Film Industry: Blinded By The Light case study

 Funding and industry contexts

1) What was the budget for Blinded By The Light and which companies contributed to the production budget?

The  budget was $15M. Blinded By The Light was picked up by New Line Cinema at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival after a bidding war with various other major film distributors. The film had been well received by audiences at the film festival

2) Research the Bend It Networks website. What other films and projects has the company been involved with?

they have been involved with the movie "angus,thogs and perfect snogging","Bend it like beckham", "wonderful afterlife","bride and predjudice" e.g

3) Research Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema on the Warners website here. Summarise the history of New Line Cinema in a short paragraph.

Warner Bros. Pictures is a part of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, which also includes New Line Cinema and Warner Animation Group. it was founded in 1967. Building on more than 50 years of innovation and creativity, New Line Cinema continues its long and successful history of producing critically acclaimed hit films that resonate with both mainstream and niche audiences around the world. New Line’s current production model includes films produced for theatrical release as well as titles made specifically for the HBO Max streaming platform. New Line is a unit of Warner Bros. Pictures Group.

4) Read this Variety interview with director Gurinder Chadha explaining how the project came about - including budget details. How did she manage to get the film made? 

 Chadha is a huge Springsteen fan, who pursued her dream of making a movie about The Boss’ music based on the true-life memoir of co-writer (and fellow diehard) Sarfraz Manzoor. It took almost a decade from Chadha’s chance meeting with Springsteen, who gave his thumbs-up to the book after a 2010 U.K. Now it promises to be the veteran director’s biggest crossover hit since “Bend It Like Beckham,” which introduced Keira Knightley to the screen.

5) What attracted Gurinder Chadha to the project?

Gurinder Chadha knows first hand what it feels like to be an outsider. Born in Kenya when the country was a British colony, she grew up part of the Indian/Asian diaspora who made their way from East Africa to London. For that reason, the 59-year-old’s movies has always dealt with the immigrant experience, and her latest is no different, telling the story of a Muslim Pakistani teenager growing up in Thatcher’s England whose narrowly structured life is saved when he’s turned on to the music of Bruce Springspeen during the late ‘80s National Front/dole queue era. It serves as a poignant parallel to the xenophobia of today.

Production and distribution

Read this Deadline feature on the distribution deal for Blinded By The Light and answer the following questions: 

1) Which company won the distribution rights after the all-night auction and for how much?

 all-night deal auction at the Sundance Film Festival, New Line and Warner Bros are acquiring for $15 million for worldwide rights, minus a a few territories, the Gurinder Chada-directed Blinded By the Light.

2) Which other companies were rumoured to be bidding for the distribution rights?

Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate and others.

3) According to the article, what was the 'allure' of Blinded By The Light?

Some of the allure of Blinded by the Light had to do with the surprisingly universal appeal of Springsteen’s coming-of-age tunes, which tell honest stories about a hardscrabble upbringing, ambition and the fight to break free of all shackles to do something worthwhile with one’s life. Chadha wrote the script with Sarfraz Manzoor and Paul Mayeda Berges.

4) What does the article suggest about the significance of Bruce Springsteen's role in the production and promotion of the film?

Based on the memoir Greetings from Bury Park by journalist/writer Sarfraz Manzoor. Manzoor is even more of a Springsteen fanatic than I am, and he’s been to about 150 shows. Landing the rights to use that many songs from an artist as major as Springsteen is a blockbuster proposition. But Springsteen has been in a very introspective mode with his autobiography and Broadway show, and the filmmakers met Springsteen and charmed him enough to bless the project and make it possible to feature his songs.Springsteen didn’t take part in last night’s Park City premiere as had been rumored; Chada told the crowd that the Boss didn’t want to overshadow the proceedings and take the focus away from the film. His support certainly will help the picture as New Line and Warner Bros roll it out in that wide release this year.

5) UK distribution was secured by eOne Entertainment. Visit the eOne About Us page on their website - what do they claim to offer under the heading 'Passion meets possibility?'

eOne already had pre-bought UK, Australia and New Zealand on the film.


Promotion and reception

Note: some of these pages may be blocked if you working in school - you will need to complete those particular questions at home.

1) What does the trailer suggest regarding genre and the potential audience pleasures of Blinded By The Light?

the trailer would intrigue young people especially people who can relate with having strict ethic parents who have a plan for them instead of letting them do what they would like in life . this would also attract an older audience as they have related to them when they were younger and also may of been a fan of Bruce Springsteen.

2) What did film posters for Blinded By The Light feature and where did they appear?

it was heavily showed  on social media-Instagram, twitter ,Facebook e.g. 

it was also showed a lot in London and Luton and America

it had the quotes on the poster which would attract people who understood Bruce Springsteen
 
3) What TV shows and websites did interviews with writer, director and stars of Blinded By The Light? Why are interviews a good way to promote a new film release?

They do exclusive interviews with the stars in the show. They did an interview on BBC one as well.

4) How does the Blinded By The Light Twitter account create and maintain interest in the film?

they have build a following of 750 people which is high for a twitter account as twitter has died down over the past years and other platforms like Tiktok and snapchat have grown further with more people using that currently. they retweet what Bruce has twittered. They ask the audience questions for them to engage in the page. also provide the music track and the quotes by Bruce Springsteen. this would maintain the audience as they are staying engaged with the content and its more likely to reach more peoples pages the more its retweeted.

5) How does the Blinded By The Light Facebook page use images and video content to promote the film?

they would gave a teaser before the movie came out, this would engage the audience. They  would also do questions that people would give an answer to making it an active page that people ingage with making it more likely to go into other peoples page. using # will also make it more likely to get onto other peoples pages and make it trend.

6) Select three posts from the Blinded By The Light Instagram page and explain how they promote the film.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3sHDKmlFda/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4NbMOZFScX/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/B45ZYtVlh0j/?hl=en
the quotes and hashtags used in this would engage the audience and make it more likely to have them interact. this wold have the post trending. they also have 5750 followers which they keep interacting through these posts especially the quotes and the audience are more likely to interact and comment. they have 89 posts for one movie which means that they are constantly promoting their movie to get the most publicity as possible.

 
7) Go to the Bend It Networks YouTube channel. How does Gurinder Chadha introduce the channel?  What other content is on the Bend It Networks YouTube channel?

 bend it like beck ham is in the background at one point. she talks about how she researches what's going around the world and creates something that she finds interesting and thinks the audience finds interesting. She focuses her movies on a desi background.

the channel shows a lot of interviews that she's in and also a lot of content focusing on the movies which she has produced.

8) Look at the box office figures for Blinded By The Light from The Numbers website. How much did it make at the box office and why do you think it was largely unsuccessful?

Theatrical Performance
Domestic Box Office	$11,901,145	Details
International Box Office	$6,235,611	Details
Worldwide Box Office	$18,136,756
Home Market Performance
Est. Domestic DVD Sales	$597,043	Details
Est. Domestic Blu-ray Sales	$550,326	Details
Total Est. Domestic Video Sales	$1,147,369

I think that it got realised at the wrong time as a movie came out and took more publicity and popularity making it harder for blinded by the light to get into the spotlight. this means they wasted an large amount on advertising leading to be unsuccessful