Producers and

Audiences

By Drew

Goldsmith, KWE

The aim of this presentation is to explore

some of the factors which the producers and

distributors would have decided upon before

release.

The box-office figures are the result of many

amalgamated factors such as advertisement,

fan base exploitation, merchandising, etc.

Precious is a movie-

spinoff of the book

‘Push’ written by

Sapphire.

The book is famous for

being controversial for

the time it was written

because the subject

matter of the book

hadn't truly been

explored in such depth

and clarity.

Awards

Three production companies work in alliance

to produce this film:

Lionsgate, Lee Daniels Entertainment and

Smokewood Entertainment Group.

Icon Film Distribution distributed the film for

all media in the UK (2009).

Lionsgate Entertainment is a Canadian-American

entertainment company. The company was formed

in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 3, 1997, and is

headquartered in Santa Monica, California. As of

November 2013, it is the most commercially successful

mini major film and television distribution company in

North America and the seventh most profitable movie

studio

Lee Daniels is an Academy Award® nominated

filmmaker whose work is trademarked by

authenticity and candour, providing audiences with

a unique and refreshing experience and character

insight with each of his projects. Daniels was the

first African American to be nominated for

a Director's Guild of

America Award for

"Outstanding

Directorial

Achievement in

Feature Film" on

behalf of PRECIOUS.

Formed in 1999, Icon Film Distribution is one of the

UK’s leading independent film distributors generating

in excess of £150m at the box office with a library

of over 200 titles

ranging from

mainstream hits such as

Paranormal Activity, 30

Days of Night,

Transporter 3 and What

Woman Want to

specialist break-out

titles.

On the weekend of release Precious, shown

in 694 cinema, raised $13,161,600

(£8,395,135) which fell behind Disney’s A

Christmas Carol, released the same week,

that had a weekend release gross of

$30,051,075(£19,157,285).

The film then went on to have an overall

gross of $47,536,959 (£30,375,053). Precious

reached 90 in the opening box-office chart

for 2009.

It's important to note a film's target audience

– middle-aged to elderly black people in

specific but more vaguely for 15-40 year old

of all ethnic origins.

Aimed for those who have read the book.

During this time there wasn’t any major

holidays occurring in the US so that could be

the reason why the film did as well as it did

(General Audience).

The target audience for the film typically

live in these types of areas so that could be

the reason why people from the areas

watched the film.

They can relate to the story and the ideas of

the plot as they have experience life in the

areas set in the film.

The most popular cinema screenings of

‘Precious’ weren’t the inner city multiplexes’

screenings but the inner city neighbourhood

‘intimate’ screenings.

This links to the place in which the film is

set; in the ghetto.

Although performing pretty well in the

United State, the same can’t be said for

Europe and other international audiences.

This could be because the subject matter

doesn’t resonate within foreign audiences

due to cultural difference and general film

interest.

Also, the book hadn’t been translated in

multiple languages so there wasn’t any fan-

base prior to the release in foreign countries.

The role of the marketing department:

Create visibility among new audiences

Generate a buzz (Generate talk about the

film)

Poster Design

Trailer Production

Use social media (Twitter, Facebook and

Instagram) to help generate the required

social buzz effectively, through movie pages,

fake character pages, etc.)

The film’s print campaign features some of the

most visually compelling poster art in recent

memory. Despite a supporting role by Mariah

Carey, Lionsgate has forsaken the typical ‘big

face’ approach of trading on a star’s head shot

to sell a movie. Instead, the posters use bold

colour and sophisticated graphics to create an

evocative tone.

Sarowitz, poster art professor, actually favours

the campaign’s other poster — a large-scale

painting of “Precious” with the face muted out

(below, right). “The film is about self-worth

and identity, and the blurriness reinforces that.

On Demand (AT&T, Bresnan, Charter On

Demand, Comcast, COX, DirecTV Cinema,

Dish Network, Mediacom, Cablevision, Time

Warner Cable and Verizon)

Pay-Per-View (DirecTV Cinema and Dish

Network)

Digital Download (Amazon Video on Demand,

Blockbuster, Cinemanow, LionsgateShop and

iTunes)

Game Console (PSN and Xbox Live Store)

Ready to stream on all platforms!

On May 24th 2010, Precious was released on

both DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK by Icon Film

Distribution. Both versions of the film have a

numerous amount of special features

featured on the discs such as audio

commentary with director Lee Daniels, a

precious ensemble featurette, actors’

audition tapes, a conversation

with Sapphire and Director Lee Daniels,

Deleted Scenes and many more.

The film obviously was met with both good and

bad reviews, like most films, but this films

success is often compared to films such as ‘For

Colored Girls’ and ‘The Color Purple’, both

majorly successful films depicting similar

issues as ‘Precious’.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jan

/31/precious-review-philip-french

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/movie

s/06precious.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_%28sou

ndtrack%29

A OST (Official Sound Track) was released as

the same time as the film was released to

boost sales of the film as many people who

bought the album may have been encouraged

to buy the film or vice versa.

Interviews (Magazines) and Podcasts:

Telegraph and Interview Magazine

Oprah Winfrey continued to promote the film after its release on more than one

occasion. She was seen promoting the film at festivals and even on her own TV

show!

T-Shirts similar to the ones worn in

the film were created to be sold

along the film as merchandise.

A movie tie-in version of the book

Was created where only the cover was

changed. The movie tie-in book pushed up

sales by 10%!