The Re-Release of The Best Years of Our Lives: Marketing Research and Film Trailer Revisions Prepared for Marketing Research Team 3 Prepared by Name October 6, 2005
TO: Marketing Research Team 3 October 11, 2005 FROM: SUBJECT: Name Box Office Performance of The Best Years of Our Lives On September 30, 2005, Mr. Paul Marchbanks asked that I research the box office performance of the film The Best Years of Our Lives in order to create a film trailer for the film s re-release onto HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. My research is now complete and is contained in the following report. Information regarding how the budget for the film was spent was very limited, so I was only able to analyze how the film s budget and gross compared to other popular films made in 1946 as well as today. In order to gain a clear understanding of the budget and gross from this 1946 film, I used online software to calculate the difference in the purchasing power of the US dollar to convert dollar amounts from 1946 to their estimated value today and vice versa. I also analyzed the causes of recent fluctuations in interest in the film. I additionally considered the awards the film won as well as original and current critics reviews. I have also provided my own suggestions for the new trailer for the film, which I will explain in greater detail later in my marketing proposal. Thank you for your time and, of course, if you have any questions in regards to my research I will be glad to assist you.
Dear Team 3, Contained below is my research on the box office performance of the film The Best Years of Our Lives. Also, I have included my recommendations for the new film trailer at the conclusion of this report. I look forward to working with you all on this project. Overview of the Trailer The film trailer opens with large text accompanied by dramatic music. The text very directly explains how the film will affect its audience. The music cuts out as a narrator voices over the trailer and the actors are individually introduced. As the narrator leads into discussion on the writer, director, and roles of the film s major actors, the music begins playing softly again in the background. Once the narrator finishes speaking on the actors roles, the music picks back up to its original volume and a final textual comment is made. The trailer closes with a shot of the movie title as the music plays the trailer to a close. Budget and Gross (US) The Best Years of Our Lives had an estimated movie budget of $2.1 million (about $19.8 million today) with $11.3 million in theatrical rentals (an estimated $106.7 million today). The latest US gross of The Best Years of Our Lives is $23.7 million, nearly twelve times the movie s budget. These numbers suggest that this movie did a great deal better in theaters than it did on DVD or on VHS. The film s total gross of $23.7 million is not significantly higher than the theatrical rentals, even though the purchasing power of the US dollar has significantly fallen since 1946. Thus, the $12.4 million accumulated after the theatrical rentals of the film represents a significantly smaller value of money. Frank Capra s It s a Wonderful Life, a film produced in the same year, had an estimated budget of $3.2 million (roughly $30 million today) with theatrical rentals totaling to $3.3 million ($31.2 million today). James Cameron s 1997 movie Titanic had an estimated budget of $200 million ($24.3 million in 1946) with a latest US gross of $601 million ($71.8 million in 1946). Ron Howard s 1999 A Beautiful Mind had a budget of $60 million ($6.5 million in 1946) with a latest gross of $171 million in the US ($18.5 million in 1946). The Best Years of Our Lives theatrical rentals account for a profit of over $9 million, nearly five times the movie s production cost. Comparatively, the more well known It s a Wonderful Life made only a miniscule $100,000 in profit from theatrical rentals, barely accounting for the movie s original production costs. In comparison to current movies such as Titanic and A Beautiful Mind, The Best Years of Our Lives had significantly higher returns in proportion to the budget spent on the movie, though the overall profits of Titanic and A Beautiful Mind were greater (http://pro.imdb.com/; http://www.eh.net/hmit/ppowerusd/). Critics Reviews The Best Years of Our Lives has always received impressive reviews from critics. After the film s release in 1946, Bosley Crowther of the New York Times stated that Mr. Sherwood and
Mr. Wyler have achieved some of the most beautiful and inspiring demonstrations of human fortitude that we had seen in films (par. 5). More recently, David Cornelius of EFilmCritic.com raved that "Wyler and Goldwyn have made a glorious 'intimate epic,' one worthy of every honor bestowed upon it" (par. 14). Awards At the 1947 Academy Awards, The Best Years of Our Lives won Oscars for Best Music, Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Writing (Screenplay), Best Director, and was nominated for Best Sound (Recording). The Best Years of Our Lives also went on to win several other awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (Drama) (http://pro.imdb.com/). Interest/Popularity of the Film Based on the film s popularity on IMDb.com (calculated based on the number of searches for the movie on the website s database in a given week), popularity fluctuated with news events (such as deaths of cast members) related to the film, as well as with the release of the film onto new media. In early 2000, the popularity of the film was steadily on the decline until the film was rereleased on VHS in July. Popularity increased slightly but steadily until a major decline in interest in the film in late 2001. At this time, the popularity of the film plummeted from the top 2,000 all the way down below the 15,000 th most popular film. The re-release of the film onto DVD correlated with a return in its popularity to its original levels, where it has remained steady ever since. There is a positive correlation between interest in the film and film-related news: such as the death of an Oscar winning actor or actress, as was the case March 13, 2005 when news broke of the death of Actress Teresa Wright at the age of 86 (http://pro.imdb.com/). Recommendations The trailer for The Best Years of Our Lives is outdated. Its use of text is not aesthetically pleasing, its pace is slow, the narration is unnecessary and the actors are not recognizable to a current audience. I recommend that our revised trailer focuses on the use of modern technology to edit the trailer and make it more aesthetically pleasing to a modern audience. The new trailer should focus on introducing the plot, the director and writer (with mention of their most famous/recognizable works), awards won, and maybe a few of the well known actors. Thank you for taking the time to review my repot of the box office performance of The Best Years of Our Lives. I hope that my research will open up new insights for the future marketing of the film on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray in 2006.
Works Cited The Best Years of Our Lives. Dir. William Wyler. DVD. HBO Home Video, 1946 (DVD release 1998). The Best Years of Our Lives. The Internet Movie Database Pro (IMDb Pro). 5 Oct. 2005. <http://pro.imdb.com/>. Cornelius, David. The Best Years of Our Lives. EFilmCritic.com. 2 Nov. 2005. 5 Oct. 2005. <http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=5322&reviewer=392>. Crowther, Bosley. The Best Years of Our Lives. New York Times. 22 Nov. 1946. 5 Oct. 2005. <http://query.nytimes.com/search/articleprintpage.html?res=ee05e7df1739e561bc4a51dfb767838d659ede>. John J. McCusker, "Comparing the Purchasing Power of Money in the United States (or Colonies) from 1665 to 2003." Economic History Services. 2004. 5 Oct. 2005. <http://www.eh.net/hmit/ppowerusd/>.