
of people interested in many different things.
The company that distributed Star Wars: The Force Awakens was Walt Disney Studios Motion
Pictures; due to this distribution company being exceedingly popular and experienced, the film was
available to the public in many different modern technologies as well as older ones. The public were
able to watch the film in cinemas in 2D and 3D, also, the use of expensive modern 65mm/70mm
IMAX cameras allowed the film to be distributed in IMAX. People can also purchase the film on DVD
in 2D or 3D and on BluRay in 2D; the film will be released on BluRay in 3D in November. These are
available to purchase because of recent technology allowing distributing companies to store larger
film files on discs (BluRay discs), meaning that they can be sold at higher definitions and resolutions.
However, the higher definition allows people to have a more immersive home cinema experience
using modern surround sound speaker technology; this decreased the amount of people that went
to the cinema to watch the film as they have a similar setup at home.
Below-the-line viral marketing techniques were also used to build anticipation and to increase the
audience of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The main marketing technique utilised was by using the
internet and social media; this technique reaches out to essentially every person in countries with
the internet as most people from many different audiences are online and use social media everyday
on many different gadgets. The film is also distributed in a similar way as it is available for

streaming and downloading from YouTube, Google Play, Sky Cinema and iTunes (being the
main platforms); all of these platforms are available on most devices that are connected to
the Internet, including gaming consoles. Distributing the film in this way widens the
audience as it increases the amount of people that have access to it and the amount of
different ways it can be accessed. When the film is domestically released, it was distributed
to many websites, such as Netflix and iTunes, which allow the audience to view the film at
any time or any place. On top of this, Sky Cinema, Virgin, BT etc. allow the audience to view
the film on even more devices for rental or purchase. In terms of Star Wars: The Force
Awakens, the DVD and BluRay release date was April 5th 2016, the digital release was April
1st 2016, and the 3D BluRay release is November 15th 2016. After these dates, audiences
are able to purchase the film in any of these formats and watch them as many times as they
wish; this may include extras and bonus material. The freedom offered to the public through
this method of distribution allowed them to have access to the film whenever and wherever
they wish; this will attract many people that are interested in this freedom.
After taking into consideration the techniques and technologies used during the marketing
and distribution stages of the film production process of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it
can be concluded that the production and distribution companies ensured that the
marketing and distribution aspects of the process were utilised just as much as the actual
production aspect. I therefore agree that successful media products do depend as much
upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production
practises as Star Wars: The Force Awakens was incredibly successful and popular across all
audiences worldwide.