"There's No Business Like Show Business"

Meehan’s article “Holy Commodity Fetish, Batman!” gives some important insight into the world of ancillary markets. Creating a film is undoubtedly taking a chance on establishing a profitable franchise – drawing attention to your film, your story and your product is key. The article makes clear that show business is a profit driven enterprise, which comes as no surprise as it’s called show business for a reason. Though some may argue that culture, creativity, art and inspiration are the driving force of the film industry, this is an optimistic and naïve view. Without profit, films would cease to exist, and there would be no more show in show business.

            This means that as project creators, we must strive to create a rewarding and lucrative venture, exploring the options of ancillary markets. Meehan’s second important point indicates that ancillaries aim to generate revenue from many different streams.

            Since our pitch was presented so late in the game, we haven’t quite made it to the specifics of the ancillary market stages, however we think our stylistic adaptation of the Birds of Prey will make for excellent promotional outlets. Since the film will be set in a dark tone, it will likely be geared towards a slightly older crowd, like teens and adults. With this in mind, things such as the soundtrack would perhaps make more money than toys or souvenirs would. Not to exclude toys completely – Meehan makes a point that with a higher film rating, toys serve as a profitable venture for children who are under the age limit to see the film itself. A video game would be an interesting and suitable choice as an offshoot to our movie; a dark game to match the film, complete with captivating characters could certainly find popularity. The video game would also be an opportunity to bring female players into the male-dominated video game world. As we mentioned in our pitch, the film is empowering because of the strength of the female characters. This empowerment would be furthered in the video game, when the players actually have control of the characters’ actions.