A media institution is a company that owns and creates media products. There are several companies in each country and over 300 worldwide, with difference in budget and national/international outreach. The US is the country with most successful institutions, their popularity linked with their economic resources and the years they have been in the industry. Often, the institution that produces the film also markets it, but it can be carried out by distinctive entities. Also, when the company is essentially national, other institutions, if interested, are usually the ones that distribute it in their respective countries. For instance, "Monsters" (2010) was distributed by Vertigo Films in the UK and by Magnet Releasing —which found out about the film during a festival and got captivated— in the US.
Among the main American media institutions, Warner Bros. Columbia, Universal and 20th Century Fox stand out. They are all part of "the Big Eight" in the golden age of Hollywood, sharing in common their high budgets. The 20th Century Fox seems particularly interesting to me regarding this question, as it is the studio which distributed "Taken", a thriller with a similar aesthetic and story line to our sequence. TriStar Pictures is a relatively smaller institution owned by Sony which distributed "The Call" (2013), with its plot revolving around a 911 call in which a girl is desperate for help under a bed. The key scenes also share resemblance with ours.
One of the most common routes for a film for seeking distribution companies is presenting it to a well-known film festival like Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and Toronto. It can be chosen by the various distributors that attend the screenings, belonging to several countries. International sales agents are also extremely relevant. These companies assess upcoming film makers and often have useful relationships with companies and festival organisers. It is a serious and recognised way of presenting a film to the market.
Among the main American media institutions, Warner Bros. Columbia, Universal and 20th Century Fox stand out. They are all part of "the Big Eight" in the golden age of Hollywood, sharing in common their high budgets. The 20th Century Fox seems particularly interesting to me regarding this question, as it is the studio which distributed "Taken", a thriller with a similar aesthetic and story line to our sequence. TriStar Pictures is a relatively smaller institution owned by Sony which distributed "The Call" (2013), with its plot revolving around a 911 call in which a girl is desperate for help under a bed. The key scenes also share resemblance with ours.
One of the most common routes for a film for seeking distribution companies is presenting it to a well-known film festival like Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and Toronto. It can be chosen by the various distributors that attend the screenings, belonging to several countries. International sales agents are also extremely relevant. These companies assess upcoming film makers and often have useful relationships with companies and festival organisers. It is a serious and recognised way of presenting a film to the market.
If we look at the most successful independent studios in the UK —although often distributed by companies belonging to the Big Eight—, we have some interesting examples worth considering.
StudioCanal, leading the data, is a French company which used to collaborate with Universal. It produces a variety of films with ambitious topics —lots of controversial psychological thrillers— so it is maybe too risky to think about it as an option to distribute our film. About eOne Films, it operates especially in Canada, UK, Australia, Benelux and Spain. It is quite varied in its choices, but most of the films it distributes are low to medium budget and end up constituting a success.
http://www.litnotes.co.uk/institutions.htm
http://es.slideshare.net/MonicaGameiro/researching-film-institutions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century_Fox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuropaCorp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_distributors_by_country#Australia
http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/resources/distribution
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-distribution.htm
https://stephenfollows.com/who-dominates-uk-film-distribution/
http://uk.eonefilms.com/home
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