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Media industry research

Doctor Strange
— Media ownership
Timeline Event

Incorporated Marvel Entertainment Group, included Marvel Comics and Marvel

Dec 2, 1986
Productions

1989 Owned by Ronald Perelman, bought from New World Entertainment Ltd

1998 ToyBiz and Marvel mergered to become Marvel Enterprises to save it from bankruptcy

Marvel Enterprises changed its name to Marvel Entertainment to reflect the

Sept 2005
corporation's expansion into financing its own movie slate

Aug 2009 Walt Disney announced their deal to accquire Marvel Ent. for $4 billion as its subsidiary

Franchise of Dr Strange

Dr Strange is a character appearing in American comic boooks published by Marvel Comics,

created by Stan Lee

Sam Raimi stepped up to direct “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”

Finance

Around $200m for cost of production ( w/o marketing ). including location & studio, salaries for cast
& crew ( about $20.8m for up to 400 people) and visual effects

Total advertising cost around $14.8 million

Theatres keep half of the proceeds from films, and studios retain the other hald

Box office gross: $955.8M - 4th highest grossing in 2022

Retained profit ~ $305.9M

Produces, distribute and exhibits

Production company: Marvel Studio

Director Sam Raimi, producer Kevin Feige, screenwriter Michael Waldron

Distrubute by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

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 Exhibit theatrical in 4534 cinemas worldwide

Home viewing: Stream on Disney+ in June 2022

Purchase available on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Apple TV, Google Play

Other companies involved

Several subsidiaries of Disney involved in the production prcess, along with other companies
specialized in special effects, technical, casting, etc.

65 different individual companies

Media Integration

Rivalry

DC Entertainment: When Marvel fired James Gun, director of ‘Guardian of the galaxy’, DC hired
him and let him control the DCU

However, DC movies has not been doing so well these past years

Film and television: Comcast ( Universal, DreamWorks ), Sony ( Columbia )

Streaming: Netflix, Amazon Prime

— Technology
Production

Works from Perception, a design and visual effects company

Perception uses Adobe Illustrator ( Graphic Editor ) and Adobe After Effects ( Digital Visual Effects
) to craft their ideas

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 Apart from Perception, they also worked with 10 other visual effects companies to help with
special effects, for instance ILM and Framestore

Equipment used

Cameras: Paravision Millenium DXL2 IMAX, Red Monstro IMAX

Lenses: Paravision Primo, Panavision Sphero 65

CGI/ VFX: Digital domain, VFX studio that help create multiple words

Marketing & Advertising

Early Jan 2022, Marvel announced that DS2 is a good entry point for those who aren’t fully-
immersed in the MCU yet

Release full trailer in mid February on Youtube

Social media used to create communication between producers and audiences to create
awareness ( Twitter, Youtube.. )

Tide X Doctor Strange: promote the film and Tide laundry detergent

Partnered with Shell US, XBOX,..

Distribution & Exhibition

— Theatrical

Filmed released in UK on May 5th 2022 and in US on May 6th 2022 in 4DX, RealD, 3D, IMAX..

— Home media

Streaming on Disney+

Released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD

The advantages in using technology

3D and 4K-8K technology, creates variety of choice for audience → increase revenue

3D effects coupied with 4K tech fit the genre of scifi, superhero, action..

Reduce overall cost of filmmaking: shoot, edit, preserve and store digital copies → cost less
compare to raw material films

Distribution worldwide faster using digital file

→ Reduce cost - Better quality - Faster Distribution

Threats

Entire movie was pirated in India

Available to download on torrent and other websites

Solutions of Marvel Studio are Anti Piracy System

— Synergy and Cross Media Convergence

Connected with other products

2021: SpiderMan: NWH, WandaVision and What If

Avengers: Infinity Wars ( 2018 ) and Endgame ( 2019 )

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 Doctor Strange ( 2016 )

Related products

Official merchandise

Figure models ( Funko Pop,.. )

Comics and Video games

→ Improve profitability other than streaming and help raise awareness

Promotion parters

The Sun & The Moon restaurant cafe in Japan revealed its partnership with Marvel Studios to
promote DS2 with a commemorative menu and a dedicated cafe area for the sequel

Tide x Doctor Strange 2 commercial

XBOX, Xiami, Jaeger-Le Coultre..

Star Power

Benedict Cumberbatch: Sherlock, The Imitation Game…

Elizabeth Olsen: Godzilla, Martha Marcy May Marlene…

Sam Raimi: Spider Man 123, Evil Dead..

Patrick Stewart: X-Men series, Charlie’s Angels

→ Appearance of star actor increases the probability of success by 15-19%, while popular director will
gain 10-15%

Marketing Campaign

First announced at 2019 Comic-con, as the casting introduced

Due to the pandemic, and the release of Spiderman: NWM, official promo trailers only started to
appear in Dec 2021.

Being the sequel to ‘Doctor Strange’, and was introduced as Spider Man’s after credit → created
the wave of fan base who has been waiting for it to be released

Other media promote the film

Various TV spots/commercials have been created ( eg. Super Bowl ) → reach a large audience
and increase awareness.

Printing: The 400th issue of the Empire magazine features Doctor Strange on its front cover

Social media pages ( Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.. ) would features related special filters, GIFs,
stickers, Live Events

Special chat shows and interviews features the cast and crew

Connevtions to Media Ownership

FOX, a company owns by Disney, broadcast the Super Bowl yearly → insteading paying for ad
fees, Disney can promote DS2 for free

The TV spots for Doctor Strange would be broadcast on Disney’s home channel, ABC.

Ads would also appear on NBA programming, which is broadcast on ESPN, a Disney-owned
channel.

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 — Global and International Audiences
How DS2 appeal international

Part of a famous and well-respected franchise

Inclusions of ethnic minorities: Xochitl Gomez - Mexican American, Benedict Wong - Chinese
British

Well known actors, actress and director Sam Raimi

Characters from other films and Marvel sequels

Trailer was aired on Super Bowl LVI before its debuting online

Marketing methods in countries

Countries Marketing methods

Trailers and promotion videos were shown at ComicCon and TimeSquares

USA
billboards
Marvel held a promo event at London, the main cast also came to promote the
UK
films and for interviews
Shell was giving out a special promo for customers with a chance of winning
Philippines & Indonesia
the film's merch or coupons
Mori Building Company its café and menu into an interactive photo op
Japan
experience
A virtual interview was held by MMTG, an entertaining Youtube channel, along
South Korea
with promotion videos posted on MarvelKorea channel
A virtual interview with the casts ( Benedict, Elizabeth Olsen, Rachel McAdams
Vietnam
and director ) was held by VTV, one of the biggest TV stations in the country

What can't they do to have global appeal ?

Learned from past experience, the film returned with proper casting of ethnic actors, and avoided
any cultural appropriation issues

This season has a more spooky and sinister atmosphere and include much more violence → the
intensity was considered to still bring a new side into the film while not affecting the age rating

Language barriers

Disney Character Voices International Inc. is responsible for providing translation and dubbing
services

DS2 released 19 dubbed versions and 90 subtitled versions. Disney also offered them on Disney+
as they began streaming on this platform

→ Overcome the language barriers they have as they exhibit globally and also raise accessibility for
audiences with reading/ hearing issues
International controversies

LGBTQ references: America Chavez, a lesbian character and a sequence of America’s two moms.
Due to the Middle East culture, Disney was asked to cut this certain scene and which they refused
to do so → film were banned in a few countries

China controversy: Featured a newspaper kiosk with Chinese characters for The Epoch Times.
The publication is well-known for its criticism of the Chinese Communist Party → DS2 faced

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 criticism and were not screened in China

They also faced some backlash about the intense violence for age rating of PG-13, copyright
issues with the big-eyed monster Gargantos, the criticized transition and Strange's inappropriate
hand gesture in Italy

Everything Everywhere All at Once

— Media ownership
Companies involved in production

A24 - announcing that it would finance and distribute the film in Jan 2020

AGBO - On Aug 2018, the Russos set to produce EEAAO

Ley Line Entertainment - production and financing company with projects spanning film,
television, stage and music

IAC Films - a brand of IAC Inc.

Year of the Rat

Famous people involved in production

Joe and Anthony Russo: For EEAAO, they fronted money and joined in to develop the script
before partnering with A24.

These two decided to be the film’s producer as they were interested in the Daniels’ eccentric style,
their ideas for EEAAO and wanted to help independent filmmarkers at the time

Son Lux: an experimental music band composed the music for the movie by

Main production company - A24

A24 is an American independent entertainment company that started as small distrubutor but now
specializes in production, founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges.

Division: A24 Television, A24 International, A24 All Access (AAA24), 2AM

An A24 film can be defined as 'odd'. They uniquely provide artistic diversity freedom, deliver weird
storylines with inventive cinematography that are not always suitable for "blockbuster" standards.

→ After the success of early A24 movies, low-budget indies now have featured some theatrical
release, despite not changing the standards for budget expectations
Development of idea

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert began researching the concept of the multiverse as early as
2010, after being exposed to the concept of modal realism in Sherman's March (1986)

In early drafts, they planned for the main character to be a professor and have
undiagnosed ADHD. 6 years ago, the Daniels started to sketch out ideas with an interdimensional
martial arts fantasy about a mother battling a series of challenges

The script received mixed reactions as they tried to find studios to produce the film: partly
considered by Amazon Studio with a suggestion to redo a draft with them, and got rejected by
Apple Studio as it was absolutely not for them.

Distributes and Exhibitors

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 Seperate distributors for each country ( eg. Diamond Films - Mexico & Brazil, Pathé Live - France )
and Lionsgate Home Entertainment for DVD and Blu-ray

Partnerships

Apple signed a multi-year agreement with A24 → producing multiple movies for Apple. The deal
suggests that Apple is going to be investing seriously in original films, along with TV shows.

Pushkin Industries CEO Weisberg and president Gladwell will executive produce projects
developed through the A24 pact. Under the new deal, A24 has the right of first refusal to develop
film and TV projects based on Pushkin’s intellectual property.

CBS’s Showtime Networks have agreed to an exclusive output deal that will see the studio’s
theatrical films air across the premium cable channel’s networks

— Technology
Technologies in prduction

— Camera: Arri Alexa Mini - compact, light, versatile → had unmatched color science and arguably
provided the best image quality
— Lens:

Atlas Orion - vintage

Todd-Ao anamorphic - classic, beautiful flares

Arri Zeiss Master Prime - fast, superior optical performance

Scorpiolens - close focus

Venus Optics Laowa Probe - super light, greate dof

Shot entirely on a Arri Alexa Mini camera, used both spherical and anamorphic lenses to
emphasize parralel universe

— Visual effects

March 2020 (lockdown): Cutting EEAAO on an old iMac using Adobe Premiere Pro

Use Adobe After Effect for sketching, reshaping footages, simple sound design and colourising
and for editing background

Cobination of 80s effect aesthetic with contemporary motion graphics

Saving money meeting budget

For a certain section of the film, the VFX artists have utilised an AI by the company RUNway →
efficiently removing backgrounds from images, saving time and cost of doing it by hand

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 In a scene featuring a chef being controlled, instead of using 3D rendering for the vegetables, the
VFX team drew it manually by adding hand drawn vegetables before animating them

Invest in props, puppetry → reduce the need for VFX

Spend money on big effects for big scenes and try to save and work smarter on small stuff (mix of
practical and VFX elements)

Technologies in marketing

Social medias: Official film posters, soundtracks, trailers on Youtube, promo videos

Interviews, news about the cast and crew

IGN announced EEAAO in their Fan Fest

Technologies in distribution and exhibition

Social media - Majority of teenagers and young people → trends, announcement or sponsorship
can gather attention and curiosity

Inside cinemas and DVD, Blu-ray

Online distributed on Showtime, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, fuboTV

Advantage of new technology for EEAAO

Adobe Premiere Pro - lower the cost

Youtube, Twitter... are free to use to advertising

Allow ratings on RottenTomatoes, IMDb to increase popularity

4K technology → provide 4x the normal pixels, improving the picture and screen quality

Distributed through digital files and also cinemas allow the increasing of audience worldwide.

Combat threates of new technology

Anti piracy system in cinemas

Online distribution use digital rights management (DRM) can help stop piracy

— Synergy and Cross Media convergence

Audience appeal

Genres: Action, Comedy, Drama, LGBTQ+

Mostly safe genres especially action and comedy, unique mixture of family drama and sci-fi action/
martial arts

Genre enables audience to differentiate between the styles and types of narrative

Marketing strategy

Mainly use social media: Youtube, Twwitter

Dec 2021, the movie was revealed as opening feature for that year’s SXSW. First trailer was
released a while later

Poster came out at the same time that places the movie’s title amidst a sea of art store googly-
eyes

Feb 2022, IGN announced it would be among the movies screening at Fan Fest

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 Next poster came out at the end to Feb to establish the multiverse concept

Star and Director power

— The Daniels

Turn Down For What MV, Swiss Army Man

Known for their werid (understatement) works, make them stand out from other directors

— Michelle Yeoh

Chinese star that has incredibly visible role in ethnic politics and gender dynamics

Oscar winning film Crouching Tiger, Crazy Rich Asian

— Ke Huy Quan

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Goonies

— Jamie Lee Curtis

The Halloween franchise, Knives Out

→ Recognizable faces but not necessarily stars

Marketing to niche audiences

Story not only tell stories about immigrants, heritage and make family proud, but also the univeral
struggles people deal with everyday, blending of genres to audiences of all ages

Everything drew viewers whitin Asian-American community, but can still see shades of their own
family, identity

Establish a multiverse setting while taking a heartfelt, hilarious approach

→ Gain wider audience and benefit from word-of-mouth

Also distributed in niche play arthouse to reach some specific audiences

Product placement and sponsorship

Google: When you google the cast, a pair of googly eyes will pop up on the logo

Letterboxd: When you marked EEAAO as watched, a googly will pop up instead of a regular
highlighted eye

Yeastie Boys: LA – based bagel company, released two bagel trucks to promote the movie

Merchandise: A24 sells merch on their official website ( eg. shirts, pet rock, hot dog fingers, googly
eyes )

Iconic props from the movie were also auctioned to raise money for the charity → increase the
popularity

— National and local audience

Appeal global audience

Director: Daniels - famous directors that got nominated and won many Oscar awards

Film was premiered by SXSW film festival on Mar 2022

Michelle Yeoh: Global fame from many movie, first found dame in HongKong film in 80s 90s

Local audience ( Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan )

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 Although the film isnt screened in China, Chinese audiences have applauded its creative
packaging of familiar and relatable topics

Themes that connect with Asian cultures, the disruption to family and a mother-daughter
relationship → “Millenial parental apology fantasy”

Exploring modern concepts such as acceptance of LGBTIQA+ characters

Hollywood rarely produced films with Asian protoganists and Asian culture at the forefront →
generates interest in these kind of countries.

Marketing to other regions

A24 released “odd” looking merchandises ( plastic eyes, pet rock,.. )

Annie’s Cookie

A24 mainly advertise in USA, Taiwan and Hongkong ( their main targets )

70% come from US $73,265,492 - 30% come from international $31,595,854

Language barriers

3 languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese

There’s subtitle when character speaks Chinese

The film used a lot of code-switching while the conversation. This makes the subtitle become more
important

Subtitle support in over 30 languages

Dub the movie in 7 top-grossing languages ( English, French, Spanish,.. )

How it might fail to appeal particular audiences and nationalities

Unclear concept →audience find difficulties to understand the context

Film about Asian American family/ culture

Independent movie it's may less attract the audience

Controversies

LGBTQ+ Reference → film not distributed in Middle East region

“Big Nose” - offensive Jewish stereotype → fans online took offense to the characterization

Critisms for inaccurate Taiwanese translation

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