Life of a Film..

I have chosen to talk about the film 'The Princess Diaries' by Garry Marshal. This film is based on a fifteen year old girl called 'Amelia Mi'onet Thermopolis Renaldi' who has spent her whole life being invisible. Her 3D glasses, frizzy hair, 'overly tidy' uniform, braces and many more features have led Amelia to live her life being stereotypicallised as a dork. Just before her sweet 16th birthday, Amelia discovers a churning secert about herself that changed who she is forever more. Clarrise Mi'onet Thermopolis Renaldi, the mother of Amelia's late father, got in touch with Amelia after 11years to allow Amelia to discover that her father was the King of Genovia, a small country between France and Spain, making Amelia the official princess to the throne of Genovia. Finding out who she really is caused Amelia difficulty as she had to adjust her lifestyle in order to fulfill her father's dream of holding the throne. It was only then Amelia realised that there is so much more to life than just caring about the thoughts of others. I have linked a trailer for this film as well as an image: http://www.reelzchannel.com/trailer-clips/15159/the-princess-diaries-trailer

There has also been an online review by Heather Wadowski, an ex-editor 'The Times' newspaper who said:

Every once in a while a film comes out that makes me feel like a one-woman campaign to get people to go see it. Maybe it's because the trailers make the film look stupid or just because the movie has no big name talent attached. Whatever the reason, sometimes a film is released that deserves an audience but just can't seem to find it without some positive word-of-mouth. This year, that movie is Walt Disney's "The Princess Diaries." For even though "The Princess Diaries" has a strong cast and is extremely well-written, what will make this film a hard sell is its G-rating. I mean let's face it: rated G movies almost seem extinct. Even animated feature films like 'Atlantis' and kids-geared films like 'Cats and Dogs' seem to have a PG-rating slapped on them these days, and for the few G-rated films that do come out each year, none of them ever seem to stick around for long. Never the less, if there was one film that could put the G-rating back on the map, this is it. For whether you are 3 or 57, male or female, "The Princess Diaries" is almost impossible not to like.

(This was taken from Rotten Tomatoes): http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/princess_diaries/

The film had a budget of $26 million USD.

By the time the film was released in the USA, UK, Europe and many other major regions, The film made an extremely large sum of money. The film made $126 million USD! In comparison to an Independent film such as 'This is England' who had a small budget of £150,000 and made less than the film spent. The Princess Diaries was first screened at a Cannes Film Festival in 2000, a year before it was realesed where it was bought by 'BrownHouse Productions' who then became the distributor of the film. It was also tied in with 'Walt Disney Pictures' who screened the filming when it was released in 2001. Walt Disney Pictures have also released many other major movies such as 'Mary Poppins' which was released in 1964 and 'High School Musical' which was released in 2006 however has been more successful in comparison to Mary Poppins as it now has three continous storylines in three different films; High School Musical 1, High School Musicla 2 and High School Musical 3!

The film had a large number of distributors! The thearetical distributor was 'Buena Vista Pictures' who distributed the movie in the USA in 2001 a while before the release date. Buena Vista Pictures is one major company however has many international companies such as 'Buena Vista Pictures International Spain' or 'Buena Vista Pictures Internationl Italy' and such, which meant that the movie was futher distributed around many different countries. The film was first shown in the UK by the Walt Disney Pictures distributor. One can argue that this differs from the release of '24 Hour Party People', an independent British based film which was released on in the UK by a small company as it doesn't appeal to a wider target audience.

The first screening of the film was on the 5th of August 2001 in the USA and Box Office made $22, 862, 269 in the 2537 screenings over the whole of the USA. It then went on to release in the UK on the 23rd of December 2001 where it made £587, 677 in 396 screenings over the UK and then was finally released in Austria on the 27th of December 2001, where is made €598, 443 in 90 screenings over Austria. As you can see from the above information, the most money was made in the USA and the most screenings shown were in the USA as the movie was american therefore appealed better to an american target audience. A film such as Angus, Thongs And Perfect snogging would appeal better to a British target audience as the film is British based and not american. I would expect this film to be shown at VUE cinema. This is because, although the film is american, it is based on a teenage girl who discovers something new about herself. Seeing as the UK also has teenage girls, it also appeals to that audience in romford. After the major success of the movie, the distributor also released a DVD edition in 2004 which then went on to screen on television in 2005. Both the movie and the home release were distributed by Walt Disney Home Entertainment.

The above information also links with the point that The Princess Diaries was a film that was a Saturation Release. The film was only shown on cinema screens for 2weeks however after the first DVD copy in 2004, they have sold over 100,000 copies of the DVD and have shown the movie on Television more than ever! More screenings took place from a DVD and a home showing rather than a cinema screening. In difference to a film such as This Is It: Michael Jackson which has been in cinema's for over 3weeks and is now going to be in cinema for even longer due to high public demand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uazPW96x1vM