Paramount Pictures: The Transformers Dilemma - Case Analysis
The dilemma faced by Paramount pictures was to decide what changes, if any, should be made to Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon’s release date, best promotion strategy, and anticipate the rival Warner Brothers’ move.
Each competitor probably had three options to choose from for the respective release dates. Paramount could consider moving the release date two weeks ahead to June, stay with the original July 1st weekend tentative date, or move the date to fall season. Similarly, Warner Brothers’ could choose to move Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2’s date ahead to the July 1st weekend, stay with the original date or move the date to fall.
As shown in Exhibit 1, we
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Revenues of both the movies would be badly hurt in such a scenario, but Transformers 3 would do comparatively better in the 3D and IMAX market.
That being said, when we look at any of the studio’s options to move the release date to fall, we see a grim picture. Although one could argue that the movie would face lesser competition and would have more time for pre-release marketing. The fizz from the anticipation of the movie’s release could be lost and could also result in anguish from the fans. So both the studios might avoid this path.
Having ruled out the possibility of WB advancing the release date and WB or Paramount postponing the release dates, we’re left with the options of Paramount either sticking to the original date or advancing the release date. Paramount could advance the release date by a week or two and avoid a bigger clash with WB. This would mean ramping up the pre-release marketing operations, but more time to earn revenues before sharing it with WB. But there’s one catch to it, we know that the theatres’ revenue model is pretty simple at taking 10% of ticket sales in the first weekend and increased this by 10% each week thereafter. So the earnings during the highly sought after long weekend would be shared with a greater percentage going to the theatres. Was this worth taking the risk of advancing the release date? Probably not. Because, additionally later when The Deathly Hallows Part 2
3. In the event of a hugely successful movie, the studio may want more compensation for the sequel than agreed. Also, studios might potentially seek additional money from Arundel in the event of cost overruns during the making of an initial film. In light of this, we would recommend that Arundel take the following actions in formulating its contracts:
With the purchase of sequel rights, what Arundel is achieving is to have a call option on the revenue that each movie brings. This helps to remove the uncertainty and risks associated with producing a movie, especially with regard to moviegoers’ taste. With the sequel right, Arundel will only exercise this option to produce a sequel if the first movie proved to be popular and the sequel is hence predicted to bring in profits. This provides downside protection, as huge losses (due to high production costs) associated with a failed movie will be avoided.
In addition, once production started, the studio would inevitably form an opinion about the movie and the likeliness that a sequel would be possible. This would put Arundel at a disadvantage, because they would then have to negotiate the price for sequel rights on each film produced, while knowing much less than the production studio about the film.
Arundel can make money selling the rights to a higher bid. Another option to make money is by producing the sequel exercising its rights but this will depend on if the net present value of the production movies is higher than the amount of buying the rights. If the future positive cashflows are undervalued Arundel can seek an arbitrage
The “Star Wars” prequels have been cited as having “ruined the original trilogy and all of its enigmatic fun,” (Norris, 2013) while the two “The Hangover” sequels have similar been said to ruin the reputation and originality of the original. Oddly written sequels may also diminish the quality of the original film’s ending, as stated by writers Rosie Fletcher, Tom Eames, and Matt Hill in their article “7 movie sequels that completely RUINED the original 's happy ending” Of “Jurassic Park 3” they said
For many decades, the US military has, engaged with Hollywood’s movies by giving permission to their production crews to use their military machines and techniques. Black Hawk Down was about the US military, Top Gun was about the Navy, and Iron Man was about the Air Force (McMillen). These kinds of movies are regarded as joint-military force movies, and one of the largest joint-military movies is Transformers, which was released in 2007. The third series was recently released, which is now being processed into a 3D version to be released in the coming months. The movie series includes Transformers (2007), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), and Transformers: The Dark of the Moon (2010).
It can very difficult to make a good sequel to a recent blockbuster movie. How likely is it that lightning will strike twice, not very. Creating an all new epsiodic event for you already established characters can be daungting and redundant. These icons have proven themselves to be heoroes in the viewers eyes and writers have to raise the bar even further to coerce moviegoers to part with their entertainment bucks.
The studio’s executives were in shock after watch the movie that looked fantastic and it was an epic on a grand scale, but there is no way the studio could commercially release a film that was over five hours long. Frazier being forced to cut the film becomes two hours long. The movie was shortened, but now it made no sense. Characters appeared and disappeared randomly, the plot was impossible to follow, and the dialogue did not make sense at a several key points. The film was disaster. The reviews of the film were terrible, and audience stayed away in droves. On a total outlay of $90 million, the studio recouped less than $9 million. The studio releasing the five and a half hour version of the movie, but it made no difference to the overall financial results.
After evaluation of the proposed acquisition of the movie sequel rights, we recommend to offer movie studios as a per-movie price to purchase the sequel rights for their entire portfolio of movies the studios are going to produce over the next year.
4. The bargaining power of buyers: The outlook for the target market isn’t favorable for the movie industry because it will not be growing as fast as the overall population. Buyer power is a strong force because of the target market and several other factors including: the undifferentiated product offered, switching to an alternative is simple and low cost, and customers can stay home and watch movies. The consumers are also complaining about concession and ticket costs, along with the advertisements before the film is shown.
A sequel is typically released to theaters 3 years after the orignal film's initial release. Sequel rights also expire 3 years from the films initial release. Note that Arundel must declare, based on the profitability of the first release, whether or not it will produce the sequel, prior to the expiration of the rights at year 4.
Sequels sell, and in the case of Jurassic World (2015), this was certainly the case. The film shattered records, taking in an incredible $524,418,134 during the opening weekend (IMDB). On top of this, the film seems to address many of the social tensions and emotions of the current generation. From the independent woman still needing a man, to children dealing with parental divorce, the social messages are strong in the film. Equally though, the film is a statement of a reignited interest in the unknown.
production, as I am a huge fan of Lord Of the Rings, and was excited
environment and one team was able to thrive better than the other in the same environment. During the production of Toy Story 2, he noticed that the new team was not performing well, failing to meet deadlines, and not improving. The directors and producers were not pulling together to rise to the challenge. Even though the individuals in the team were stars, the team was not working together in an
The value of the movie “Transformers” created by Hasbro and directed by Michael Bay, is one of the most exhilarating and action packed movie of its time. It’s a movie about how a human joins forces with a group of robots to fight off the other bad robots trying to take over the human’s planet. Throughout this movie it is very action packed and couldn’t grab the audience’s attention more than any other movie could to anyone who loves action movies. This movie presents such a different perspective towards action movies that no one has ever seen in an action movie produced by Michael Bay. This director is known for having various explosion’s and action scenes throughout all of his movies that he has created. Furthermore making the movie transformers one of the best action movies he has ever created.