国上大￥ The Marketing Influence of Theme Music in Disney Movies 1.Introduction In mid-December 2001 the first part of The Lord of the Rings-The Fellowship of the Ring was released,and within a few weeks the theme music of the same name became no longer just a piece of ordinary music,but the tune that everyone seemed to be humming at every possible time.Plenty of theme music is rather familiar to us,even sometimes we have to sing the theme song at the first place to recall the story told by the film.For example:Take a Look Around in Mission Impossible,He is a Pirate in Pirates ofthe Caribbean and Hedwig's Theme in Harry Potter.The phenomenon proves that the promotion of the theme music is of vital importance to the marketing of the movie itself.The Walt Disney Studio,as the only large movie studio that has never been through amalgamation or merged and perhaps the most recognized global media brand among children and families worldwide (Wasko,Phillips,Meehan,2001), holds on to its own style both in film-making and music production.Therefore Disney movies become the perfect example of studying the interesting relationship between theme music and marketing strategy,as well as how the theme music influences its market performance.Nevertheless,little is known about the exact mechanism working behind the music and the box-office and currently there are few researches related to film-making carried out in this perspective.Our work has generalized the relationship between theme music and marketing strategy,as well as that between excellent marketing strategy and market performance,by applying the 4P marketing theory. Moreover,we have analyzed the box-office value of ten hottest Disney movies and taken one specific Disney movie Frozen as an example,to reveal how an actual production process is like.The framework of the marketing strategy can be applied to better understand the success of an individual film and it will generalize the contribution of theme music of a film to its market performance. 2.Literature review 2.1 Theme music Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program,television program,video game or movie,and is usually played during the intro,title sequence and/or ending credits.The purpose of a theme song is often similar to that of a leitmotif. Cook (2015)believed that theme music can be made extensive use in an effort to explore the feelings behind world views and set up one of his own.Sometimes the music is intended to convert abstract feelings or atmosphere into concrete images,often -4-The Marketing Influence of Theme Music in Disney Movies - 4 - 1. Introduction In mid-December 2001 the first part of The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring was released, and within a few weeks the theme music of the same name became no longer just a piece of ordinary music, but the tune that everyone seemed to be humming at every possible time. Plenty of theme music is rather familiar to us, even sometimes we have to sing the theme song at the first place to recall the story told by the film. For example: Take a Look Around in Mission Impossible, He is a Pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean and Hedwig's Theme in Harry Potter. The phenomenon proves that the promotion of the theme music is of vital importance to the marketing of the movie itself. The Walt Disney Studio, as the only large movie studio that has never been through amalgamation or merged and perhaps the most recognized global media brand among children and families worldwide (Wasko, Phillips, & Meehan, 2001), holds on to its own style both in film-making and music production. Therefore Disney movies become the perfect example of studying the interesting relationship between theme music and marketing strategy, as well as how the theme music influences its market performance. Nevertheless, little is known about the exact mechanism working behind the music and the box-office and currently there are few researches related to film-making carried out in this perspective. Our work has generalized the relationship between theme music and marketing strategy, as well as that between excellent marketing strategy and market performance, by applying the 4P marketing theory. Moreover, we have analyzed the box-office value of ten hottest Disney movies and taken one specific Disney movie Frozen as an example, to reveal how an actual production process is like. The framework of the marketing strategy can be applied to better understand the success of an individual film and it will generalize the contribution of theme music of a film to its market performance. 2. Literature review 2.1 Theme music Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and is usually played during the intro, title sequence and/or ending credits. The purpose of a theme song is often similar to that of a leitmotif. Cook (2015) believed that theme music can be made extensive use in an effort to explore the feelings behind world views and set up one of his own. Sometimes the music is intended to convert abstract feelings or atmosphere into concrete images, often