Stranger Things
Stranger Things is about a group of boys where one of their members dissapers randomly. At the same time, their small (fictional) town of Hawkins in Indiania begans to grow weirder and stranger.
Ownership:
Stranger Things was created by Matt and Ross Duffer (also known as the Duffer brothers),and was distributed by the online streaming service Netflix (which are vertically integrated company that deals with online streaming only,although they use to deliver rented Dvds to homes).
In order to get people watching their shows, Netflix uses advertisements of their shows, via billboards and internet streaming (e.g. YouTube). With billboards (in places.for example, New York), it catches the eyes of passersby, while on the platform YouTube, Netflix released a eight minute preview of the pilot episode, alongside the usual pre/ mid video advert that is commonplace on YouTube.
Netflix is available in over 190 countries , with nearly 139 million people subscribed to the streaming service. In terms of Stranger Things however, 15 million people have since watched the pilot episode of Stranger Things, making it a huge hit for Netflix. Netflix keeps their view count ship usually a secret, and only usually releases the data.
Netflix also pairs up with other companies, such as 02, and gives out special deals to the sponsorship service e.g. "Buying 400mb of texts and we'll thrown a months worth subscription to Netflix so you can watch their new hit show Stranger Things"
Production:
As mentioned before, Netflix created and distributed Stranger Things by funding the project and having executives oversee the project. Netflix themselves are a international and commercial company, which also have created other hit shows such as the Crown, Jessica Jones, House of Cards, BoJack Horseman, and countless others.
The entire first season of Stranger Things cost $6 million. The cast mainly consists of 'then' unknown child actors such as Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) and Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), and B-List celebrities like Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers) and David Harbour (Jim Hopper).
The idea of Stranger Things is where the Duffer brothers (who were also the writers alongside filling the director role for the show) combined elements of many famous 80s science fiction and horror movies and novels, such as John Carpenter's Halloween and The Thing, Stephan King books like IT, Ridley Scott's Alien and Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm Street. The show was originally pitched as a 8 hour long film, but was shortened down to eight episodes for the first season.
Filming began in November 2015 to, in Jackson, Georgia, and when it came to the technological aspects if filming, the crew either used green screens, or recreated the set. As for the monster, while most mainstream films use traditional CGI, the monster was actually a man in a costume(which was inspired by many monster works of Guillermo Del Toro. The effects were done by Kevin Ross and Dean Zimmerman.
The show is available on some DVD releases (one particularly from Australian market 'Target'), it is mostly available via online streaming on Netflix., and it can be accessed on any decive - consoles, computers, TV, smartphones, you name it. Unlike Amazon though, Netflix does not have to publish their context under different companies in different countries.
Stranger Things was released on July 15th, 2016. It was released simultaneously on Netflix around the world, and was released as a whole series rather than the traditional way of one episode per week, which fits Netflix mantra of 'binge watching'.
Although this poster is from Season 2, it still shows the creators paying homage to their influencers. This poster is influenced by Ridley Scott' s 1979 film, Alien.
The first poster released (the first poster on the page) is also paying homage to many 80's and 70's films as well, with ET with the bikes, the science suit with John Carpenter's The Thing and the structuring of the poster is similar to that of a Star Wars poster.
Marketing:
As mentioned before, Netflix created and distributed Stranger Things by funding the project and having executives oversee the project. Netflix themselves are a international and commercial company, which also have created other hit shows such as the Crown, Jessica Jones, House of Cards, BoJack Horseman, and countless others.
The first trailer (from what I could find) was released on June 6th 2016 (bearing in mind the video below was released by the Netherlands version of Netflix).
The second trailer was released on June 30th, 2016 (from the official Netflix site).
A VR experience released on the 4th of August (after season 1 aired) - released by Netflix
Like any fandom, fans have created websites dedicated towards the lore and production of Stranger Things, which can be found here on Wiki.
Two days before the airing of the first season, Netflix released a 8 minute preview to viewers to see if the series looks good and if they should get Netflix (if they don't have it already).