British Vs. American Film Promotion

British Film Production

Warp Films  - Submarine Film Promotion.

Warp Films is a British Film company, however despite making decent films, like many other British film companies their films never seem to make a huge impact on the box office. This is due to many reasons, many of which include; Profit. Profit made in the box office is not enough to go back into the film companies  other films, therefore their films can't have a huge budget like many of the American Film companies can. So they can't afford: Famous Celebrities to attract fans of the star, special effects, big promotion campaigns.

Submarine's promotion involves many 'below the line' publicity and marketing eg:

This film review is classed as 'below the line' advertising because it reviews little or no money for the review to be written. However this can also have a negative effect on the film if a review is negative and discourages the audience to go.

'Above the line' publicity would include things like the trailer:

And posters like:

These 'above the line' promotion techniques require a budget and are usually part of a project. Also, they can have spin-offs such as McDonald's Happy Meal Toys if the film is aimed at a younger people or children.

American Film Promotion

Warner Bros. Pictures - Dark Knight Rises Film Promotion

Warner Bros. Pictures is a famous Film Distributor. They are one of the most well known american film companies in the world and have been involved in distributing hundreds of films since their foundation in 1903, by the four Warner brothers. In comparison to British Film companies like Warp, Warner Bros. and many other American film distributors have a huge impact on the box office, making many successful films due to a number of reasons; The huge profit made from films can be put back into the film company to use on future films, they can afford to use celebrities to attract audiences and they can afford a bigger budget on 'above the line' advertising.

Dark Knight Rises was a hugely Popular film that was distributed by Warner Bros. Therefore there was alot of 'above the line' marketing happening because of the larger budget, in comparison to Submarine by Warp. For example, the official trailer:

As well as many teasers:

There was also a number of posters:

Also there that would be classed as 'above the line' marketing such as television shows about the films, eg: Behind the scenes of the Dark Knight Rises, and Red carpet events.

'Below the line' includes many things such as reviews like this or this. (The second being a slightly more negative review.) However, unfortunately in a very upsetting way The dark Knight Rises has found publicity from a freak tragedy that happened in America.

In a Midnight showing of the film in Aurora,Colorado James Holmes walked in camouflage and shot at the audience, hitting seventy people. Ten died on the scene and two in hospital. Others were seriously injured. After being arrested by the police it became known that he had died his hair red and called himself "the joker". The negative publicity from this tragic incident caused the film to be overshadowed, Warner Bros. decided to cancel three gala premiers , scale down the marketing campaign in Finland and not release the box office numbers until July 23. They also donated a "substantial" amount to Colorado's Community Fund to provide support for victims.