Look at the poster for the Hollywood comedy This is the End (Rogan and Goldberg, 2013). What are your initial impressions of how it sells the film?

Task 1

Distributor: Sony/Columbia	Release Date: June 12, 2013 (North America)
Genre: Comedy	Runtime: 1hrs. 47min.
MPAA Rating: R	Production Budget: $32 million

Does this information tell us why This is the End was the more successful film at the box office?
What information is missing from these statistics that may give a more detailed picture of the relative success (or not) of both films?
As a group, why do you think This is the End grossed far more than The World’s End?
How much of this was down to the fact that The World’s End is a British film?

Distributor: Focus Features	Release Date: August 23, 2013 (North America)
Genre: Comedy	Runtime: 1hrs. 49min.
MPAA Rating: R	Production Budget: $20 million

This is pretty basic statistical information on This is the End. However, it does suggest a number of things.

A big studio, Sony/Columbia, released this so it is likely that it had a strong Print and Advertising campaign

It is a comedy – a popular, broad appeal genre

It opened during the summer break for High Schools in the US

It had a relatively low rating of R – under 17s with a parent/adult

It is a mid-budget Hollywood film at $32 million and has made over three and a half times this at the box office

Most of its box office has come from the huge US market

There is no real information here about the stars/narrative

Difficult to compare to similar films

Reasons why it grossed more – bigger domestic market

Perhaps more global stars – Rogen, Hill, Franco

Less specific cultural references – i.e. small town England, pubs, musical references, pub crawls

Less subtle humour

Similar themes but different perspective

Younger actors – different demographic compared to an older one for The World’s End

British film therefore some existing knowledge of British culture is needed to be fully understood – certainly the case with this film.