STAR WARS VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS

A case study:

It was produced by Walt Disney Motion Pictures.

The budget was £306MILLION.

The vice president of Walt Disney Motion Pictures is Dave Hollis; the company have

made other films such as John Carter (Andrew Stanton, 2012) and Tomorrowland (Brad Bird,

2015.)

JJ Abrams directed this, he has also directed Mission Impossible 3 (2006), Cloverfield

(2008), and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).

35mm cameras and 65mm IMAX cameras were used to film this film. CGI was used for certain aspects of the film to make it seem

more futuristic (ie. the spaceships flying, the lasers, etc.)

The film stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamil, and Carrie Fisher (who have both appeared in previous Star Wars films ) as well as John

Boyega (who appeared in Attack the Block) and Daisy Ridley (who appeared in

Casualty and Mr Selfridge).

Marketing:■ JJ Abrams invited some fans to a secret Star Wars Celebration Symphony,

complete with a dazzling fireworks display■ Appearances on talk shows and late night television■ Trailer debuted live via at a Star Wars convention

– Millions of people stopped what they were doing to watch it– Social media exploded with mentions of SW

Results:■ Many people bought tickets even if they were on the fence about how

good it’d be as they didn't’t want to be left out- it grossed $2.068BILLION worldwide, making it the highest grossing film of 2015

■ In the week leading to its release, TFA had 4.78MILLION mentions on Twitter and 364MILLION YouTube views

SynergyExamples of partnerships with TFA that show synergy:

Covergirl & Max Factor

Subway

Duracell

Verizon

Hasbro Toys

HP

Facebook

Google

Build-A-Bear

ConvergenceCross-Media■ Star Wars App on the app

stores■ Lego Star Wars TFA video game■ Comic books and novels■ Clothing and accessories■ Toys and collectables■ Posters and cardboard cut-outs

Technological■ Phone app-brings together games

trailers and access to buy tickets for the movie.

■ Alternate reality hologram where the consumer has to scan a poster and a Stormtrooper’s hologram will appear

■ Hashtag ‘#forcefriday’ which allows the audience to access content that just links to star wars

Release

■ TFA was released in saturation in the US on Dec 14th 2015■ In the UK, it was premiered in London on Dec 16th ■ It featured in Vue, Odeon and IMAX

■ The target audience was Males aged 25-45 as they were older and so probably spent their childhood watching the Star Wars Franchise.

– It was released in 2D, 3D & IMAX– It was released on DVD, Blu-Ray and also on ITunes later on