Celador

Celador FilmsJarad Tansley - Cambridge Technicals Media

Unit 1 - LO1 Part 1

Ownership

• Celador Films is owned by a larger company, Celador Entertainment, who also owns a TV and theatre division across the UK as well as smaller radio companies focusing on the South and South West areas of England.

• While the larger, main company was founded in 1983, the film division was founded in 1999.

Operating Model• As Celador Films is owned by Celador, who has other media-dedicated companies and

receives profit from such, they are a subsidiary of Celador and can recieve funding from them.

• Celador Films does not create new content at a fast pace, nor do they use high-profile actors. Movie projects are usually staffed by people who work a freelance career in film. They may reinvest profits from earlier productions into newer productions, as long as there are profits left to invest.

• They’re known to partner with other small film companies around the world, but mainly in the UK, notably with Film4. This also allows full funding sometimes, which was the case with Film4 and BBC Films’ collaborations.

• Celador may also sell licenses for their content to be distributed to other places, countries, etc., commonly with Fox Searchlight or Pathé.

• As well as The Descent, they are also responsible for the widely popular BAFTA and Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, created between them and Film4 Productions, with British distribution helped by Pathé. The movie involved around a contestant of the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (a TV show created by Celador) winning all of the available cash in the game and being accused of cheating. This movie was distributed outside of the UK by Fox Searchlight and Warner Bros. in America and Eros Entertainment in India.

• The Descent was given a sequel in 2009. While it received mixed reviews and did not fare as well as its predecessor, its DVD release fared better, making 7 million dollars in the US.

• Other movies by Celador include “Dirty Pretty Things” with BBC Films and distributed by Buena Vista International (now Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures), “Separate Lies” (dist. by Fox Searchlight) and “The Scouting Book for Boys” with Film4 and Screen East.

Products

Market Position and Competitors• Celador’s productions are in competition for

cinema releases with every other company across the world. Sometimes you may see more films produced by Celador in the UK (where the company is from) than any other country.

• They are in competition with other independent studios like DNA Films (a highly successful British production studio well known for 28 Days Later) and the larger Hollywood companies like Sony Pictures Entertainment.

• Usually, they release movies once or twice a year, in contrast to Film4, where they may produce up to 12 films a year.

• Celador has little benefit of having screen time on TV, however if they collaborate with another company (e.g. BBC Films or Film4) they will be distributed to their channels, should the other production company’s “parent” owns a TV channel.

• Their competitors are sometimes collaborators, for instance they had collaborated with Film4, a potential competitor, to make The Scouting Book for Boys and Slumdog Millionaire