Describe The Impact On The Production, Marketing, Distribution And Exhibition Of Working Title’s Films, Made By Universal

Before Universal took over Working Titles all area’s of film making were dealt with by the two producers, Time Bevan and Eric Fellner. The two partners spent most of their time making deals between the various companies needed to get a film into production. In production the directors and actors were generally new talent and unheard of by the wider film community, as such many of the films were independent with original storylines and interesting soundtracks. All companies that dealt with marketing, distribution and exhibition were hired on a film-to-film basis, for example in one film the distributer was Atlantic Releasing Corp, and in another it was Vestron. There was not a set distributer, marketer or exhibition company contracted with Working Titles and because of this Bevan and Fellner had to go around to companies and make deals to get their films out to the audience. The contracts for the areas of film making were so hard to deal with that Working Titles only got out one or two films a year and if those films didn’t do well it left the company in a bad situation, however if the films did well then the money could go towards the next production, it is said by the producers that this “stop and go” process of only putting out one or maybe two films a year left the company “virtually always bankrupt”.

After Universal took over, with 67% of the shares of the Working Title company, Fellner and Bevan said that they preferred it to how they were before because Universal took care of the distribution, marketing and exhibition which left the producers to work on the production without worrying about anything else, this new freedom to focus on their work gave a remarkable improvement of the films that were produced by the company. A company that is a part of Universal called Vivendi has exclusive distribution rights to Working Title films and both marketing and exhibition are also done by Vivendi in most films, this is because Vivendi is what is known as a vertically integrated, meaning they have a part in all the components of film making. Vivendi does what Fellner and Bevan used to do when they were independent producers but Vivendi has links and contracts with many other companies which make distribution, marketing and exhibition much easier for them than it was for Fellner and Bevan. Production for Working Titles is much better now the other aspects of film making has been dealt with, and because Universal is a huge company, it has many other companies working with it which means Fellner and Bevan get the benefits of the other companies help and have often co-produced films with other companies such as StudioCanal which lightens the workload for both teams and therefore gives the producers more time to work on the scripting, and editing to make the films the best they can be. Universal is a worldwide company and is linked to many agencies for actors and directors, because of this Working Title can get mainstream actors and the movie budgets are often much larger than the ones they used to have when they were independent. As such Working Titles has started making more mainstream films rather than the independent films they used to make, but because they do still like to make mainstream films a secondary company was made under Working Titles called Working Titles 2 which focuses solely on independent films and leaves Working Titles free to pursue the mainstream films that Universal prefer.


To conclude, Universal has had a positive impact on Working Title, it deals with the distribution, marketing and exhibition so that Fellner and Bevan can focus on the Production and even supply funds, help hire actors, actresses and directors and gives the producers a lot of freedom to make what ever film they like. Universal helps Working Title by supporting it and giving resources needed in film production. Working Titles has been more profitable and made many more films that are well received by the audience since the take over by Universal which proves that it has had a good effect on Working Titles and will continue to do so over the coming changes in Working Titles such as its expansion out of England and overall growth in power and wealth.