What is Rationalization?
Rationalization, according to sociologist George Ritzer, is defined as, “the process of making society more efficient, predictable, calculable, and controlled”. Efficiency is defined as the means to reach a specific end rapidly, with the least amount of cost or effort. Predictability is concerned with holding up the standards of a product, or in this case, a film. It means that no matter where a person goes, they will receive the same service and the same product. Calculability involves a heavy emphasis on things that can be reduced to numbers, or quantified. Control refers to a sense of power over one’s employees and customers. Ritzer uses McDonald's as an example with customers having to clean up after themselves and walk up to the counter to pick up their own order. It places additional work on the consumer’s end, without them really noticing.
Why does it matter in Film Marketing?
Understanding the new systems of filmmaking and how they relate to post-production marketing will help offer a greater understanding of the industry as a whole, and how Ritzer’s dimensions of Rationalization affect this process. Also, looking at the film industry from a business perspective is a crucial step towards understanding the decision-making process of studio executives.
Historical Context
The Golden Age of Hollywood was a period full of growth, experimentation and change within the industry that brought global prestige to the filmmaking industry and its actors. Small viewing stations transformed into “Picture Palaces” that could seat 1-2,000 guests at a time, and visual advertisements began to infiltrate all aspects of people's lives. Billboards, magazines, newspapers, shop windows and cinemas were covered with advertisements to entice customers to view new films and purchase products. American society was ready to buy stuff, and the advertisements of the 1920’s effectively changed the way society acted and bought.
FORCES DRIVIING RATIONALIZATION
Rationalization’s effect on the film industry is fueled by two main forces: Advancements in technology, and large studio’s adapting distribution methods because of changing demographics of their customer base. Understanding the film industry from a business standpoint provides more context in the studio’s decision-making process. For perspective, film entertainment is one of the largest industries in the United States, generating 35.3 billion U.S. dollar in revenue in 2019 (Watson, 2020).
Advancements in Technology
Before social media, websites were used as effective ways to market low-budget films, and was an effective tool for both larger studios and independent filmmakers. The 1999 indie film “The Blair Witch Project” was a horror film that utilized a found footage style to portray a real life documentary. This integrated marketing campaign started with word-of-mouth advertising and passing out fake “Missing Student Filmmakers” flyers that sparked rumors within online communities. Capitalizing on this buzz, the indie film’s marketing team published a website. This was 1999, so website surfing and navigating the internet was still very new to consumers. The website was designed unprofessionally to look like real students developed the web page, and existed as an extension of the storyline, offering biographies about the filmmakers and other details. The Blair Witch Project became one of the highest-profit movies of all time, making $248.6 million at the box office with a relatively small budget of $300,000 (Kring-schreifels, 2019). This small production staff effectively introduced the world to a new system that currently dominates the entertainment industry-- modern movie marketing (Bereznak, 2019).
Changes in Movie Distribution and Customer Base
Customer Base
The customer base is the group of customers who repeatedly purchase the goods or services of a particular business, and are a main source of revenue for a particular company (Donati, 2020). There is a noticeable trend of the customer base within the film industry, particularly towards younger audiences. In a 2015 media consumer survey by Deloitte, researchers found that nearly 70% of 16-34 year olds visit the cinema at least twice a year, compared to 49% of 35-54 year olds and 35% of 55+ year olds (Deloitte, 2015). With teenagers making up the biggest market for cinemas, Understanding this concept, cinema’s had to change their marketing practices in order to maximize profits (Silver, 2007).
Movie Distribution
Movie theatres are struggling to compete with current market trends. However, movie studios have also taken a direct hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 on movie theaters has accelerated two preexisting trends: More people are staying home to enjoy movies and other entertainment, and more studios and media distributors are developing their own direct-to-consumer streaming services (Arkenberg, 2020).
Industry Domination of Marketing through Social Media Platforms
The quality of one’s film could easily hold a dominance over the industry, but long-standing dominance of an industry can only stem from strategy and capitalization on major picture releases. Hollywood’s domination over the film industry stems from innovative strategic marketing strategy and deep market research. In the modern filmmaking industry, it’s widely known that a key part to a film’s success is how well it has been marketed, making it a crucial aspect of the filmmaking ecosystem. For every two dollar spent making a film, studios spend another dollar marketing (McGlade, 2013). Creating film awareness has taken different forms throughout recent history, from movie trailers, billboards, social media accounts and posts, or a combination of these. Using massive marketing budgets, studios can easily adapt to changing customer base and demand.
Ritzer's Four Dimensions
To understand how rationalization has affected the film industry, especially the occupations within post-production such as film marketing teams, it is important to define which parts of the film industry are affected. Ritzer’s four dimensions of Rationalization solely apply to major film studios like the “Big Five”-- Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., Walt Disney, and Columbia -- that routinely distribute films every year to the global box office. Independent, or “indie” filmmakers aren’t directly affected by these changes, but rather are damaged by their inability to adapt to these changes, while big studios are able to quickly restructure different marketing formats due to large budgets for strategic marketing (Silver, 2007).
Efficiency
Ritzer defines efficiency as “finding and using the optimum method for getting from one point to another” (Ritzer, 2021). With a rising demand for film marketing also results in a spike in costs for motion-picture studios to push out their advertising expenditures. The average cost to produce a major studio movie has averaged around $65 million over the past 3 years, not including distribution and marketing, which adds another $35 million to guarantee the film is effectively publicized. Efficiency comes into play with major film studios no longer using exterior marketing agencies to promote their productions and forming in-house marketing divisions within their company. This saves time that would be spent discussing contracts and other legal obligations with an outside business, reducing the amount of time it would take to promote these movies.
Calculability
Calculability, according to Ritzer, emphasizes the quantitative rather than qualitative aspects of a product (Ritzer, 2021). Although Calculability is difficult to measure within the industry the introduction of formal budgets for a film’s production allows for observation on how much spending is put into place for success of a marketing strategy. In 1980, the average cost of marketing a studio movie was $4.3 million. By 2007, this price had shot up to nearly $36 million. Even with the incorporation of a studio’s production staff within the studios, the demand for larger marketing teams is on the rise, and this is reflected by these prices. Calculability can also be found in moviegoers preferences for films throughout history. According to a 2019 survey by Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of films over 140 minutes are rated “Fresh”, as opposed to 60% for 120-140 minutes, and only 34% for under 100 minutes (Schaefer, 2019).
Predictability
Throughout the history of cinema, a film being “predictable” is usually a director’s worst fear, and they strive to avoid that. However, when applying Ritzer’s definition of predictability towards the marketing of films, different conclusions can be drawn. Obviously, different films will not be the same, but across marketing there are characteristics given to films that provide the consumer with a general feel for the movie they are about to watch. For example, different genre titles are applied to films, such as action, comedy, drama, fantasy, and horror. This allows production teams to efficiently market the film and expand interest before its release. Another more formal way of classification that helps marketing teams is by sorting by which of the eight major studios it is coming from: Disney, Dreamworks, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros. Anything not coming from these major studios is classified as Independent Film. With 729 major production films being produced in the US and Canada last year, indie films must use effective marketing strategies to get their name out there, and marketing is the key to success in the modern film industry (Watson, 2020).
Control
Control is exerted over both customers and employees through nonhuman technology in McDonaldized systems, according to Ritzer (Ritzer, 2021). When it comes to the film marketing industry, control is exerted onto customers through strategic communication and marketing techniques, which create an illusion of choice. With big studios wanting to maximize profits, the concept of a “limited menu” is introduced. Trying to minimize risks and competitions, studios will agree to produce one genre of a film at once. For example, when walking into a movie theatre, there will usually only be 1-2 films of the same genre screening at the same time (Yao, 2019). This allows for minimal risk and maximum profit for executives, and also allows for more niche marketing to take place. With minimal genre-based competition, marketing teams can focus on appealing to consumers who prefer one genre over another, highlighting the key aspects of the film currently in production.
Conclusion
As discussed previously, the forces of Rationalization have had a significant effect on how films and TV shows are promoted, and I believe that this trend will only continue. After reviewing different factors like changing customer bases and movie distribution, industry domination of strategic marketing, and innovations in technology, I can only trust that these factors will continue to push rationalization to further extents.
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