Skyfall

Production

Skyfall is the 23^rd entry belonging to the longest-running franchise in history; the Bond films. It has been brought up by EON Productions in 2012. SONY is behind the media conglomerate, which EON Productions participates in. According to IMDb, the budget’s expense was an estimate of $200,000,000, coming second in the ranks of production budget amongst the Bond films. Additionally, Skyfall has become the biggest UK opening of 2012, and the third biggest UK opening of all time. However, they haven’t managed to surpass Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which is still holding onto its smashing record. During their opening weekend, Skyfall grossed an estimate of $88,000,000, and around $304,000,000 overall. Both figures are recorded according to US box office. Looking at worldwide box office, the film has grossed over $1,108,000,000, making it top most earned film of the Bond series, furthermore highest-grossing film worldwide for its media conglomerate, SONY Pictures.

Although, many amongst the staff believed that it was a momentary setback when they continued with the pre-production of the film, but what EON had in mind was to ensure that the 23^rd film of the series would be released to the silver screen on Bond’s 50^th anniversary.

Distribution and Marketing 

Skyfall was premiered in London at the Royal Albert Hall on 23^rd of October 2012. Charles, Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, attended the event. Three days later, the film was released in UK, and 9^th of November in US.

Skyfall was the first film of the series to be filmed via specifically adapted cameras to screen the movie in IMAX venues. It has been stated to be second best to IMAX debut behind The Dark Knight Rises. The film’s release overlapped with the 50^th anniversary of the series, which began with Dr. No back in 1962. 

The DVD and Blu-Ray release was set on 18^th of February 2013 in UK, and 12^th of March in 2013 for North America by 20^th Century For Home Entertainment.

The theme song for Skyfall, performed by Adele, has earned an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 85^th Academy Awards, dating back to February 24, 2013. It has been noticed as the first Bond theme song to ever achieve that accomplishment.

Selling product placement spots such as a deal with Virgin Atlantic, or products like Coke, SONY, Heineken, BMW, Omega watches and many others raised £29,000,000, almost a third of the film’s budget. Additionally, Skyfall notably features a return of the Aston Martin DB5.

Because of synergy, Skyfall was marketed throughout multimedia. Various billboards were advertising Skyfall in tube stations and buses around the centre of London.  The key point was to place many posters in places with most population so that audiences of various ages could see, which would hopefully attract potentially as much attention for the new Bond film.

Clear Channel is a world’s leading advertiser to outdoor advertisement. SONY paired with Clear Company due to the fact that they own famous billboards that extend across Cromwell road in London. These billboards are known to affect the box office dramatically with the features of a film. SONY saw the opportunity and took it, making Skyfall their most grossed film of all time.

Skyfall also advertised via viral campaign. This was one of the best ways to advertise and please the Teen Internet, where the use by teenagers is extremely high. 63% of teens use Internet everyday to go online, making the 27% of teens using their phone to gain access to the Internet. By releasing a campaign online would be attracting a huge target audience of the younger generation. Things like setting up fan pages on Facebook and creating a twitter account for the new film allowed teens to catch up on the updated news with picture and video content. This was formed before the release of the film, so that users who followed by choice created hype about the film as its countdown to release date was updated by the official Skyfall accounts.

Posters weren’t just spread across the nation, but also on the web. Banners were placed on popular social networking sites such as Facebook, which, when clicked, located the user to the film’s official website that is powered by SONY. The official Skyfall website would offer information like what cinemas will be showing the film, what times and ways to book the tickets, information about the premiere, news and screen caps of the film along with the official trailer.

Children are also part of Bond’s audiences, but neither advertisements as mentioned previously appeal to them as much as merchandising via toys. Many will buy posters to decorate their bedroom walls at home as it is a common method amongst this type of audience to express their dedication as a James Bond fan. For those who crave video games, there has been created a game based on Skyfall that expands on different platforms for younger boys to play. It lets them get to know the film series better and get a greater connection with the story lines, but above all, they get to become Bond themselves in a fantasy world inside the game.