Wild Child v '71: Institutional Context

WILD CHILD
Worldwide Box Office: $22m
Production Budget: $20m
Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Working Title, StudioCanal, Relativity Media
Distributors: Universal Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, Universal Pictures International
MPAA Film Rating: PG-13
BBFC Film Rating: 12
Release Date: August 15, 2008
Director: Nick Moore
Genre: Romcom
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomatometer: 42%
Audience Score: 62%

OWNERSHIP
Universal Pictures is one of the big six conglomerates and distributes Working Title's films. Working Title is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal which is a vertically integrated conglomerate with for example Working Title, who is one of their production subsidiaries. Universal itself is a distributor while NBC offers exhibition. This has a huge impact on budgets. Also, there is guaranteed distribution for Working Title because Universal owns StudioCanal and Focus Features. Working Title work with StudioCanal repetitively in all their films. 

BUDGETS 
Green Zone - $100m (tentpole film)
This is an action, drama, thriller film that had a lot higher budget than what Working Title would normally have.  
Wild Child - $20m 
This is a typical Working Title budget. 
Notting Hill - $43m 
This is another typical Working Title budget, the same genre as Wild Child (romcom) with a similar budget. 
Love Actually - $40m
Since Working Title is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, this allows Working Title to produce films with a budget of up to $50m or more. 

3-Part Film Cycle:
Production - Working Title, Universal Pictures 
Distribution - Universal Studios
Exhibition - NBC

The Gant Rule: 
Box office analyst Charles Gant (who has a weekly Guardian column, but whose writing appears in many other publications worldwide) has long argued that a typical transatlantic hit (a success in both the UK and US markets) will make ten times as much in the US as in the UK. It is very unusual for a british film company to be in the top of the box office list. 

Casting
Emma Roberts
Alex Pettyfer
Juno Temple
Kimberley Nixon
Natasha Richardson

There were no A-list stars in Wild Child, there were TV stars and some stars such as Emma Roberts, Alex Pettyfer and Natasha Richardson and Juno Temple in this film.  

Emma Roberts is the main protagonist in Wild Child, she is an american star which helps to attract an american and international audience because american stars market box office films. She has been in:

• Nerve - with Dave Franco (star- brother of James Franco)
• Hotel for Dogs - with TV stars.
• We're The Millers - with Jennifer Anniston (TV star from 'Friends' and Jason Sudeikis- comedian star)

Juno Temple has been in the Working Title film:

• Atonement - with Keira Knightley (who has been in another Working Title Film- Love Actually)
• St Trinians

Alex Pettyfer has been in films such as: 

• I Am Number Four
• In Time - with Justin Timberlake (A list star) and Amanda Seyfried. 

Natasha Richardson has appeared in:

• The Parent Trap - with Lindsay Lohan (A list star)

'71
Worldwide Box Office: $3.2m
Production Budget: $8.1m
Production Companies: Warp Films, Crab Apple Films
Distributors: StudioCanal
Funders: Film4, British Film Institute (BFI), Creative Scotland, Screen Yorkshire
MFAA Film Rating: PG-13
BBFC Film Rating: 15
Release Date: October 10, 2014
Director: Yann Demange
Genre: Social Realism, War, Thriller, Action
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomatometer: 96%
Audience Score: 81%

3-Part Film Cycle:
Production - Warp Films
Distribution - StudioCanal
Exhibition - Film4

Casting
Jack O'Connell
Richard Dormer
Sean Harris
Sam Reid

There are no A-list stars in this film at all, mainly just TV stars such as Jack O'Connell who has been in British TV series, 'Skins', and another Warp social realism film called 'This Is England'. Since '71 has no stars, this film was very hard to market. All Warp's films are hard to market because there are usually no stars. 

BUDGETS
Warp is an indie film company. Warp Films' budgets are extremely lower than Working Title's budgets. Warp also owns Warp X and Warp Records which gives Warp cross media ownership.

For Those In Peril - £2k 

This is an extremely low budget, for Warp this is somewhat usual, but for Working Title definitely not. 

This Is England - $1.5m

Compared to For Those In Peril, this is a high budget for Warp. The '71 budget is also very high for Warp.

71' - £8.1m

This is an action, thriller, social realism film and this is unusual genre for Warp Films. Warp is paid by funding agencies such as BFI, Creative Scotland, Screen Yorkshire and Film4 because they pay early to Warp for limited TV rights. For '71, because of the action genre, the budget was a lot higher than what Warp's budgets usually are.