Question

What are some transnational aspects of Pan's Labyrinth production, directors, funding, marketing, exhibition, distribution, etc.

Answer 1

Production

The film was theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures in Spain on 11 October and in Mexico on 20 October. It was produced and distributed internationally by Esperanto Filmoj and Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Telecinco Cinema.

Producers: Guillermo del Toro, Bertha Navarro, Alfonso Cuarón, Frida Torresblanco, Álvaro Augustin

Direction

With Pan’s Labyrinth, however, writer-director Guillermo del Toro has built on his proven skills in fantasy (Hellboy in 2004) and Spanish history (The Devil’s Backbone from 2001) to produce a work that is at once a logical development of his artistic trajectory and a wholly unexpected masterpiece from a director identified with such low-status genres as horror. Perfectly realized within its self-imposed limits of time and space, Pan’s Labyrinth has wider implications for the key questions of nationality, gender, and identity than the bloated, star-studded excess of Babel. And in the technical perfection of its plotting, shooting, and cutting (not to mention its meticulous art design and expert animatronic and digital effects), it suggests a new model for world cinema production.

Funding

Pan's Labyrinth cost aroud E13.5 million ($19 million), but looks significantly more expensive due to its sophisticated production values and special effects.

Financing collapsed twice and del Toro and his friend Alfonso Cuaron, who's the film's producer, started funding it out of pocket before the film got a greenlight.

Marketing

Pan's Labyrinth” has succeeded because it has managed to bring in a cross-section of audiences.
It has worked among Latino audiences, which is an underserved market, and with the genre audience as well as the arthouse crowd.

Distribution and Exhibition

Pan's Labyrinth was premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on 27 May 2006. Its first premiere in an English-speaking country was at the London FrightFest Film Festival on 25 August 2006. Its first general release was in Spain on 11 October 2006, followed by a release in Mexico nine days later. On 24 November 2006 it had its first general English release in the United Kingdom; that month it was also released in France, Serbia, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Singapore and South Korea. It had a limited release in Canada and the United States on 29 December 2006, in Australia on 18 January 2007, in Taiwan on 27 April 2007, in Slovenia on 17 May 2007 and in Japan on 29 September 2007. Its widest release in the United States was in 1,143 cinemas.

The film was released on DVD on 12 March 2007 in the UK by Optimum Releasing in a two-disc special edition. The film was released in the United States on 15 May 2007 from New Line Home Entertainment in both single-disc and double-disc special edition versions, featuring an additional DTS-ES audio track not present on the UK version. Additionally, the film received a special limited edition release in South Korea and Germany. Only 20,000 copies of this edition were manufactured. It is presented in a digipak designed to look like the Book of Crossroads. The Korean first edition contains two DVDs along with an art book and replica of Ofelia's key. The German special limited edition contains three DVDs and a book containing the movie's storyboard. Pan's Labyrinth was released for download on 22 June 2007 from Channel 4's on-demand service, 4oD.

High definition versions of Pan's Labyrinth were released in December 2007 on both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats. New Line stated that due to their announcement of supporting Blu-ray exclusively, thus dropping HD DVD support with immediate effect, Pan's Labyrinth would be the only HD DVD release for the studio, and would be discontinued after current stock was depleted. Both versions had a PiP commentary while web extras were exclusive to the HD DVD version. In October 2016, The Criterion Collection re-released the movie on Blu-ray in the US, based on a newly graded 2K digital master supervised by Del Toro. An Ultra HD Blu-ray edition of the film is scheduled for release in 2019 by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment remastered for 4K.

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