Disney

Why are Disney so successful? 

Disney is one of the main conglomerates and is part of the top 6 that are dominated by the oligopoly Hollywood . Disney is pixar's parent company and Disney owns the three stages which are production, distribution and exhibition this makes them vertically integrated. This allows the company Disney to take risks and make the three stages of making bigger and better. The Disney film pirates of the Caribbean 2 is the highest grossing film in opening history. This is because in the production side of filming because Disney have huge media ownership they can cast the big hollywood stars for example the main character johnny Dep playing the part of Jack sparrow this will immediately grab a wide audience as because he is well known star then people who enjoy watching films that he is in will purchase the film or go to the cinema to watch it. Also because of the status and money that Disney have they have the ability to block areas off to film in and this has been done in different countries. For example pirates of the Caribbean was filmed in Dominican, Bahamas and California. This allows a more wider audience to be attracted as the film is beginning to become aware to an international audience.

In the marketing stage because Disney own 11 theme parks, 2 water parks, several television networks, television channels they can use technological convergence to raise huge awareness for each disney film they release. For example the current film 'Frozen' that has been a huge success has a sound track that has been made this can be played on a radio station where people can access this music from their own radio or tablet. This sound track is also advertised on the disney website which shows technological convergence as because of the development of technology the majority of the audience use the web 2.0 therefore promoting on a website will grab a wider audience then on a poster in an area where a wide audience arent going to be. This sound track also shows cross media convergence as it shows the music medium and film medium coming together to promote them both even more. Disney also have theme parks where characters are walking around in. If Disney had a new release then they would simply put the main characters in the park to promote the film for example Buzz and Woody from Toy story to interact with the people who have paid to come into the Disney parks.

Disney follows a formula in order to make sure that every film they make and release are successful in box office. This is done by Disney making sure that each of there films are targeted at families therefore making sure the language is appropriate for children and the humour is funny for both children and adults.

In comparison with Disney a smaller British company Microwave film London and distributor's Revolver and film 4 who made the film 'Ill Manors' isn't a conglomerate therefore will find it harder to fund the film as they don't own any subdiary companies therefore they cant take many risks as they have a budget this makes them horizontally integrated. This is shown through the cast. The cast aren't well known therefore have been chosen purely because of talent this will make it harder to gain a wider audience as consumers don't know who they are and whether they are interested in their acting.The location that Ill Manors was set in was in east london this location want attract an international audience as they haven't heard of the locations however if it was set by Big Ben and The London eye then other countries would recognise the land marks and understand the film better.