Case Study on Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass tells the story of an ordinary teenager, Dave, who sets out to become a real-life superhero, calling himself "Kick-Ass". Dave gets caught up in a bigger fight when he meets Big Daddy, a former cop who, in his quest to bring down the drug lord Frank D'Amico, has trained his eleven-year-old daughter to be the ruthless vigilante Hit-Girl.


It comes under the genre and sub-genres of adventure, action and comedy and is rated R


Kick-Ass' production budget
The film's production budget was an estimated $30,000,000 (estimated)

Kick-Ass was released in the USA on 18th April 2010 on 3,065 screens and the box office made $19,828,687. And it made gross profits of: 

$48,043,505 (USA) (27 June 2010)

$47,950,728 (USA) (20 June 2010)

$47,790,759 (USA) (13 June 2010)

$47,641,561 (USA) (6 June 2010)

$47,508,227 (USA) (30 May 2010)

$47,171,950 (USA) (23 May 2010)

$46,616,232 (USA) (16 May 2010)

$45,281,105 (USA) (9 May 2010)

$42,228,273 (USA) (2 May 2010)

$34,870,000 (USA) (25 April 2010)

$34,708,222 (USA) (25 April 2010)

$19,828,687 (USA) (18 April 2010)

When Kick-Ass was released in the UK, on 4th April 2010 on 402 screens, box office made £3,881,704. With gross profits of: 

£11,597,750 (UK) (13 June 2010)

£11,594,478 (UK) (6 June 2010)

£11,588,925 (UK) (30 May 2010)

£11,576,768 (UK) (23 May 2010)

£11,528,933 (UK) (16 May 2010)

£11,421,640 (UK) (9 May 2010)

£10,991,324 (UK) (2 May 2010)

£10,241,210 (UK) (25 April 2010)

£9,040,664 (UK) (18 April 2010)

£7,001,080 (UK) (11 April 2010)

£3,881,704 (UK) (4 April 2010)

The production companies involved in the production of Kick-Ass are Marv Films, who have been the production company for other films such as The Debt (2010), Harry Brown (2009), Stardust (2007), and Layer Cake (2004.) As well as Plan B Entertainment, who have been involved in the production for Eat Pray Love (2010), The Time Traveller's Wife (2009), The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), A Mighty Heart (2007), Year of the Dog (2007), Running with Scissors (2006), The Departed (2006), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Troy (2004.) 

Distribution

Kick-Ass was distributed theatrically over 30 different countries, and each country had a different distributor. The distributors and the countries it was distributed in were:

• Universal Pictures International (UPI) (2010) (UK) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures International (UPI) (2010) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (2010) (New Zealand) (theatrical)
• Nordisk Film (2010) (Norway) (theatrical)
• Nordisk Film (2010) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2010) (Croatia) (theatrical)
• Nordisk Film (2010) (Denmark) (theatrical)
• Lark Films Distribution (2010) (Hong Kong) (theatrical)
• A-Film Distribution (2010) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Leopolis (2010) (Russia) (theatrical)
• Cathay-Keris Films (2010) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Nordisk Film (2010) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Viva International Pictures (2010) (Philippines) (theatrical)
• Monolith (2010) (Poland) (theatrical)
• CatchPlay (2010) (Taiwan) (theatrical)
• Lionsgate (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
• Metropolitan Filmexport (2010) (France) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures International (UPI) (2010) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Roadshow Film Distributors (2010) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Prisvídeo - Edições Videográficas (2010) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• Media Pro Film Distribution (2010) (Romania) (theatrical)
• Lotte Entertainment (2010) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures International (UPI) (2010) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Nu Metro Theatres (2010) (South Africa) (theatrical)
• Bioscop (2010) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Culture Publishers (CP) (2010) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Innoform Media (2010) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• InterCom (2010) (Hungary) (theatrical)
• Maple Pictures (2010) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures do Brasil (2010) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2010) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures International (UPI) (2010) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures International (UPI) (2010) (Mexico) (theatrical) (Latin America)

It was distributed by home distributors in over 6 different countries, them being: 

• A-Film Home Entertainment (2010) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2010) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Argentina Video Home (2010) (Argentina) (DVD)
• CN Entertainment (2010) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
• CN Entertainment (2010) (Hong Kong) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Emperor Motion Pictures (2010) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Film1 (2011) (Netherlands) (TV) (limited)
• IPA Asia Pacific (2010) (Thailand) (all media)
• Lionsgate Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• Lionsgate Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Nordisk Film (2010) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Nordisk Film (2010) (Sweden) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Spike TV (2013) (USA) (TV) (cable)
• Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (2010) (Brazil) (DVD) (Blu-ray)

Home release and merchandise

Kick-Ass was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 3 August 2010 in North America, selling 1.4 million units within its first week, one-third of these in Blu-Ray format, Kick-Ass debuted at number one on the DVD sales chart. The discs were released in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2010.


The video game was produced by WHA Entertainment and Frozen Codebase. It was released through the App Store on 15 April 2010 for iPhone and iPod Touch. The initial Apple platform releases were reportedly unfinished beta versions and were withdrawn from circulation pending a relaunch of a finished version. The game was released on PlayStation Network on 29 April 2010. Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy are playable characters. The game features Facebook missions and integration. Both versions of the game received poor reviews.

Horizontal Integration

One of their producers the UK based Marv Films, just signed a three-year first-look deal with Sony through its International Motion Picture Production initiative.  The Sony deal puts Marv in the formidable company of UK producers such as Working Title (partnered with Universal), DNA (Fox), Harbour (Buena Vista), Material (New Line) and Aardman (also with Sony). 

Their other producer Plan B Entertainment was founded by Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, and Jennifer Aniston. In 2006, Pitt became the sole owner; the company currently holds a release deal with Paramount Pictures, along with Warner Bros, and 20th Century Fox. Due to my previous research into the distributors of Kick-Ass, it show that horizontal integration is apparent with Paramount and Universal.


Posters that were used to advertise Kick-Ass were: 

Trailer