Media Studies - Hollywood Film
Unit 1 - Box Office

WJEC

Cast your mind back to last year. What do you think the top ten global grossing films were? Not your favourite films necessarily, but the ones that made the most money across the world. Work with your partner: which pair in the class can get the top ten in order?


Rank Title
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Rank Title Studio Worldwide Domestic / % Overseas / %
1 Captain America: Civil War BV $1,153.3 $408.1 35.4% $745.2 64.6%
2 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story BV $1,054.1 $530.4 50.3% $523.7 49.7%
3 Finding Dory BV $1,028.3 $486.3 47.3% $542.0 52.7%
4 Zootropia BV $1,023.8 $341.3 33.3% $682.5 66.7%
5 The Jungle Book (2016) BV $966.6 $364.0 37.7% $602.5 62.3%
6 The Secret Life of Pets Uni. $875.5 $368.4 42.1% $507.1 57.9%
7 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice WB $873.3 $330.4 37.8% $542.9 62.2%
8 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them WB $812.4 $233.9 28.8% $578.5 71.2%
9 Deadpool Fox $783.1 $363.1 46.4% $420.0 53.6%
10 Suicide Squad WB $745.6 $325.1 43.6% $420.5 56.4%

Task: write a paragraph in your book summarising your notes from this lesson under the heading Global Box Office.

Answers
Question 1

Consider the following questions and make notes:

  • What sort of films are globally popular?
  • Who are the audiences for these films?
  • Can you identify any trends in the top ten? (Franchise, branding, etc.)
  • How important does genre seem to be to the success of these films?
Question 2

What information are we not given in this chart?

The budget of each film and what the audience response to each film was. Apart from the possibility of good WOM -word of mouth- we have no idea whether people watching these films actually enjoyed them or not. Film is a unique media in that we pay to see the product before consuming it- unlike, for example, a song we may purchase on itunes because we have heard and liked it on Youtube

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Question 3

How do you think the budget of these films- of which a significant proportion would be spent on marketing- could have contributed to the success of these films?

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