Media Essay-

Why did Ex Machina succeed at the box office?

In this essay I will explaining why the film Ex Machina did so well at the box office despite reasons why it shouldn’t of. The small British film is about a man who gets chosen to test out whether a robot has human intelligence and can be mistaken for a person. It could be compared to other films such as Blade Runner and 2001, in its story line but it does contain some ‘realistic’ features that may set it apart from others. It features Alicia Vikander  Osar Issac , Domhnall Gleeson and Sonoya Mizuno.  This film was not suspected to make as much money as it because there is little aspects that are simlar to other films like this, there is little or no action scenes so no explosions happens. This immediately puts someone who likes to watch action films, stereo typically men. The pace of the film is very slow because of the long takes that were shot. Long takes means more reliance in the script as in what the characters say as there is not much going on. The films ending is not what is as expected, there is no closure, not giving the audience the closed narrative that they are used to. As this film is not a four quadrant feature the film actually had to be good and interesting. This is because budget was not extensive enough. Mark Kermode said in his famous you tube video 'Kermode Uncut: Transformers 3 and the truth about blockbusters' that if you spend enough money on a film and make it newsworthy it is almost certain to make its money because you make the movie an event, the media will then report the event increasing the publicity and in turn the profit. Ex Machina had a reasonably small budget compared to most blockbusters so it had to be good quality of performance or else no one would have gone to see. This is yet another reason why it made a profit at the box office because the public genuinely believed that it was a good film to watch. Although only using 7 actors makes the film easier to follow it can become boring for the audience, also the actors are not big yet but will be soon. The full frontal nudity that it contained made it not appeal to all age ranges as it put of the audience and brought the age restriction higher. The film is said to be realistic as if the audience was to imagine a robot it would be like Ava.   

This film is mainly sci-fi but does contain aspects of other genres. It appeals to sci-fi lovers because of the robot Ava who is almost human like inspiring fans of sci-fi that it can actually become real at some stage. It seems to include its very own sci-fi fan, Caleb, who is amazed at the very thought of Ava. This leads it to be relatable to the sci-fi fans. Over the past year or so sci-fi films have become more popular and more people have taken an interest in them. There is an aspect of romance within the film as Ava tricks Caleb into falling in love with her even though she is a robot; widening the audience to more women who enjoy these types of things. Drama occurs throughout the film and grows till the very end, making it a tense atmosphere for viewers. Finally there is an essence of mystery with the fact that the viewer does not really know what is going on even at the end of the film, the viewer is left thinking about why everything happens the way that it did. Yet again widening the audience. Having a wider audience increases the amount of people that will take interest in the film therefore in turn increasing the views. The studio and production studios that were used are very popular throughout the film industry and people who know about films will know that these companies are good leading more chance of the film being good. They were DNA films, Film 4 and Scott Rudin productions. DNA films and Film 4 often work together as this increases the amount of budget available as they are both quite small companies in the film industries. As Universal Studios distributed the film this will entice more people to watch it because everyone has heard of them and they have distributed many great films before this one. It is extremely famous and is one of the largest film companies. This film was made and released in 2015 so it is very recent meaning that the technology and actors are relatable to people at this time. The culture and traditions can be related to also. The original budget given to the film was $15 million, which is fairly low compared to other films made in recent times but quite big for the British film industry. It went on to make $36.9 million at the box office through film ticket sales, then $6 million on DVD and Blu-ray. To make a profit a film has to make double the budget anyway so to make this much money is outstanding for a British film. The marketing for this film was fairly small with no stand out ways of attracting attention. They did release teasers of the film which showed maybe the most exciting areas of the film, this will get people excited as they will want to see it due to seeing exciting parts. They usually left viewers on a cliff-hanger so they go to watch the film.  The main way that they marketed the film was through viral marketing that is free for them to advertise. They set up a website called Avasessions.com which enables anyone to log on to meet and interact with an Ava persona, which we then ‘draw’ a portrait of them. This website was not very popular though. The thing that made the most impact was that they made a fake tinder account as Ava and targeted SXSW attendees, they would asked to meet Ava was directed to the films Instagram account. As this is unusual way of marketing has not been seen before it created talk, this was also free marketing for the movie as people want to see the film that everyone is talking about. Posters were also made and put outside cinemas to encourage people to go in and watch it. If they were going to the cinema for another film a trailer may come on for the film, this is targeted at regular cinema goers as they will go and watch it if it looks go.  There was not any famous actors at the time in this film but two of the main characters are set to be in the new star wars film; upcoming popularity will inspire people to watch films they have started in such as this one. Another reason that famous actors were not employed is because the budget could not stretch to afford them.

Pre- production:

As said before the inspiration for the film was from other films like it such as 2001, this therefore is the source material that was used. Alex Garland (director and producer of Ex Machina) throughout of the main ideas then took inspiration from the sci-fi media to build the foundations of the film. He is a famous director and screenwriter; he has worked on the films 28 days, Dredd and sunshine. These are all now well acclaimed films that have a good reputation within the film media, so if the public like Garland they are more likely to watch the film as they have high expectations of him. He worked with his close friend Danny Boyle who he has worked with several times before to make films such as slum dog millionaire, 127 hours and 28 days. Again if the public know about the duo working together and know that they work well they will be enticed to watch the film. The three main actors are not very famous but are known by some people, film ‘buffs’ will know who they are and if they like their work they will want to see the film. Domhnall Gleeson plays Caleb, the impressionable young coder; he has worked on others films before such as unbroken and about time. He is fairly well known in the film industry but is not famous yet; he will be though after the new star wars edition comes out later on in the year. Oscar Isaac plays Nathan, the alcoholic inventor that created Ava, he is better known as he has been in a most violent year and drive. As he is older he has been in more films, building up a better reputation. Alicia Vikander is the actress that plays Ava, a robot who has artificial intelligence to manipulate the people in control of her. She has been in films including the man from U.N.C.L.E and a royal affair. As I said before the films budget would not stretch to get majorly famous actors but Alex Garland choose upcoming actors that will soon be well known which allows his film to ongoing make money.  

Production:

During the production of the film they wanted total creative freedom throughout the creation of the film, allowing them to choose and change anything that needs be. They choose to film in a fantastically modern house in Norway, the setting was only in two locations so it was easy to film and cheap as they didn’t have to buy lots of places to film different scenes. There was no need to add any original ‘action scenes’ so the filming did not take as long as it would if explosions had been involved. No green screening was needed with Ava because they simply filmed the scenes twice and then drew the robot parts of Ava on afterwards in editing. They also clothed Ava halfway through saving on time and cost with renting the life. No CGI was also used, overall the film took only 4 weeks to film which is extremely short for a film nowadays.

Post Production:

The marketing as I mentioned before was the main part of the post production as it is what made people aware that the film was even produced at all. The most influential one being the trailers which gave interested audiences teasers to lead them onto cliff-hangers; making them want to go watch the film. The film was shown in American cinemas for 15 weeks which gives more of a chance for people to go and see it, this an unusually long amount of time for a film to be in cinema, allowing more time for it to get popular. It was shown on 1,255 screens in America too allowing more people across the country to see it, making the audience wider across America. A lot of hard work and effort went into this section of this film to make it into the success it has in had in the box office.

Ex Machina is not a cult film that appeals to everyone as it has aspects of oddness that not everyone will appreciate in modern day times. The characters and story line is out of the ordinary. The film certificate was R because of the full frontal nudity that occurred whilst filming. Making this film not a four quadrant picture, meaning that it is not open to everyone to watch. This closes down the audience range to only adults and late teenagers. This could have stopped them from making more money than they actually made but it would have changed the film. As I said before the SFX they used was Ava was drawn on after in the editing stages of the film allowing quick non-expensive editing. . In the US in May 2015 they made $16,705,000.  Then in the Netherlands they made €89,727 on 6 May 2015. In Portugal they made €29,501 on 15^th may 2015. Looking at these figures it is clear that the USA took the most money for the film even though it came out later then in the UK.

Finally I think that the film Ex Machina is truly a sci-fi film because it shows the technology overruling living beings which is everything that they said the future would be from the sci-fi point of view. I believe that the figures for this film were so high because of the film makers being popular and the pre-production of the film being so creative. It also helped with the long amount of time that it was shown in cinemas and the quantity of screens it was shown on.