Distribution Case study: Attack The Block

Attack The Block is a British Monster movie which was made in 2011. It is written and directed by Joe Cornish in his directorial debut and it comes from the same writing and production stable as other horror/comedies such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

• The target Age for this film is 15-34 year old men and women of all classes, but particularly teenagers as this is an action monster movie with some comedy in too.

The film was released on 11 May 2011 in The UK, in 66 theaters. On its opening theatrical weekend in the UK in May 2011, Attack the Block made £1,133,859, putting it in third place only slightly behind American blockbusters Thor and Fast and Furious 5; also in the opening weekend Attack the Block had the highest cinema site average by almost twice of the other films. On a screen-by-screen basis, Attack the Block was the week’s strongest performer.The Production Company was Big Talk Pictures, StudioCanal, UK Film Council,Film4 Productions. The film was distributed by StudioCanal.

• The Films Budget was £8M and in the BoxOffice it made £3,831,475.

The films a narrow range of not very well known actors which were south London city teenagers, except for Nick Frost which was an advantage as it brought international Nick Frost fans to this film.

• The films lifetime Worldwide gross was $5,824,175.

The close date of the film being available in cinemas was September 29, 2011, which gave people plenty of time to see it in cinemas.

StudioCanal chose to promote Attack The Block through social networking sites such as Facebook, which would cost nothing but still get people talking. This was good as the films existence was spread through these sites through them talking about the release.

As Film4 Productions had also contributed to the production of Attack The Block, the film also aired on Channel 4 and Film4 without any added cost, which would have resulted in an increasing awareness of the film and gaining extra profit, as well as an option for the public to rent the film on Film4oD.

Digital distribution will become significant in the consumption of Attack The Block, as it will allow for enough money to be made back if it hasn’t already done so, and was also important during the marketing stages of the film, as although little money could be spent on an extravagant promotion campaign, the use of online methods meant that information could be spread quickly.

US distributors were concerned that American audiences might not understand the strong South London accents, and may have even used subtitles if it were to be released in the United States. Cornish acknowledged this during the SXSW Q and A. When he asked the audience, “Can I ask you guys something? American distributors are nervous about language, the slang” the audience said they could understand it.

• The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the UK on 19 September 2011.

Play.com have an exclusive Blu-ray and DVD double play edition, with a glow-in-the-dark sleeve, featuring the bio-luminescent jaws of one of the creatures.

 

Attack the Block (Written and directed by Joe Cornish 2011)

This is a British monster movie, set in a council estate in South London on Bonfire Night The plot of the film centers a street gang of teenage lads who are partial to mugging randomers in the street and carry knives, regularly visit Ron for weed and carry fire works in their backpacks. The gang have to defend themselves from an alien invasion which chases them all around the block in order to catch them and eat them.

I watched this film a couple of nights ago and I have to say it has to be one of my all time favorites. I have watched it numerous times, all with different people, all of which get obsessed with the film after watching it, taking lines which the characters say and repeating them till they loose their novelty. From looking at the cover you think its just another alien invasion film, which quite frankly it is, however, the heroes are unexpected, and the set of the whole film is so different, so normal and I think that’s what makes it so entertaining, it takes the normal and turns it into the unexpected.

The plot:

The film begins on Bonfire Night and character Samantha is mugged by a small gang of boystrous youths. The main character of the gang, Moses, is the ring leader. The other members of the gang are Pest, Jerome, Dennis and Biggz.

The mugging is interrupted by a meteorite hitting the car that is parked next to Sam in the street where shes lying after being pushed to the floor by Moses. It smashes into the roof of the car spraying glass everywhere and the lads take cover whilst Sam sees her escape runs off as fast as she can. Moses, being the brave one goes to the car and takes a look inside, where an alien jumps out and attacks him, scratching his face, and runs out of the car into the park. The lads chase after it thinking its probably a dog or a monkey, and kill it with fireworks. From doing this they believe they will acquire fame and fortune as they discover the creature they just killed is not anything they have ever seen. They decide to take the dead alien to their acquaintance Ron (Nick Frost) who lives at the top of the block and grows and sells weed to get some advice at what they have found.

Moses asks Ron and local gangster Hi-Hatz if he can keep the alien in their Weed room as its the safest room in the block.

More objects begin to fall from the sky, and as the gang are eager to fight more creatures they arm themselves with base ball bats, knives and swords and rush to the nearest site where they saw one crash land. They soon discover these creatures are much bigger and gorilla like than the one they killed, with rows of glowing teeth and blacker than black spiky fur. The gang run away and become chased by them, whilst they are running, Moses gets arrested by the police as they were out looking for the gang who mugged Sam. Moses is put into the police van which Sam is also inside. The police men both get mauled outside the van by the aliens who are after Moses, then they attack the van knowing Moses is inside. Dennis bravely reaches the van and frees Moses and they decide to jack it and drive away in it still with Sam inside. Dennis takes the wheel and accidentally crashes the police van into Hi-Hatz’s car, Sam sees this as her chance to escape again and runs off, the rest of the gang catch up to the crashed police car where they all confront Hi-Hatz.

Raging about his crashed car Hi-Hatz threatens the lads with a gun whilst they tell him about the aliens which he refuses to believe until his henchman is attacked and killed by one right in front of his eyes, the lads escape at this moment only to be chased by more aliens. The decide to run to their block but Biggz gets forced to hide in a plastic skip/bin where he becomes certain that he wont survive as one alien waits outside. Pest gets his leg bitten and is dragged up the stairs of the block by his gang. They notice Sam lives in the same block as them and force their way into her flat where they think they will be safe for a moment. Sam refuses to believe their alien story but believes it after one alien smashes into the flat but is attacked my Moses with a samurai sword and killed. Sam decides to join the lads so as not to be left alone. The gang and Sam move upstairs to their neighbors flat who are a bunch of girls. They are again attacked by the aliens who get in through the window and decapitate Dennis. The girls, traumatized note that they aliens are clearly after Moses and flee the building. The gang carry on up the block only to be confronted by Hi-Hatz with some more henchmen who try to shoot Moses and his gang. An alien chases Hi-Hatz and his men into the lift where Hi-Hatz kills the alien but the henchmen are killed too, but he is still raging at Moses and continues his search to get him.

The group make their way upstairs and reach the top floor where they meet Ron’s weed customer Brewis who joins them. They set fireworks through the halls of the floor to kill any aliens that are there in waiting and walk through the smoke, Jerome becomes disorientated by the smoke and is killed by an alien. The group finally reach Rons flat at the end of the corridor and enter it only to find Hi-Hatz waiting for them. He threatens Moses with a gun until aliens crash through the window, killing Hi-Hatz whilst the gang retreat to Rons weed room where they are safe for the while.

Whilst in the weed room, Brewis discoveres a luminescent stain on Moses’s jacket which he theorizes is a feramone which the first alien they killed left on him, as it must have been a female and  it had left a mating scent on Moses that the larger male aliens have been tracking for the evening.  After discovering this they use the luminescent light on Sam to see if she carries the feramone, she is clear so they devise a plan to kill all the aliens when they are in one room together.

Sam escapes out of the flat and runs to Moses’s flat where she turns up all the gas and leaves the door on the latch then runs out of the block. Moses attatches the dead female alien onto his back after finding it in the weedroom where they had left it and runs out of the flat where all the male aliens chase him down to his flat.

 

He throws the female in the flat where all the males gather and ignites a firework which makes the flat explode whilst he jumps out of the window and hangs onto a flag hanging from it. The aliens are all killed and Moses is alive.

In all the aftermath, Moses, Pest, Ron and Brewis are arrested as they are considered responsible for all the chaos of the evening and the deaths of all the people around the area, but Samantha comes to their defence as they saved her. Moses and Pest are shoved into the police van whre they hear the crowd outside cheering for Moses, causing Moses to smile for the first time in the film.

 

Overall I believe this film is brillaint and brings excitement and laughter to your living room when you watch it. I would definately recomment it to anyone, its has no particular audience and is far from a nerdy alien film, its much better than that.