RESEARCH: DISTRIBUTION COLLAGE

Summary:

I chose the film Bohemian Rhapsody which is a musical drama, based on the lives of the members of the band Queen and the struggle Freddy Mercury had with fame, drugs and his sexuality. It came out on the 24th of October in 2018 and was directed by Brian Singer. We are shown the events which led to the extreme success of Queen and eventually the unfortunate death of Freddy as he discovered that he had AIDS.

This film was extremely successful, making $903.7 million in box office. This was due to the intrigue people had of the group Queen prior to the film but also due to 20^th Century Fox’s methods of distribution which captured peoples’ attention.

Trailer:

The main trailer released by 20^th Century Fox. It begins with the combination of the songs ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ which are famous songs of the band Queen. As it plays, multiple images are shown of the knocking on a caravan door and who we assume to be Freddy Mercury sitting up followed by a close up shot of a guitar. The words ‘THE ONLY THING’ are shown on the screen. Multiple images of musical instruments and sets follow this with a point-of-view shot eventually revealing the stage looking out onto thousands of fans. Other snippets of the film follow which show friendship, drama and sadness. Suspense and intrigue is built by these small clips as they touch on iconic moments of the band’s musical history which suggests the nostalgic element to the film which are important for Queen’s fan base.

Website:

The team have also created a website for the film which can be found by searching in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. When you open the website it takes you to a page with a purple and yellow gradient poster with ‘Freddy Mercury’ on stage with a microphone. This is a very captivating and bold image which possibly captures the attention of the person viewing the website. The simple layout reveals two buttons which lead you to ‘buy tickets’ and the ‘trailer’ button takes you to the YouTube trailer. If you scroll down it also gives some helpful information including a brief summary of the film and its genre. It includes the social medias for the film and a few credits for the director and producers.

Social Media:

On social media, an Instagram page was set up called ‘bohemianrhapsodymovie’. It has gained 737,000 followers over the last 2 years. This expands the target audience for the film as teens, who would not have been around at the time of Queen, would be introduced to the film as it would pop up on their Twitter or Instagram feed. It posted snippets of the film up to the release date which helped people to track the film and view small parts of it. The social media following is also used to show the success of the film; including the reviews which are poster on Twitter to publicise the success. The cast members also used their platforms to entice their fan bases by posting teasers of the film along with links to the trailer.

CD:

After the film was released, a CD for the soundtrack of the film was released digitally and in a hardcopy CD. This continued the revenue of the film as these iconic songs were complied, once again, onto a CD with the biggest hits included. This might have enticed a younger audience to purchase it on Spotify or on Apple Music, rather than in the form of a CD. Producing both of these includes a wider range of ages as it is producing a method for everyone to listen to the music. 

Posters:

Multiple posters were produced for the purpose of advertising the film. They could be seen at bus stops, outside cinemas and online for purchase. Utilising the actual events of Queen, many of the posters featured the actor Rami Malek recreating iconic moments of Freddy Mercury in the band Queen. This is effective in highlighting the memorable events of Queen and showing the audience of Queen’s time that these will be included. This nostalgic element to the posters (and film in general) intrigues the, already huge, fan base which was pent up throughout the years of Queen.