Media Studies: Institutions and Audiences

1. The Dark Knight
(Christopher Nolan, 2008, US)

2. The Dark Knight
(Christopher Nolan, 2008, US)
How the film was devised, financed and produced
On July 31st 2006 Warner Brother pictures announced that the sequel to the
hugely successful, Batman Begins had gone into production. They gave only one
other piece of information – The title of the film.
The film was given a budget of $185million dollars and would again be produced
by the creative team behind Batman Begins:
Director: Christopher Nolan
Previous: Memento 2000, Insomnia, 2002 Batman Begins 2005.
Writers: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S Goyer
Producers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven.

3. The Dark Knight
(Christopher Nolan, 2008, US)
How the film was devised, financed and produced
The story for The Dark Knight was loosely established at the end of Batman
Begins with the introduction of the character, THE JOKER.
Christopher Nolan and his frequent collaborators, David S. Goyer (with
whom he wrote Batman Begins) and brother, Jonathan Nolan went about
writing The Dark Knight in the Winter of 2005. By October 2006 pre-production
location scouting was already in place for a March 2007 start
date for principle photography. The entire shoot would last 16 weeks and
take place in China, UK, Chicago and California (USA).
Christopher Nolan

4. The Dark Knight
(Christopher Nolan, 2008, US)
How the film was devised, financed and produced?
Which studio(s) were involved? Who are these studios?
The film was financed by LEGENDARY PICTURES and WARNER BROTHERS, that later of
whom owns the exclusive rights to the Batman Character. Warner Brothers has
produced every Batman film since Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989 and had at this point
earned over $2billion from the film franchise (Boxofficemojo.com).
Legendary pictures was established by Thomas Tull in 2004. The company was
responsible for co-financing Batman Begins with Warner Bro’s in 2005 and by the
end of that year had signed a seven year deal with Warner Bro’s to co-produce
and co-finance over 40 pictures. (www.legendary.com/)
In addition to The Dark Knight, Legendary pictures has
produced Superman Returns (2006), 300 (2007), Watchmen
(2009), The Hangover (2009), Where the Wild Things are (2009),
Clash of the Titans (2010), Inception (2010), The Town (2010)
and The Hangover part 2 (2011), amongst many others….

5. • The Dark Knight was filmed primarily in Chicago, as
well as in several other locations in the United
States, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. Nolan
used an IMAX camera to film some sequences,
including the Joker's first appearance in the film.
• It has also had enormous box office success, setting
the record for the highest-grossing weekend opening
in the U.S. with over $158 million and becoming the
4th highest grossing film of all time

6. Marketing
The Dark
Knight

7. The Dark Knight
• The distribution of a film includes:
• The release strategy
• The marketing strategy
• This film had has one of the most elaborate marketing
strategies to date.
• Warner Bros made use of all kinds of media and
without “cross media convergence” this strategy
would not have been as successful.
• “cross media convergence” ensures that the film
reaches the widest possible audience.

8. Christopher Nolan Interview
The Dark Knight Merchandising
The Dark Knight
Premiere
I am Legend IMAX
prologue Meet the Cast
First Film Trailer Review HBO First Look

9. IMPORTANT FACTORS IN THE SUCCESS
OF TDK
• MARKETING campaign
• VIRAL marketing
• BATMAN –history and contract with audience
• CASTING
• DIRECTOR’S PORTFOLIO
• DISTRIBUTION – most cinemas to date
• Online ticket sales

10. • ABOVE THE LINE:
What does this term mean in
regards to marketing?

11. • The Dark Knight's opening sequence, (showing a
bank raid by the Joker) and closing montage of other
scenes from the film, was screened with selected
IMAX screenings of I Am Legend, which was released
on December 14, 2007.
• A theatrical teaser was also released with non-IMAX
showings of I Am Legend, and also on the official
website. The sequence was released on the Blu-ray
Disc edition of Batman Begins on July 8, 2008.
• Also on July 8, 2008, the studio released Batman:
Gotham Knight, a direct-to-DVD animated film, set
between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and
featuring six original stories.

12. The three small tokens you see in this poster were manufactured by
Warner Bros and were available for audiences to collect.

13. A range of different posters were produced, each to
entice a different audience members

14. • On May 15, 2008, Six Flags Great America and
Six Flags Great Adventure theme parks
opened The Dark Knight roller coaster, which
cost $7.5 million to develop and which
simulates being stalked by the Joker.
• Mattel produced toys and games for The Dark
Knight, action figures, role play costumes,
board games, puzzles, and a special-edition
UNO card game, which began commercial
distribution in June 2008

15. • BELOW THE LINE:
What does this term mean in
regards to marketing?

16. Viral marketing
• Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing
techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce
increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing
objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral
processes, similar to the spread of computer viruses.
• It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network
effects of the Internet.
• Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive
Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images,
or even text messages.
• The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral
marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social
Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that
appeal to this segment of the population and have a high
probability of being passed along.

17. Viral marketing
• The assumption is that if such an advertisement reaches a
"susceptible" user, that user will become ‘infected’ (i.e., sign
up for an account) and can then go on to ‘infect’ other
susceptible users. As long as each ‘infected’ user sends mail
to more than one susceptible user on average the number of
infected users will grow.
• It is the job of creatives in the marketing company to produce
engaging material which will entice users to spread the viral.
• Viral marketing is used to create the impression of
spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.
• This is called: Astroturfing :to create the impression of being
spontaneous grassroots behavior, hence the reference to the
artificial grass, Astro-Turf.

18. ASTROTURFING
• While Astro-turfing enables marketing companies to
rapidly reach a potential enormous audience, the
goal of such a campaign is to disguise their efforts.
This is arguably designed to combat the turn against
organised institutional commercialisation by young
audiences . Astroturfing may be undertaken by an
individual pushing a personal or political agenda or
activist organizations.

19. • Marketing based ARGs can rapidly spread
publicity for a film by targeting fans social
network sites as fans collaborate on solving
puzzles or arranging to meet to role-play
certain options suggested by the game’s
designers.

20. • The marketing campaign for the 2008 film The Dark
Knight combined both online and real-life elements
to make it resemble an alternate reality game.
Techniques included mass gatherings of Joker fans,
scavenger hunts around world, detailed and intricate
websites that let fans actually participate in "voting"
for political offices in Gotham City.
• The movie also marketed heavily off of word of
mouth from the thousands of Batman fans perhaps
supported by Astroturfing.

21. • In May 2007, 42 Entertainment began a viral
marketing campaign utilizing the film's "Why So
Serious?" tagline with the launch of a website
featuring the fictional political campaign of Harvey
Dent, with the caption, "I Believe in Harvey Dent."
The site aimed to interest fans by having them try to
earn what they wanted to see and, on behalf of
Warner Bros., 42 Entertainment also established a
"vandalized" version of I Believe in Harvey Dent,
called "I believe in Harvey Dent too," where e-mails
sent by fans slowly removed pixels, revealing the first
official image of the Joker; it was ultimately replaced
with many "Haha"s and a hidden message that said
"see you in December."

22. • During the 2007 Comic-Con International, 42 Entertainment
launched WhySoSerious.com, sending fans on a scavenger hunt
to unlock a teaser trailer and a new photo of the Joker.
• On October 31, 2007, the film's website morphed into another
scavenger hunt with hidden messages, instructing fans to
uncover clues at certain locations in major cities throughout the
United States, and to take photographs of their discoveries. The
clues combined to reveal a new photograph of the Joker and an
audio clip of him from the film saying "And tonight, you're gonna
break your one rule."
• Completing the scavenger hunt also led to another website
called Rory's Death Kiss (referencing the false working title of
Rory's First Kiss), where fans could submit photographs of
themselves costumed as the Joker. Those who sent photos were
mailed a copy of a fictional newspaper called The Gotham Times,
whose electronic version led to the discovery of numerous other
websites.

23. www.ibelieveinharveydent.com was the
first of a long line of websites dedicated to
generating interest in “The Dark Knight.

24. “I Believe in Harvey Dent” Promotional
Packs were sent to those who had
registered on the way page.

25. The page was defaced in order to
build suspense as the first images
of Heath Ledge as “The Joker”
were released. This is a good
example of modern viral
marketing and traditional print
based marketing working well
together.

26. More and more websites appeared urging fans to get involved in the world
of “Gotham City”. This sight allowed fans too upload an image of
themselves in “Joker” makeup. This ensures that the audience can engage
directly with the campaign and will help to promote the film through “word of
mouth” – perhaps via social networking sites.

27. Warner Bros invited fans to follow an elaborate
“case” of clues around the internet, following the
fictional movements of “The Joker” until they
were given a day, time and location to meet up.

28. Hundreds of fans arrived in New York to see the Bat symbol
projected onto the side of a sky scraper. The fans flocked to the
symbol just as Batman follows as a sign to meet Commissioner
Gordon in the film. Their prize was a preview of the first full
length trailer. Publicity stunts like this are vastly important in
creating hyper about an up and coming release.

31. Key aspects of viral marketing which
make it a success.
• Astro-turfing
• ‘ARG tasks which are co-ordinated through
social networks and played out in the public
domain.
• Play’ or ‘Vandalisation’

32. • Astro-turfing was evidently an important
factor in the success of spreading various viral
projects for TDK.
• The solving of the puzzle on:
WhySoSerious.com and
whysoserios.com/Itsallpartoftheplan
• Organising real-life joker rallies against Harvey
Dent on: ibelieveinharveydent.com
and rory’sdeathkiss.com
• Registering online for the fictitious Gotham
Times through rory’sdeathkiss.com and GCN –
Gotham cable News online.

33. Why Virals?
• Virals tie into recent developments in Web 2.0
technology.
• They are the institutions fight back against the
netocracy created by online sites like YouTube and
the loss of direct control over their material and the
semiotic messages contained in them.
• Virals are institutions answer to re-establishing an
interfacing relationship with a younger technological
audience.

34. • Cross Media Promotion:
What does this term mean in
regards to marketing?

37. Batman is the only
fictional character ever
to appear in the “Got
Milk?” advert.

38. Marketing The Dark Knight
•A pre-sold film (DC comics, graphic novels, cartoons, television
series, franchise (it is the sixth film), computer games…)
•Bankable stars (Heath Ledger’s performance and untimely
death)
•Trailers (Teaser, theatrical, TV spots)
•Merchandising (Toys – Mattel)
•Reviews (Variety ‘Showbiz’ magazine)
•The premieres
•Shooting with IMAX cameras
•The internet (YouTube, official and unofficial websites, fan sites,
viral marketing)

39. DISTRIBUTION
• In the United States and Canada, The Dark Knight was
distributed US Opening to 4,366 theaters, weekend breaking Gross: the $158,411,483
previous record
for the highest number of theaters held by Pirates of the
Caribbean: At World's End in 2007. The number of theaters
also included 94 IMAX theaters, with the film estimated to be
played on 9,200 screens in the United States and Canada.
• It premiered in the UK just one week later on July 24th on
502 screens.
UK Opening weekend Gross: £11,191,824
• Online, ticketing services sold enormous numbers of tickets
for approximately 3,000 midnight showtimes as well as
unusually early showtimes for the film's opening day. All
IMAX theaters showing The Dark Knight were sold out for the
opening weekend.

40. BOX OFFICE
As of March 1st 2009, The Dark Knight has
grossed $533,316,061 in the US and
£48,685,166 in the UK.
It’s total worldwide gross has been estimated at:
$1,001,921,825
(Dec 2010)
It was the highest grossing film of 2008
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/

41. BOX OFFICE
Warner Bros. re-released the film in traditional theaters
and IMAX theatres in the United States on January 23,
2009, the height of the voting for the Academy Awards,
in order to further the chances of the film winning
Oscars.

42. Audience
The Dark Knight was released in July around the
world. This is the Summer blockbuster market
and is the most important time of the year for
film studios. During this time younger audiences
are not in school and have more time and
money to go to the cinema. Batman appeals to
this demographic (age of people) because he is
already established as a comic book character
and as an action superhero. Due to his long
history he is also well known to older
generations and therefore has a large audience.

43. DVD/Blu Ray
The Dark knight was released by Warner Bros.
on DVD, Blu Ray and digital formats on
December 9th 2008.
In the UK the film sold 513,000 units in one day
and it holds the record for the most DVDs sold
globally in one day – 3 million.
(http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/11/business/fi-darkknight11)
In March 2011, The Dark Knight became the first film
available for rental on a social media website when
Warner Bros. teamed with Facebook.

44. • Warner Bros devoted six months to an anti-piracy
strategy that involved tracking the people who had a
pre-release copy of the film at any one time.
• Shipping and delivery schedules were also staggered
and spot checks were carried out both domestically
and overseas to ensure illegal copying of the film was
not taking place in cinemas.
• A pirated copy was released on the Web
approximately 38 hours after the film's release.
BitTorrent search engine The Pirate Bay taunted the
movie industry over its ability to provide the movie
free, replacing its logo with a taunting message

45. The Dark Knight Rises
Filming began on the sequel to The Dark Knight
on May 6th 2011. With an estimated budget of
$250million the film released on July 20th 2012.
It features all of the principle producers
and actors from The Dark Knight and, in
keeping with the release techniques
from that film, has already had a teaser
trailer, poster, viral campaign and
received an IMAX-only prologue in front
of Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

46. Discuss the varied forms of
digital marketing that
where used to market the
How did those film
forms engage the
audience and thus
lead to ‘hype’?
To what extent does digital
distribution affect the marketing
and consumption of media
products in the media area you
have studied?
How did TDK use
digital forms of
marketing?
How did TDK use
digital forms of
marketing?
Is this above the
line or below
Is this above the
line or below
explain
explain
Discuss the varied forms of
digital marketing that
where used to market the
film
How did those
forms engage the
audience and thus
lead to ‘hype’?
Do you think it had an
impact on Box Office
takings? DVD sales?
Do you think it had an
impact on Box Office
takings? DVD sales?
What more effective
above the line, below the
What more effective
above the line, below the
line, both?
line, both?
Don’t forget to
include an
Don’t forget to
include an
INTRODUCTION and a
INTRODUCTION and a
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION