Distribution and Promotion of Hot Fuzz
Distribution of Hot Fuzz
The primary distribution of Hot Fuzz would be the cinemas, in which it is also called as a movie theatre in some countries. It is a venue, usually a building that contains an auditorium for viewing movies (films) for entertainment. In order to see the films featuring in the cinemas, viewers purchase a ticket to view the film they’re seeing, although not all cinemas have this feature as others may give views a membership fee.
The secondary distribution of Hot Fuzz are Blu-Rays and DVDs. DVDs can be purchased in stores and can be viewed anytime, which is unlike cinemas where they keep the film for a limited time before they replace it with a new one. Blu-Ray discs are different from DVDs—while they look exactly the same as DVDs in size and in shape, Blu-Ray discs has about 5-6 times the visual information and the sound is often uncompressed, meaning that the film will have better sound on Blu-Rays than they do on DVDs. Hot Fuzz and other movies can also be found on legitimate online streaming, for example, Netflix.
Finally, the third distribution of Hot Fuzz is piracy and illegal activity. This is still happening even now as there haven’t been a legal action of copying the films. The illegal way would be burning them into empty DVDs and sell them off to people. Another would illegitimate online streaming, where websites, such as Putlocker, display all movies for free. This is illegal, as you have to pay for the movies to watch them. (It can be via Netflix, iTunes, etc.) Instead of doing that, they are making it free for everyone to watch.
Hot Fuzz was written in 2006 and was released in cinemas in 2007. The newest movie Spectre has been filming from the 6th of December 2014 until the 5th of July 2015. It is a PG-13 rated movie released recently in 2015, in just 148 minutes and have a budget of estimated $245,000,000 having 132 screens in Netherlands on the 1st of November 2015, and 292 screens in the Philippines on the 8th of November 2015 during the opening weekend, making a total of 424 screens.
Compared to Spectre, Hot Fuzz is an R-rated film in the United States and a 15 film in the UK, having 121 minutes. Its budget is very small compared to Spectre, having an estimated amount of £8,000,000, but the amount of screens they have during the opening weekend is not. Hot Fuzz has made 825 screens in the USA from 22 April 2007, 427 screens in UK on 18 February 2007, 1 screen in Estonia on 13 May 2007, 49 screens in Netherlands on 8 April 2007 and 42 screens in New Zealand on 18 March 2007. In total of the opening weekend, it gave them a huge amount of 1,344 screens.
Opening Weekend of Spectre
€3,377,404 (Netherlands) (1 November 2015) (132 Screens)
PHP 65,402,153 (Philippines) (8 November 2015) (292 Screens)
$879,938 (Portugal) (28 November 2015) (80 Screens)
Opening Weekend of Hot Fuzz
$5,848,464 (USA) (22 April 2007) (825 Screens)
£5,918,149 (UK) (18 February 2007) (427 Screens)
$8,080 (Estonia) (13 May 2007) (1 Screen)
€137,897 (Netherlands) (8 April 2007) (49 Screens)
NZD 275,952 (New Zealand) (18 March 2007) (42 Screens)
There is no possible way of watching a legitimate copy without purchasing online or in the stores. Other ways have obtaining a less legitimate copy would be recording the movie, either from the TV or from YouTube on which they mostly have movies uploaded, and burn them into an empty DVD so that they are able to watch it and keep at home. Of course, it is illegal and if they are caught, they may get a fine for illegally copying the movie and claiming it as their own.
Advertising of Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz is an action satirical thriller with gory violence and black humour. For more detail on this product, please see P2/MI/D1.
Their prices vary when it comes to cinemas, DVDs and online streaming websites.
For cinema and ticket prices, it is a bit harder nowadays because it was made from 2007. Cinemas can only feature the newest movies for a limited amount of time, but there is an Open-Air Cinema that has already passed from 2nd October, which is the date for Hot Fuzz at 7:30pm. The price for one ticket to either Hot Fuzz or Shaun the Sheep with The Luna Cinema at Tyntesfield was £13.50. There is no child price or adult price—it is just one ticket for everything.
For DVDs and Blu-ray, it’s different from the cinema ticket prices. Blu-rays are similar to DVDs, however it is more capable of storing high-definition video resolution (1080p) than the DVD (carrying up to only 480p). For DVDs, Hot Fuzz has a 2 Disc Special Edition on Amazon Prime in stock for £2.64. For Blu-rays, it is available for £5.00, having 10 left in stock at the moment (although it has informed us that there’s more on the way) on Amazon Prime.
Hot Fuzz can be sold on various online streaming websites, such as Netflix, LOVEFiLM and iTunes. On LOVEFiLM, which is linked with Amazon, it can be viewable and be watched instantly from £0.99 with Amazon Instant Video. From there, it can be rented in HD (high-definition) or SD (standard definition) for £0.99. However, if the customer wishes to buy it from Amazon Instant Video, then the prices are different from HD and SD. For HD, it costs £7.99 and for SD, it costs £6.99 – this is only a £1 difference between the two prices.
On Netflix, it can be watched if the customer has paid £7.99 a month in order to rent DVDs and watch them. This is same for Hot Fuzz—it can be rented, however, unlike LOVEFiLM, it can’t be bought. For iTunes, it can be bought but can’t be rented. Its price is the same as Netflix’s, £7.99.
There haven’t been any prices for piracy, as I’ve tried to search them up. In my opinion, I feel they have copied the movie illegally and have sold them off for free, as they may not have any prices for illegal copies of Hot Fuzz.
There are many places people can go to see the product, Hot Fuzz, its locations explained above. A common thing to see this product is going to the cinema and purchasing a ticket for it. How they make the movie known is via trailers, where they put up clips (mostly the key scenes) of the movies as a sneak peek on what the movie is all about. Once this is done, this can either be a hit or miss on the situation—people may be interested in the trailer and wishes to see the full movie to know what happens next. On the other hand, people may not be interested in the plot nor the scenes of the movie that is happening in the trailer and may disregard it.
Another way of seeing the film Hot Fuzz can be in stores that supports DVDs, such as a music/game store or in a local store that is large enough that has an entertainment and books aisle (for example, here in the UK, we have Tesco and Argos). Hot Fuzz can be sold in DVDs and Blu-rays and you are given the option to either rent it for a few days before returning them for others to watch or buy it to make it yours.
If they cannot afford to go out and purchase a DVD as they may feel that they have wasted their money if the film is not good for them, they can rent the film via online streaming websites such as Netflix and iTunes. From there, they will be able to buy as well as rent the film online at a reasonable price so that they are able to watch them at home and enjoy the film without having to go to the cinemas (although some may disagree and say that going to the cinemas gives them a better experience of the film).
As for piracy, it is all over the Internet and can be found by searching “(Film here) … watch online”. Although it is illegal, it is not harmful to use as people could be using it because they’re unable to purchase or rent a film. One example of using this is that a friend could have having her friends over for a sleepover and plans to watch a movie together on the computer. However, other people may disagree and feel that it is unfair to watch the movies for free as the producers have spent a long time creating them, as well as spending a lot of money to make it. By making it free, this can greatly upset the producers who have made their effort in making the film, only to see them get sold off onto illegimate online streaming websites so that they can be seen for free.
The distribution of this film varies to different audience—Hot Fuzz has audience that is mostly of teenage boys who has interest in violence and action, but regardless there have been other people who watch the film, so not all of the people in the audience are men.
Promotion of Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz has promoted itself through movie posters that can be posted up anywhere—outside the cinemas, on the billboards or, if they are in the United Kingdom, often there would be movie posters on the buses, which makes it a lot more useful in promoting the upcoming film to the general public who could be interested in the film even by just taking a small glimpse at it. By doing this, it can catch the attention of the people who wishes to watch the film and because they have done that type of promotion, I think (in my opinion) it is possible to say that it has been successful in promoting Hot Fuzz.
On the Working Title Films website, they have featured a lot of films, including Hot Fuzz. Working Title has been very successful in promoting Hot Fuzz between 2007-2008, from showing behind the scenes, photographs of the films and giving updates on the cast and their awards. They have even promoted them via trailers, in which they have uploaded both on YouTube and on the Working Title website. It has given information on the film as well, as such as giving out its synopsis as well as displaying the cast of the film and the crew who created and edited the film.
Trailer
Working Title has shown three trailers of Hot Fuzz—an international trailer and two teaser trailers. The international trailer has gotten 1,753,385 views, the first teaser trailer having 12,587 views and the second teaser trailer having 42,552 views. They gained a lot of positive responses on the trailer and the majority of them enjoyed the movie after watching the highlights of the film.
Has it been a financial success? Got good reviews? Good feedback and comment on the poster/trailer?
On Rotten Tomatoes, it gained 91%, 4.5/5 from The Telegraph and 81% from the Metacritic. With these high ratings on the 2007 film, this can only mean that the film was an absolute success and the majority of the critics loved it. Olly Richards from the Empire has said, “Even without the inspired idea of Shaun Of The Dead, it’s an easy match for laughs, and marks Nick Frost as a vital part of this team’s appeal. The boys (now in blue) have done it again”.