Jurassic World Case Study

By Helen Rich, Maya Bailey-Probert and Abbi Kavanagh

The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice; (how does who owns a media company influence the type of film made and its potential success? For example do BIG companies make BIG films and therefore make all the money? Is it possible for small companies to succeed?) Jurassic world was made by two production companies which were

Amblin Entertainment and Legendary Pictures and its distributer was Universal Pictures. The production companies are both successful as Amblin entertainment works closely with Steven Spielberg who directed the first two Jurassic park films. Legendary pictures is another successful production company who have worked on over 45 films. Compared to Disney, these two production companies are fairly small in size yet they still managed to make a quality film. The budget for Jurassic world was $150 million and it generated around $1.670 billion at the box office which made it the second highest grossing film of 2016 (after The Force Awakens).

The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing; (how do companies work together to produce, distribute and publicize a film? How can Universal Pictures use their size to promote and publicise a film?

Cross-media convergence and synergy were important when marketing and distributing the film. Companies work together to produce films by equally sharing the roles of each part in the production process. For Jurassic World, there were three main companies that worked together to create the film, Amblin Entertainment and Legendary pictures were the production companies for it and Universal pictures were the distributors. Therefore, they each helped in their key area in the production stages. The film had trailers and teaser trailers which were released on YouTube, and it was Universal pictures who would have distributed these over social media for the audiences to see them. As Universal Pictures is a well-known company, it can use its large audience to distribute the film over social media and this was proven as Jurassic World was its Highest Grossing film worldwide.

The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange; (how has the introduction of digital film, 3D, DVD, Blu-ray, internet streaming, downloadable content, home cinema influenced the types of films made, the way we watch them and the way we 'buy' them?) The role of new technologies have influence the way audiences buy

and watch films. There is a rise in demand for film to be release in cinemas in IMAX, 3D and 2D. People who want to watch the film at home want the film to be of a high quality so will buy the DVD in Blue Ray. Jurassic world is also available to download from the iTunes store. It is available to stream or download on websites however some uploads on certain websites e.g. putlocker can be seen as piracy, this is the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc.

The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences; (how and why have film companies had to alter the way they work now everyone has web enabled phones, PC's, tablets etc? How have audiences changed their viewing habits now we no longer need to go to the cinema to watch a film) The proliferation of hardware refers to the rapid increase in physical

technologies which assist the production, distribution and the consumption of a film or media product. More and more people are choosing to watch films on laptops, tablets and phones so production companies have had to make their film available to download off iTunes, this way they can appeal to a wider range of customers. This is exactly what they did for Jurassic world, by making it available to download for £9.99, this way it can generate more profit from the film as more people will be downloading it offline as its easier and quicker, and in some ways can be cheaper than going to the cinema.

The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences; (can you think of examples of how different technologies have come together to help the film industry?)

Rather than keeping the audience together, institutions are trying to 'trigger engagement' in a variety of ways. They are using a new technique of push media Vs. Pull Media- they're pushing media towards us and the audience is choosing what media they want and in what form, hence pulling it in. Different technological systems evolve which improve the film industry. Jurassic World created teaser and official trailers, this let the audience reminisce the previous Jurassic Park films through watching the trailers of Jurassic World and brought back the nostalgia from them. A tactic that they used was to promote the film early on and let people talk about it; an unofficial twitter page had shared out pictures of the Jurassic World theme park brochure, even boasting one of its attractions as having an instruction video hosted by Jimmy Fallon. 

The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions; (how do film companies try and attract their audience? Do they do different things in different countries?)

Film companies attract their audiences in different ways. Some are creative in the way that they market their films, or some are general and keep the same way that they do things if it is specific to that company. For Jurassic world they released a gripping trailer but also launched a website. Jurassic World’s website is no ordinary movie site. Usually, a movie site has a trailer, some media or a gimmicky game. However, JurassicWorld.com is a thing of beauty; it’s a real site for Jurassic World the park, and it treats users not as moviegoers, but as potential (or current) park visitors. It allows people to explore and book tickets as if it was a real attraction.

The ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour. (what is your opinion on the above? Do you see the developments as a good or bad thing?)

Due to developments in the film industry, media productions are being made available to a wider range of audiences this is a good thing as it brings in more revenue and increases box office figures. The way people choose to consume films is changing and this is then leading to changes in the way that films are distributed. We think that Jurassic park was a film that was highly anticipated which was a reason for its overall success with marketing, distribution and consumption.

Reviews  Graceful, popcorn filled thrilling and tense, taught and energetic. This trilogy gets much better as it goes on.28 September 2015by deventhakkar (Canada) – 

Successfully expands from park to world. Truly, it's a Jurassic world after all. Even though Steven Spielberg didn't direct it, he's still the executive producer. The visuals were thrilling and spectacular and so was the plot line. As the time passes on, the visuals get more artistic and realistic. This trilogy series never wears out it's welcome, I wonder what they will think of next… Jurassic Space? I hope this film continues to receive critical acclaim as it's a dazzling popcorn thriller and it's emotionally and visually exciting.

I think in the fifth film, there should be dinosaurs in space or the dinosaurs are attacking aliens. The CGI gets better as the years go on and it successfully replicates and in some ways improves the behaviours of the dinosaurs when they react with humans with the dinosaurs violent behaviours sure to thrill the entire audience!

The Nostalgia is real10/10Author: lin alexander29 October 2015

Jurassic world is the #1 movie in America. This movie deserves the right to be called back especially with all the money it earned especially in the first week it was out. It's been 14 years since the last time I saw Jurassic Park. I never would have thought that they would be making a Fourth one and when I heard they were making a new one I was ecstatic. It brought back all the memories of the first 3 films. When the day came for Jurassic World to open it had to go see it on opening day and I did. The movie gave us the same feeling Jurassic Park 1 did "Welcome to Jurassic World". The new park looked amazing showing that John Hammond'so dream finally came true. The music was more amazing than ever, the original Jurassic Park theme was re-prised to show how much thing had changed in 14 years. The main attraction of this movie was the Indominus Rex and hybrid of T-Rex, Raptor, cuddle fish, and Tree frog and terrifying intelligence. At the end of the movie we get to see the original T-Rex from the first movie roar for the last time after the park was closed for good. This movie brought back so many memories for so many people. I can't wait for the next one.

Loved it10/10Author: AZ moviegoer from United States28 June 2015I loved this movie. I don't understand some of the negative ratings here. This is not a Fellini movie we're reviewing. It's dinosaurs. And plenty of them. I think this is every bit as good as JPI and way better than the other two. There's plenty of action. There are strong characters, big dinosaurs, spectacular special effects. Add a star because it's scary without being gruesome. The plot is plausible in a movie that's based on a totally fantastical platform to start with. Go see it. Definitely one to see on the big screen. It's got a huge box office for a reason. People spontaneously clapped at the start of the ending credits. It's been a long time since I've seen a movie where that happened.

Analysis: These reviews show to the audience that the film was an enjoyable movie and that they were happy with the film. The reviews were from three different times after the movie- June, September and October. Through the variety of the times, we can see that the film stayed enjoyable and was reviewed as being good from different people.

Marketing These are a few of the marketing techniques Universal Pictures used to promote their film. They included pictures of dinosaurs on food packaging which is more likely to be aimed at children as they like pictures and they also advertised cars linking it to the ‘alpha’ dinosaur. They created action figures of the dinosaurs as toys for children.