My thesis analyzes China’s most famous commercial film director, Feng Xiaogang, and his New Year Films against the background of infrastructure reform in the Chinese movie industry. The past three decades have witnessed dramatic changes in the Chinese film industry and phenomenal growth in commercial film production due to the movie industry reform that was launched by the Chinese government in order to commercialize the film industry. Feng Xiaogang is both a beneficiary and a contributor to the commercialization of the movie industry, and his unprecedented success in the movie industry also reflected the cultural changes within the film industry. This thesis first examines the transformation of the film industry due to the movie reform that allowed Feng Xiaogang to cross over from the television industry to the film industry, and the emergence of independent film companies also provided Feng with the opportunity to make commercial films. Next, I particularly analyze Feng’s first New Year film, The Dream Factory, which shows Feng’s approach of combining entertainment and social criticism in the film. Finally, I will analyze the popularity of his New Year films from an ‘auteur’ perspective. / text

<p>This paper’s aim is to outline a general model of the indicators of box office revenue for the top performing movies in history. The experience industry is different from most other in that the consumer good consist to a large extent of an emotion arousal. It thus lacks many of the features of normal consumption goods and the consumption experience is entirely based on previous experiences of similar kind.</p><p>Demand for experiences has two important influencers: income and leisure time. An increase in any of the two will increase demand for movie tickets. Production of experiences is based on a combination of an available set of attributes that are combined into goods in a monopolistic competition setting. It is assumed that quality is a function of educated labour.</p><p>These attributes were measured using hedonic price theory. This allows pricing of every unique attribute of movies individually, based on what the willingness to pay was in previous movies. Fifteen possible variables were tested in two models and the most important were shown to be actor, length, sequel, visual effects, age of actor, MPAA-rating and category (animations and dramas). All variables carried expected signs except the actor variables.</p><p>It is concluded that production companies are not entirely meeting the quality demands of the audience. Consumers are trying to reduce risk in consumption by referring to previous consumption experiences, and consumers have, according to the results, particularly strong positive experiences of movies with the kind of features that are significant in the test.</p>

This paper’s aim is to outline a general model of the indicators of box office revenue for the top performing movies in history. The experience industry is different from most other in that the consumer good consist to a large extent of an emotion arousal. It thus lacks many of the features of normal consumption goods and the consumption experience is entirely based on previous experiences of similar kind. Demand for experiences has two important influencers: income and leisure time. An increase in any of the two will increase demand for movie tickets. Production of experiences is based on a combination of an available set of attributes that are combined into goods in a monopolistic competition setting. It is assumed that quality is a function of educated labour. These attributes were measured using hedonic price theory. This allows pricing of every unique attribute of movies individually, based on what the willingness to pay was in previous movies. Fifteen possible variables were tested in two models and the most important were shown to be actor, length, sequel, visual effects, age of actor, MPAA-rating and category (animations and dramas). All variables carried expected signs except the actor variables. It is concluded that production companies are not entirely meeting the quality demands of the audience. Consumers are trying to reduce risk in consumption by referring to previous consumption experiences, and consumers have, according to the results, particularly strong positive experiences of movies with the kind of features that are significant in the test.

Hollywood’s dominance of the movie industry has been the subject of numerous studies. An interdisciplinary literature review in this thesis identified twenty different single or multiple factor explanations that try to account for Major studio dominance at different time periods but cannot comprehensively explain how Hollywood acquired and maintained dominance for nine decades. This thesis reviewed the economics, management and marketing literatures to identify existing theoretical explanations for the acquisition and persistence of market dominance. It then integrated existing theories identified within the business literature into a ‘theoretical lens’. This lens enables an historical analysis of Hollywood’s longstanding dominance of the movie business to be undertaken from a strategic business perspective. This thesis concludes that the Major studios rise to market leadership and enduring dominance can primarily be explained because they developed and maintained a set of strategic marketing management capabilities that were superior to rival firms and rival film industries. It is argued that a marketing orientation and effective strategic marketing management capabilities also provide a unifying theory for Hollywood’s enduring dominance because they can account for each of the twenty previously identified explanations for that dominance. The original contribution of this thesis is the development of a strategic marketing management lens and a set of guiding questions that can facilitate a strategic analysis of market dominance in any industry.

Introduction Movies are considered entertainment goods. Entertainment is one of the experience industries. Intangibility, perishability and heterogeneity are the most significant characteristics of the movie industry. An emotional reaction of consumers cannot be calculated in the same sense that most other physical goods can. If the movie succeeded in meeting the expectations, ticket price decreases will not necessarily indicate further purchases in the future. There are high risks and uncertainty in the movie industry. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to define through a hedonic price theory establishing whether the recognition is a significant factor to the global success of movies. The global success of the movies is determined by the global box office revenue. There are eight independent variables tested in this paper: global movie popularity, global popularity of the directors, global popularity of the authors, fame (determined by wining Academy Award), major studios, sequel, family genre and animation genre. Only one control variable, which is year of release, is included. Method The paper uses empirical model and the data set along with the results of the empirical analysis to achieve the purpose. Only secondary data were collected for the paper. Conclusion To reduce uncertainty in movie industry box office revenue, according to the data collected, recognition is significant to the consumers’ willingness to pay. The willingness to pay is determined by the global box office revenue. Only four independent variables, namely: sequels, Academy Award, the global popularity of the directors and the global popularity of the authors of the original script, are significant recognition factors to the global box office revenue. Movie producers shall be aware that consumers have to make sure utility gained from the consumption exceeds the costs in order to make purchases. Based on the sample collected, it can be summarized that consumers of the movie industry in general rely on previous consumption and recognition to reduce risks and uncertainty in terms of making purchases.

Context. Online piracy is widespread, controversial and poorly understood social phenomena that affects content creators, owners, and consumers. Online piracy, born from recent, rapid ITC changes, raises legal, ethical, and business challenges. Content owners, authors and content consumers should benefit from better understanding of online piracy. Improved, better adapted to marketplace and ITC changes content distribution models should benefit content owners and audiences.Objectives. Investigate online piracy effect on pirated product sales. Improve understanding of online piracy behaviors and process scale.Methods. This observational study investigated movie-sharing effect on U.S. box office. Movie sharing was observed over BitTorrent network, the most popular peer-to-peer file-sharing network. Relationship between piracy and sales was analyzed using linear regression model.Results. File sharing was found to have a slightly positive correlation with U.S. box office sales during first few weeks after film release, and no effect afterwards. Most of newly released movies are shared over BitTorrent network. File sharing is a global, massive phenomenon.Conclusions. I conclude that online movie file sharing has no negative correlation on U.S. box office. Slightly positive movie sharing correlation to box office sales could have occurred because sharing rather informs, than substitutes cinema going.

After the "Cultural Revolution" in 1976, the Chinese film industry returned to normal. Between 1976 and 1979, most filmmakers returned to their film studios and began to reorganize the production system. After 1980, the Chinese film industry began to develop multi-dimensionally. The highlight of this development was the rising of a large number of young directors and their works, which became hits and attracted attention both at home and abroad. More and more Chinese films were seen at international film festivals, often winning the awards. This study focuses on the important period between 1976 and 1988 in the Chinese film history and its influence on the development of the Chinese film industry; it concludes with the discussion of the direction the Chinese film industry is heading in the future.

La recherche en marketing commence à tracer les contours d’un concept de marque humaine. Les parcours professionnels de certains de ces individus appréhendés tels des marques, comme ceux des réalisateurs de films, nous conduisent à soulever la question de l’extension de la marque humaine. Sachant que l’existence sociale de l’individu marqué dépend de la légitimité détenue auprès de publics clés (les membres internes de l’industrie, les critiques et le grand public), la question se pose alors de l’extension incongruente et du risque que représente cette extension spécifique pour les multiples légitimités de la marque humaine. Face à cette problématique, nous proposons d’étudier les mécanismes de perte et de gain de légitimités du réalisateur de film déclenchés par la sortie d’un film incongruent. En adoptant un design mixte, cette recherche montre que l’extension incongruente représente un risque de perte de légitimité moins élevé pour la marque humaine que l’extension modérément incongruente ou l’extension congruente. Et elle montre également que l’extension incongruente représente une opportunité de gain de légitimité plus élevé que les deux autres formes d’extensions. Cette thèse se conclut en soulignant que les processus de gain et de perte de légitimités constituent les dynamiques sous-jacentes des parcours professionnels des marques humaines et que suivant les mécanismes révélés, ces parcours professionnels peuvent être stratégiquement élaborés. / Marketing research has begun tracing the contours of a human brand concept. The subsequent issue of human brand extension arises as branded individuals (such as movie directors) can be seen moving forward in their careers. The question of incongruent human brand extension is particularly important because the social existences of these branded individuals depend on the legitimacy they hold in regards to various key constituencies (internal members of the industry, critics, the general public). And incongruent human brand extensions can represent a threat for these various legitimacies. We choose to look into this question by studying the mecanisms of movie director legitimation which are unleashed by incongruent film extensions. We use a mixed design method. And we demonstrate that human brands risk loosing less legitimacy with an incongruent extension than with a moderately incongruent extension or with a congruent extension. We also find that human brands can earn more legitimacy with an incongruent extension than with a moderately incongruent extension or with a congruent extension. This doctoral research highlights that the mecanisms by which branded individuals gain or loose legitimacy are the underlying dynamics of their career paths. And by providing insight into these mecanisms, this work shows that these career paths can be undertaken strategically.

Le contexte empirique dans lequel s’inscrit ce travail concerne les changements à l’œuvre dans l’industrie du cinéma français liés à l’impact des NTIC. Nous y étudions la construction collective du processus de régulation entre les acteurs du secteur et le CNC (le Centre National du Cinéma l’Image Animée) de l’autre, c’est à dire la cogestion du secteur. Nous nous intéressons à deux phénomènes. Nous cherchons à comprendre le déroulé de différents débats dans la presse qui se constituent autour des années 2012–2014. Deuxièmement, nous menons une réflexion portant sur le type d’outils de gestion mobilisés par l’organisation en charge de la régulation du secteur, le CNC.Nous proposons de représenter le processus de régulation du secteur du cinéma français au travers de l’évolution des épreuves organisées par le CNC auxquelles les acteurs du secteur décident de participer. L’évolution de ces épreuves passe alors par le développement de critiques à l’égard de ces épreuves, venant des acteurs du secteur ou des équipes du CNC.La cogestion du secteur se construit alors à la fois de manière encadrée (les épreuves sont créées et organisées) et émergente au travers des activités de critiques des acteurs. Nous y étudions la place des outils de gestion, et en particulier celle des indicateurs statistiques.Nous construisons un modèle de cogestion par l’épreuve qui nous permet de mettre en avant les risques liés aux changements dans l’industrie. Le fonctionnement régulier de la cogestion, où les critiques viennent nourrir la cogestion tout en permettant son adaptation, permet l’intégration des retours des acteurs du secteur. Le risque lié aux NTIC se caractérise par la possibilité de remise en cause des principes d’évaluation à l’origine des épreuves. / The empirical context for this work concerns the changes in the movie industry due to the NTIC. We study the collective regulation process of the sector by industry stakeholders and the CNC (National Center for Cinema). We look at two phenomena. We study the debates in the press during the 2012-2014 period. Second, we look at the types of management tools used by the CNC as the organization in charge of regulating the French movie industry.We propose to represent the regulation process in the French movie industry as the organisation and evolution of trials to which actors of the sector participate.This co-regulation process is seen here as both framed and emergent. We study the role of management tools, especially statistical indicators in this co-regulation process.We build a co-regulation model based on the trial notion, allowing us to illustrate the risks linked to the changes occurring in the industry. In the regular functioning of the model, critics can be formulated an integrated to the trial system and allow for its adaptation. The risk linked to NTIC is characterized by the possibility of questioning the evaluation principles at the very foundation of the trial system.

Each year, only around 10% of the produced films will go to theatrical release, and 90% of the produced films might be the missing jewels lost in time. In Taiwan, movie distributors will act as this filter role to find out those 10% films. In this case, we will introduce the basic knowledge of the industry and discuss the evaluation process of the distributors and at the end reaching our conclusions and suggestions.