Audience and Institution Essay
Question: “To what extent is digital distribution vital to the media area you have studied?”
With the expansion of film, the movie and film industry has evolved into an international competition to produce and distribute successful projects. Digital distribution is a new form of distribution to the film industry and is debated on whether or not it can benefit the industry more than harm it. The impact of digital distribution is extremely vital to the film industry as it benefits the producing studios through several different sectors of the digital market, however, some argue that digital distribution is negative towards the industry as it cuts out the theater’s revenue.
Digital distribution is vital to the film industry as it provides the alternative to continue to make profit months or even years following the release of a movie. For example, the finale to Marvel Studios, Avengers, was released in 2019 to the movie theaters, it is now available on Youtube for $3.99 to rent and $24.99 to buy. This demonstrates the clear use of digital distribution as a way to continue to expand the name of the movie as well as profits even after a film has been produced. In the Fast and the Furious case study, the movie raked in a total of 384 million dollars the opening week due to digital advertisements on Youtube which further indicates the potential of making money through the use of digital distribution. Digital distribution does not classify just the actual films, it can also be the digital distribution of advertisements or commercials. In the Black Panther case study, main character King T'challa actor Chadwick Boseman attended a marvel gaming event in order to boost the publicity of the movie that would come out a few months later by using the digital distribution of trailers in between breaks of the video game. In a cross media ownership of the movie Black Panther, the car brand Lexus presented a deal in which a new car, the Lexus 2018 LS 500, would be used in the film through a press conference as well as commercial presented on live TV during the NBA Finals. I personally saw this ad and it did entice me to watch the movie more considering it was on one of the most broadcasted sporting events in the world. However, there are some negatives of using digital digital distribution as there is the possibility of downloads of the movie for no charge at all through websites with links or other forms of piracy. Either way, there is no amount of large scale piracy that would be able to outweigh the constant influx of money through digital distribution.
The use of digital distribution in the film industry is extremely important as it continues to benefit the producing company as time goes on. Ever since the concentration of media ownership, the remaining large companies continue to use digital distribution on their own platforms or through joint platforms. For example, from the Jurassic Park case study, Jurassic Park was able to make the third largest gross movie profit of all time through its producing studio, Universal Pictures, digital distribution. The Jurassic Park movies were blockbuster hits and with the newer ones that were released, Universal used a live website that would replicate the itinerary of what a day on the island of the dinosaurs would be. However, the best usage of digital distribution would be through streaming apps and programs, especially with the recent coronavirus outbreak. Since all theaters are closed, film production has stopped and given people the chance to watch films they may have been too busy to miss, that’s at least how it was for me. Personally, I found that through streaming sites such as Netflix, Disney +, Hulu and Amazon TV; extremely popular movies were still available to be watched. For Disney, they own their own streaming site where all of their owned movies can be found, the case of netflix is different yet similar in a sense. Netflix is known for its movie and show streaming, however, during the outbreak Netflix has been releasing more and more original films on its own streaming service which replicates what Disney is doing. This is a great move as movie sales and streaming sales have risen since society has been forced to shut down and through digital distribution, the production companies are still able to make some money during the shutdown. The downside to digital distribution is the potential to eliminate the foundations of movie watching, the theaters. For example, in the article, “How Tech Has Shaped Film Making,” author Charles Matthau stated, “little is being done by some companies who are willing to distribute online films.” This statement was met with retaliation by the theater companies as theater companies threaten to not show certain films that were considered for digital distribution. If movies began going from production to digital/online distribution, theaters would go out of business as they would no longer be needed to buy the films from the production companies and sell tickets, food, and drinks in their own institution.
The usage of digital distribution is more beneficial to the film industry rather than harmful. Although some may argue it will affect theaters and other showrooms, digital distribution is still able to produce more profit as well as attention towards the production companies. The only way to know what will develop from digital distribution is to… well… sit back and enjoy the show.
