Hollywood Case Study - Focus Questions

My Sisters Keeper (2009)
Pre Production and Production-
My Sisters Keeper is a film is a 2004 novel written by Jodi Picoult, the film hit the cinema's on June 26th 2009. The main characters in the film are a close family, Mum, Dad and two daughters. One of the daughters Kate is born with acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, there is no way that she can stay alive without a doner that will be able to give her what she needs throughout her life. The other daughter Anna was conceived by in vitro fertilization to become a donor; the medical procedures started when she was only 5 years old to donate to her sister.

The budget for the film was $30 million, and the worldwide gross revenue amounted to $78,771,734. I found the overall total of the gross revenue very shocking, it was a very heart warming, beautiful film and I honestly don't know why that's all they managed to make worldwide especially being an American film. The production companies involved in this film are New Line Cinema, Mark Johnson Productions and Curmudgeon Films. I wouldn't say it is based on a very popular genre as you very rarely come across a film that leaves you feeling so distraught, I also wouldn't actually say that I've ever seen a film quite like it or which had a similar storyline.

I feel the use of the music in the film is so cleverly selected and adds to the emotions built up and felt by the audience. The music used at the very beginning of the film starts off revealing her feelings and how she is quite happy, but then as the song choice goes on they become more sad which reflects her feelings as well as her families. Later on and nearer towards the end of the film where the scrap book scene is I felt it so emotional everything that was written inside it, their whole journey together and all the pictures of the fun days out and comments. With the music in the background to this it really makes you empathise and you can't help but to get emotionally involved, and for me that was one of the best parts of the film.

Distribution-
Distribution company - New Line Cinema
Budget - $30 million
Marketing - posters, trailers, internet and television advertisement
Promotion - all I could find was t-shirts, because of the genre of the film I don't think it draws in all ages and audiences, and you usually find lots of merchandise with a film targeted at children which this film isn't with it being more serious.
Number of countries - from what I found, Australia, UK and USA

Exhibition-
Date of release - June 26th 2009
Amount of screens used for opening weekend - 2,606 (USA)
Box office taking for the opening weekend - $12, 422, 212 (USA)
Length of time on release in cinemas - (June 26th 2009 - October 8th 2009), so in release for 15 weeks/ 105 days.
Releases after cinema - DVD and Sky Box Office