I believe that a media products success depends on marketing and distribution just as much as production practices. A USA film is a success if it is a blockbuster film and a British film is successful just based on making money and awards.
Ex Machina was influenced by previous films such as '2001', 'AI' and 'Blade runner'. The 'Sci-fi' genre is one that there isn't a big audience for, making it harder to get an audience. However, Ex machina had a good and interesting story line which contributed to the films success. The film was directed and written by Alex Garland who also directed '28 days later'. The film challenged industrial practice and ignored the rules put into place by Mark Kermode. The film had no action throughout and we as an audience only saw very little action towards the end. The film starred 4 unknown actors which also means that it shouldn't have been successful for a British film. The actors where; Sonoya Mizurio, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Issac and Domhall Gleeson.
Oscar Issac and Domhall Gleeson are unknown as of yet but both have roles in the upcoming star wars film. For all these reasons the film should not have been successful. However, this film is a success because of marketing and distribution. The form of marketing they used was viral marketing. This means that it was almost completely free and relied on the public to get the word out, saving a lot of money. They created a fake finder account for Ava (the AI in the film) that the people would talk to thinking it was a real person. They did this in Texas at a south by southwest festival. This was a good place to do it because it is full of well known people that other people would listen to. It links very well to the plot of the film being to prove that a 'robot' can have humanistic emotions.
Ex machina was worked on in synergy with DNA films, film 4 and universal studios. As universal studios distributed the film, it impacted greatly on the film being a success. The film was distributed in a pattern. It was originally shown in America on 4 screens on April 12th, then increased to 1200 screens by April 24th and lastly to 2000 screens. The reason for the great increase was due to Ex machina being 'piggy backed' by Avengers. So as the avengers dies out and people have seen it, they will want to see a similar film so when Ex machina was released it created a wider audience.
The film as a $15 million budget, $21 million profit and made $36.9 million box office. It also won an award at the Garardmer film festival and was nominated for 2 others. This to me is a very successful British film.
All of the above things show us that sometimes plot is more important than action, more money doesn't make a better film and a film relies on marketing and distribution just as much as production practices.
Mad max was a US block buster film with a $374.7 million box office and $150 million budget. This is very successful production practice because it made almost 4 times as much as it needed to be a blockbuster ($100million). The film was both written and directed my George Miller. It starred very famous actors which is good production practice. the stars where; Nicholas Hoult, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. It has a lot of action in it and is continuous through out. Max max was in 2D and 3D and was filmed on a flash camera. These are all big contributors to the films success.
The film was marketed in these ways; TV adverts, posters and billboards. They also used cross-media to create a video game of the film. They spent a total of $7 million on TV adverts and a further $43.7 on Warner bros. The film was distributed on may 14th and was widely released onto 12000 screens. This adds to the success of the film but isn't as dependent on marketing and distribution as production practices.
Overall, i think that in some cases, mainly British films, marketing and distribution is just as important as production practices. Both of these films where rated 15 making it not a four quadrant film, loosing views. I believe that with Ex machina, it was only a success due to marketing and the plot of the film. With Mad max, it was because of all the action in it and the people that it starred, marketing had little contribution to the films success compared to the production practice.
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