Paramount Pictures: the Transformers Dilemma
Paramount Pictures: The Transformers Dilemma - Case Analysis
The dilemma faced by Paramount pictures was to decide what changes, if any, should be made to Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon’s release date, best promotion strategy, and anticipate the rival Warner Brothers’ move.
Each competitor probably had three options to choose from for the respective release dates. Paramount could consider moving the release date two weeks ahead to June, stay with the original July 1st weekend tentative date, or move the date to fall season. Similarly, Warner Brothers’ could choose to move Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2’s date ahead to the July 1st weekend, stay with the original date or move the date to fall.
As shown in Exhibit 1, we can see the comparison matrix for the implications on either studio’s decision to keep or change the date. But before we finalize on what Paramount should do just based on that comparison, we must ascertain each of the movie’s strengths and how that translates to correlate with the table.
What we know of the changes in the release date in general is that if any studio decided to release the movie earlier, they would find it difficult to market the movie in a shorter period of time. While if the movie was pushed to the fall season then it could possibly imply that the movie was not good enough to compete with the other blockbuster releases. A justification would also be necessary, and there was a great chance that the audience might get disappointed or bored waiting. Keeping the release date as originally planned would be consistent with the press release and expectations of the people. And pre-release marketing would be on track.
While Transformers 3 was a highly awaited movie, The Deathly Hallows Part 2 was the last of the Harry Potter series and was definitely a really strong contender to steal the revenue share. There was a chance that WB would try to move the release to the July 1st weekend. But that seems unlikely because
The dilemma faced by Paramount pictures was to decide what changes, if any, should be made to Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon’s release date, best promotion strategy, and anticipate the rival Warner Brothers’ move.
Each competitor probably had three options to choose from for the respective release dates. Paramount could consider moving the release date two weeks ahead to June, stay with the original July 1st weekend tentative date, or move the date to fall season. Similarly, Warner Brothers’ could choose to move Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2’s date ahead to the July 1st weekend, stay with the original date or move the date to fall.
As shown in Exhibit 1, we can see the comparison matrix for the implications on either studio’s decision to keep or change the date. But before we finalize on what Paramount should do just based on that comparison, we must ascertain each of the movie’s strengths and how that translates to correlate with the table.
What we know of the changes in the release date in general is that if any studio decided to release the movie earlier, they would find it difficult to market the movie in a shorter period of time. While if the movie was pushed to the fall season then it could possibly imply that the movie was not good enough to compete with the other blockbuster releases. A justification would also be necessary, and there was a great chance that the audience might get disappointed or bored waiting. Keeping the release date as originally planned would be consistent with the press release and expectations of the people. And pre-release marketing would be on track.
While Transformers 3 was a highly awaited movie, The Deathly Hallows Part 2 was the last of the Harry Potter series and was definitely a really strong contender to steal the revenue share. There was a chance that WB would try to move the release to the July 1st weekend. But that seems unlikely because