Since we have to decide a institution that shall distribute our film into the main media world i have done some research on Summit Entertainment, Focus Features, Working Title Films and Screen Gems.
Summit Entertainment LLC (formerly Summit Entertainment LP) is an independent film studio headquartered in Santa Monica, California with international offices in London.
Summit was originally founded in 1991 by film producers Bernd Eichinger, Arnon Milchan, and Andrew G. Vajna, initially to handle film sales in foreign countries. Summit later expanded into producing and co-financing films in 1995, and started fully financing films by 1997.Summit officially launched in 1993 by Patrick Wachsberger, Bob Hayward and David Garrett under the name Summit Entertainment LP as a production, distribution, and sales organization. Among the company's early successes is American Pie, which Summit distributed outside of English-speaking territories.In 2006, it became a fully independent film studio, Summit Entertainment, with the addition of Rob Friedman, a former executive at Paramount Pictures. The new company added major development, production, acquisitions, marketing and distribution branches with a financing deal led by Merrill Lynch and other investors giving it access to over $1 billion in financing.
Not to mention Summit Entertainment is the company that released the best seller novel's films The Twilight Saga. After releasing these films the company has gained more recognition amongst the teen population that is our target audience so Summit Entertainment could have been a good choice for us. But keeping films like American Pie and even Twilight in mind, these films are either PG 13 or above. The film that we want to make has a much more simpler story and we want to make it appropriate for all kinds of audience. Summit Entertainment has also only made more films that attracts the young population which is appropriate for our kind of film but I think we need a more recognised institution in order to sell our film worldwide.
Focus Features (formerly USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine) is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films.
Focus was formed from the 2002 divisional merger of USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine. USA Films was created by Barry Diller in 1999 by combining October Films, Rogue and Gramercy Pictures. Vivendi sold the studio, among other entertainment assets, to GE in 2004 to form NBC Universal.
The reason we have rejected this institution is that it is an art house film division. The film that we are making is not an art film it is pure entertainment and if let Focus Feature distribute our film it will be presumed by the audience that it is an art film an then our audience of the film will be limited and we do not want that we want as many people as possible to come and watch or buy our film because we already do not have a very large age bracket of our audience.
Working Title Films was co-founded by producers Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. The company produced a variety of films for PolyGram's London-based production company PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. An Anglo-Dutch film studio, PolyGram Films became a major Hollywood competitor. In 1999, PolyGram was sold to Seagram and merged with MCA Music Entertainment, to form Universal Music Group. PolyGram Films was merged and sold to Universal Studios in 1999.
Although contractually allowed to produce any film with a budget of up to $25 million, on a practical basis, Bevan and Fellner consult with studio executive at Working Title's parent company NBC Universal. Working Title is located in London, and is known for having a limited number of employees. The company also has other offices located in Los Angeles, and Ireland.
According to IMDb
Production Company - filmography
- Johnny English Reborn (2011) ... Production Company
- Wild Child (2008) ... Production Company
- Definitely, Maybe (2008) ... Production Company (as a Working Title production)
- Below the Fold (2007) ... Production Company
- Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) ... Production Company (in association with)
- Atonement (2007) ... Production Company
- United 93 (2006) ... Production Company
- Nanny McPhee (2005) ... Production Company (as a Working Title production)
- Pride & Prejudice (2005) ... Production Company (as Working Title)
- The Interpreter (2005) ... Production Company
- Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) ... Production Company (as Working Title)
- The Answer (2004) ... Production Company
- Rory O'Shea Was Here (2004) ... Production Company
- Wimbledon (2004) ... Production Company
- Mickybo and Me (2004) ... Production Company (presents)
- Thunderbirds (2004) ... Production Company (presents)
- The Calcium Kid (2004) ... Production Company (presents)
- Shaun of the Dead (2004) ... Production Company (present)
- A Tale of Two Wives (2003) (TV) ... Production Company
- Love Actually (2003) ... Production Company (producer) (as Working Title)
- Johnny English (2003) ... Production Company
- Ned Kelly (2003) ... Production Company
- The Shape of Things (2003) ... Production Company
- Thirteen (2003) ... Production Company (in association with)
- My Little Eye (2002) ... Production Company
- The Guru (2002) ... Production Company
- About a Boy (2002) ... Production Company
- Ali G Indahouse (2002) ... Production Company
- 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002) ... Production Company
- Long Time Dead (2002) ... Production Company
- The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) ... Production Company
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) ... Production Company
- Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) ... Production Company
- The Man Who Cried (2000) ... Production Company
- Billy Elliot (2000) ... Production Company (presents)
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) ... Production Company (as Working Title)
Distributor - filmography
- Chasing Planes: Witnesses to 9/11 (2006) (V) ... Distributor (2006) (UK) (DVD)
- Pride & Prejudice (2005) ... Distributor (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (as Working Title)
- The Purifiers (2004) ... Distributor (2004) (UK) (theatrical)
- Gettin' Square (2003) ... Distributor
Analysis:
Our initial product was similar to a couple of films distributed by Working Tile Films. Since our movie will be mainstream and we plan on targeting a mass audience, we thought that Working Title Films would be an appropriate institution for us as it has distributed films such as 'Billy Elliot', 'Thirteen' and 'Definitely maybe' which grossed 9.7 million in 2024 theaters of United States and Canada. We also think that Working Title Films has done more recognised films as compared to Summit Entertainment and Focus Feature. But as we progressed towards our pre-production and our media teacher also changed and after a long debate with her about our film we changed our genre and hence our institutional choice also changed.
Screen Gems:
Research (source: Wikipedia):
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation.
The company is well established it is not only focused on films but had Animation Studio that distributed Theatrical short film series and One-Shot Theatrical short films. For an entire decade, Charles Mintz distributed his Krazy Kat, Scrappy, and Color Rhapsody animated film shorts through Columbia Pictures. When Mintz became indebted to Columbia in 1939, he ended up selling his
studio to them. Under new management, the studio assumed a new name, Screen Gems. The name was derived from an early Columbia Pictures slogan, "Gems of the Screen", itself a takeoff on the song "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean"
Screen Gems is also notable for being, in an attempt to keep costs
low, the last American animation studio to stop producing black and
white cartoons. The final black-and-white Screen Gems shorts appeared in
1946, over three years after the second-longest holdouts. During that same year, the studio
shut its doors for good, though their animation output continued to be
distributed until 1949.
The Screen Gems cartoons were only moderately successful when compared to those of Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM.
The company also distributed selected TV shows. In 1948, Screen Gems was revived to serve as the television subsidiary
of Columbia, producing and syndicating several popular shows.
From 1958 through 1974Screen Gems delivered classic TV shows and sitcoms: Father Knows Best, Dennis the Menace, The Donna Reed Show, Hazel, Here Come the Brides, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Gidget, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Flying Nun, The Monkees, and The Partridge Family. It was also the original distributor for Hanna-Barbera Productions, an animation studio founded by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera after leaving Columbia's now-semi-sister studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Feature Film Studio of Screen Gems:
On September 16, 2002, Columbia TriStar Television became Sony Pictures Television,[3]
while three years earlier, in 1999, Screen Gems was resurrected as a
fourth specialty film producing arm of Sony's Columbia TriStar Motion
Picture Group, after Sony Pictures Classics, Triumph Films and Destination Films. creen Gems produces and releases "films that fall between the
wide-release movies traditionally developed and distributed by Columbia
Pictures and those released by Sony Pictures Classics."
Many of its releases are of the horror, thriller, action, comedy and urban genres, making the unit similar to Dimension Films Hollywood Picturesand Rogue PicturesThe most-successful Screen Gems film commercially as of November 2010 was Resident Evil: Afterlife, which grossed $296,221,566 in international box office receipts.
According to IMDb
Production Company - filmography
- Think Like a Man (2012) ... Production Company (presents)
- The Vow (2012) ... Production Company
- Underworld: Awakening (2012) ... Production Company (presents)
- The Mortal Instruments (2012) ... Production Company
- Mardi Gras: Spring Break (2011) ... Production Company
- Straw Dogs (2011) ... Production Company (presents)
- Friends with Benefits (2011) ... Production Company (presents)
- Priest (2011) ... Production Company (presents)
- The Roommate (2011) ... Production Company (presents)
- Burlesque (2010/I) ... Production Company (presents)
- Country Strong (2010) ... Production Company (presents)
- Easy A (2010) ... Production Company (presents)
- Takers (2010) ... Production Company (presents)
- Death at a Funeral (2010) ... Production Company
- Dear John (2010/I) ... Production Company (presents)
- Armored (2009) ... Production Company (presents)
- The Stepfather (2009) ... Production Company (presents)
ETC - Distributor - filmography
- Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) ... Distributor (2012) (USA) (theatrical)
- Think Like a Man (2012) ... Distributor (2012) (USA) (theatrical)
- The Vow (2012) ... Distributor (2012) (USA) (theatrical)
- Underworld: Awakening (2012) ... Distributor (2012) (USA) (theatrical)
- Phenom (2012) ... Distributor (2012) (USA) (theatrical)
- Planet B-Boy (2012) ... Distributor (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
- The Mortal Instruments (2012) ... Distributor (2012) (USA) (theatrical)
- Breaking Waves (2011) ... Distributor (2011) (USA) (TV), Distributor (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
- Straw Dogs (2011) ... Distributor (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
- Friends with Benefits (2011) ... Distributor (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
- Priest (2011) ... Distributor (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
- Attack the Block (2011) ... Distributor (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
- The Roommate (2011) ... Distributor (2011) (USA) (theatrical)
- Burlesque (2010/I) ... Distributor (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
- Country Strong (2010) ... Distributor (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
- Easy A (2010) ... Distributor (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
- Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) ... Distributor (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
- Takers (2010) ... Distributor (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
- Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming (2010) ... Distributor (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
- Death at a Funeral (2010) ... Distributor (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
- Dear John (2010/I) ... Distributor (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
- The Stepfather (2009) ... Distributor (2009) (USA) (theatrical)
- Prom Night (2008/I) ... Distributor (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
ETC
Analysis:
Since our new genre of the film is thriller/action Screen Gems sounded like an appropriate choice to be our institution. It has a large amount of potential audience hence there is a good possibility that people who are prone to watching thriller films from Screen Gems will be attracted to watch our film as well which will naturally make the target audience to our film larger than any chick-flick film would have. Another reason for choosing Screen Gems is that it is owned by one of the major media houses of Hollywood that is Columbia Pictures and the other one is Sony Pictures Entertainment which is also known worldwide. This decision makes the producers and directors of the film relived on the distributing part, they know that their film is going to be distributed by a reliable company which already has so many fans that even if the film is not liked by many the producers will take out the money they spent on the film.
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