Problem:
Rarely do Canadian movies receive much recognition. Small budgets are partly responsible and distributors often don't employ the right sort of marketing. It's tough to get somebody to watch a movie they know nothing about. One 2002 Canadian movie that was more successful than most was Men With Brooms. Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis motion picture distribution group spent more than $1 million in marketing this $7.5 million romantic comedy about a group of participants in the sport of curling. "It's the largest campaign we've ever employed," says Jim Sherry, EVP of Alliance Atlantis motion picture distribution group. The campaign achieved the desired goal of getting people talking about Men With Brooms and enabled the movie to gross more than $1 million on its opening weekend. According to AC Nielsen EDI (Entertainment Data Industries), this marks the all-time highest recorded opening weekend for an English language feature released throughout Canada.
1. If Men With Brooms was produced by Serendipity Point Films and distributed by Alliance Atlantis to 207 movie theaters across Canada, and the movie theaters distributed the movie to its patrons, then how many channel levels are there in this system. Give two examples of systems with more and less channel levels.
2. To encourage movie patrons to lobby for Men With Brooms to be shown at their local theaters, Alliance Atlantis launched an e-mail campaign through the Canadian Curling Association. The movie production company also scheduled a cross-country press junket for the movie's stars, Paul Gross, Molly Parker, and Leslie Nielsen. What can you understand from the terms: push and pull strategy? Can you explain with respect to the movie industry?
3. Canadian movie distributors do not want to spend much money promoting a movie they are distributing. The film companies would like them to spend much more and blame the distributors for low profits on Canadian movies made for the Canadian market. This is an example of what type of channel conflict, and what can be its reason?