Media Evaluation: Question 3

New Line Cinema Question 3 – What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Distribution companies The film distribution company is in charge of the marketing and exhibition of a product.

A distributor can be in charge of: setting the release date, setting the way in which the

film will be exhibited etc. It was important when making my film to choose a distribution company that what my film would fit into. I had to look at the

general target audience for each distribution company and the films that have been distributed by them and after doing research I decided that New Line

Cinema would distribute my film.

New Line Cinema New Line Cinema was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as a film distribution company and later

became an independent film studio.The company merged with Time Warner in 1996 and was then merged again to the large conglomerate

Warner Bros. Entertainment in 2008.New Line Cinema now produces critically acclaimed films that are popular in both niche and mainstream audiences which attracted my interest when doing

research as I aimed my target audience to be a fairly niche audience due to my thriller genre and the company operated in theatrical distribution,

marketing and home video as well.

New Line Cinema Portfolio

New Line Cinemas highest grossing and most popular products have been The Lord of the Rings (2001 – 2003) film trilogy a rounded combined total gross of $1 billion dollars. The fantasy trilogy's spin off The Hobbit (2012 – 2014) makes the next popular product with a rounded total gross of $800 million.

Another popular genre of films in New Line Cinema is the comedy genre with films such as Wedding Crashers (2005), Horrible Bosses (2011), Sex and the city (2008) and Dumb and Dumber (1994)

Horror / Thriller Genre When researching New Line Cinema I found out that it was one of the

few film distribution companies still actively and regularly distributing films in the thriller and horror genre and for my film, which is of the

thriller genre, the fact that New Line Cinema was successfully producing films of this genre gave me the confidence as my film will

have similar codes and conventions to these films targeted and a specific and similar audience to my film ‘Derailed’.

Films distributed by New Line Cinema that have been particularly successful or famous are A Nightmare on Elm Street (1985), The

Conjuring (2013) which grossed a total of $318 million in the box office, and Final Destination (2000) which grossed a total of $112.9 million. I expect these films to have similar/the same target audience of a wide age of people but predominantly male and working to upper middle class as these films are stereotypically more appealing to men and

require attention when watching as there is usually a puzzle to work out in the film.

The success of these films shows to me that New Line Cinema is a consistent and reliable distribution company to distribute my film

especially in the thriller genre.

Why New Line Cinema?For my film ‘Derailed’ I felt that it was more important to choose a distribution company that has more successful

films in one or two genres, like New Line Cinema with horror and thriller films, rather than many successful

films in many genres and this is because these companies will have more experience in my genre of film to distribute it allowing the film to have as much

success as possible. Choosing New Line Cinema means that my film would also be automatically be distributed

to a fan base of people that have previously enjoyed films produced by them. The fact that New Line Cinema

are apart of the massive conglomerate Warner Bros. Entertainment means that there is a potential for a

higher distribution/marketing budget for the film consolidating the success of the product. This is why I have chosen New Line Cinema to be the distribution

company for my film.