Film Marketing- CASE STUDY 2

Straight Outta Compton

Companies and brands responsible for the funding, production and marketing of the film

Production companies: 

Legendary Entertainment- produced movies like Interstellar, Jurassic World, Skyscraper (blockbusters)

New Line Cinema- produced movies like The Nun, IT, Creed II. An American film production studio of Warner Bros. Headquarters in Los Angeles, California (link to the setting of movie) 

Both co-funded by Universal Pictures and Legendary Entertainment- $28 million

+ links to to media industries that would help maximise income and audience. 

How were the members of NWA (Ice Cube, Easy E, Dr Dre) involved in production or marketing? 

Dr Dre and Ice Cube were attached to the project from the beginning as producers, becoming heavily involved in it. Other former members (DJ Yella, MC Ren) were creative consultants.

Identify target audience.

Given the setting is a known neighbourhood in Los Angeles, the audience is mainstream. It is not an independent film due to the budget, which is somewhat high. This is outlined through easily-identified iconography like the shot of the money, in the pool that is linked with a lavish rap-artist lifestyle. This could also mean they're targeting the movie to fans of rap and more closely, NWA, as it is a biopic of the group, with shots of their performances throughout. The names of the artists, Ice Cube, Easy E and Dr Dre, are employed as a mark of quality and promise of pleasure as they're well-known artists. This also plays on the marketability of the film as the names can be used to get more people talking about the film, especially as the actual artists being depicted worked behind the scenes in it (seems more accurate).

They're appealing not only to young black males (protagonists=representation) but to a wider audience like middle aged white people with empathetic characters featured in the trailer, and an era that relates to them. Furthermore, due to the binary deposits of police vs the people, and poverty vs success it appeals to the average viewer as they relate to current issues.

How the trailer has targeted its audience:
Shots: close-ups of stars; music throughout; mis-en-scene often contains police-cars and flashy cars which links to the drama storyline; dark and light lightning; dialogue- "our art is supposed to represent our reality"- theme of success from poverty + manager's sympathetic line of "you cannot harass my clients for what they look like"- theme of rights + glimpse of shots of protests
Reviews/ expert criticism: none
Stars: graphics of the names of NWA members as a promise of pleasure as they're well-known, so their names would attract movie-goers.

Straight Outta Marketing Campaign

Summer 2015, Universal Pictures partnered with Beats by Dre, the headphone company's founding father and billionaire.

The purpose of the campaign was to promote the film by targeting a global audience, allowing people to change "Compton" to their own hometowns, claiming the message is to be proud of where you're from. #Straightoutta became an universal statement for everyone to "rep [their] city". In this way, social media was used to maximise audiences by raising awareness of the origin of the hashtag, the film. (website: StraightOuttaSomewhere.com)

It went viral, after several famous celebrities like Ringo Starr from The Beatles, Jennifer Lopez, the Kardashians joined in without receiving any endorsement. In less than 24h it became the no.1 trending topic on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, the first brand in history to achieve this. Other brands joined in, creating their memes e.g. Snickers; even the White House created its own meme with "Straight Outta Uranium" posted on @TheIranDeal. Overall, there were over 6 million downloads generated before the film's release. Due to the massive success, the campaign was picked up by media outlets, helping to build excitement around the film a week prior to its release. 

Commercial reception of the film 

It was hugely successful, financially-wise, as it made £201,634,991 worldwide, 79.9% domestically and 20.1% globally. The budget was $28-50 million,so  the film was commercially successful.

Media products linked to the film- e.g. second global trailer was attached to with theatrical screenings of Universal's Furious 7 + in Ice Cube's concert in Sydney, Australia, he gave concertgoers a sneak peek of at a trailer for Straight Outta Compton. 

There was a synergy with Dr Dre's and Ice Cube's film production companies, which aided to the success of the film, as they were really involved, so it had a huge impact on the depiction and authenticity.

The film was nominated to one Oscar, for "Original Screenplay" by The Academy.
Genre-wise it was successful as it became the highest grossing musical biopic of all time (since August 2015 until Bohemian Rhapsody in December 2018).  The themes represented (e.g. police violence) were ones that even the average person in this era can relate to. This relates to the audience, as many would feel represented, therefore they'd be interested; the global-target the production took made the film commercially successful as well.

Extension: BBFC's regulation

The production company wanted an age certificate of 12A-15 for the film as it is better for financial success due to a wider demographic being able to watch it.

The BBFC granted Straight Outta Compton an age certificate of 15 due to 'strong language, violence, sex, drug use)