A film distributor is responsible for the marketing of a film. The
distribution company is usually different from the production company.
Distribution deals are an important part of financing a film.
The distributor may set the release date of a film and the method by which a film
is to be exhibited or made available for viewing: for example, directly to the
public either theatrically or for home viewing. A distributor may do this
directly, if the distributor owns the theaters or film distribution networks,
or through theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors. A limited
distributor may deal only with particular products, such as DVDs or
Blu-ray, or may act in a particular country or market. The primary
distributor will often receive credit in the film's credits, one sheet or other
marketing material. Theatrical distribution
If a distributor is working with a theatrical exhibitor, the distributor
secures a written contract stipulating the amount of the gross ticket sales the
exhibitor will be allowed to retain. The distributor collects the amount due,
audits the exhibitor's ticket sales as necessary to ensure the gross reported
by the exhibitor is accurate, secures the distributor's share of these
proceeds, surrenders the exhibitor's portion to it, and transmits the
remainder to the production company. The distributor must also ensure that
enough film prints are struck to service all contracted exhibitors on the
contract-based opening day, ensure their physical delivery to the theater by the
opening day, monitor exhibitors to make sure the film is in fact shown in the
particular theatre with the minimum number of seats and show times, and
ensure the prints' return to the distributor's office or other storage
resource also on the contract-based return date. In practical terms, this
includes the physical production of release prints and their shipping around
the world as well as the creation of posters, newspaper and magazine
advertisements, television commercials, trailers, and other types of ads.
The distributor is also responsible for ensuring a full line of advertising
material is available for each film which it believes will help the
exhibitor attract the largest possible audience, create such advertising if it
is not provided by the production company, and arrange for the physical
delivery of the advertising items selected by the exhibitor at intervals
prior to the opening day. Film distributors spend between $3.5 billion
and $4.0 billion a year in the United States alone on direct buys of
advertising such as TV commercials, billboards, online banner ads, radio
commercials and the like. That distributor-spending figure doesn't
include additional costs for publicity, film trailers and promotions, which
aren’t classified as advertising but also market films to audiences.
Distributors typically enter into one of the two types of film booking contracts.
The most common is the aggregate deal where total box office revenue that a
given film generates is split by a pre-determined mutually-agreed
percentage between distributor and movie theater. The other method is the sliding
scale deal, where the percentage of box office revenue taken by theaters
declines each week of a given film's run. The sliding scale actually has two
pieces that starts with a minimum amount of money that theater is to keep—often
called “the house nut”—after which the sliding scale kicks in for revenue
generated above the house nut. However, this sliding scale method is falling out
of use. Whatever the method, box office revenue is usually shared roughly 50/50
between film distributors and theaters. Foreign Distribution
If the distributor is handling an imported or foreign film, it may also be
responsible for securing dubbing or subtitling for the film, and securing
censorship or other legal or organizational "approval" for the
exhibition of the film in the country/territory in which it does
business, prior to approaching the exhibitors for booking. Depending on
which studio that is distributing the film,the studio will either have offices
around the world, by themselves or partnered with another studio, to
distribute films in other countries. If a studio decides to partner with a
native distributor, upon release both names will appear. The foreign
distributor may license the film for a certain amount of time, but the studio
will retain the copyright of the film. Early distribution windows
Although there are numerous distribution techniques today, previous to the
multi-channel transition, studios and networks did not experiment with
different distribution processes. Studios believed that the new
distribution methods would cause their old methods of revenue to be destroyed.
Within time, the development of new distribution did prove to be beneficial.
The studios revenue was gained from myriad distribution windows. These
windows created many opportunities in the industry and allowed networks to
make a profit and eliminate failure. These new distribution methods benefited
audiences that were normally too small to reach and expanded the content of
television. With the new age of technology, networks accepted the fact
that it was a consumer demand industry and accepted the new models of
distribution. Non-theatrical distribution
This term, used mainly in the British film industry, describes the
distribution of feature films for screening to a gathered audience, but
not in theatres at which individual tickets are sold to members of the
public. The defining distinctions between a theatrical and a
non-theatrical screening are that the latter has to be to a closed audience in
some way, e.g. pupils of a school, members of a social club or passengers
on an airline, and that there can be no individual admission charge. Most
non-theatrical screening contracts also specify that the screening must not be
advertised, except within the group that is eligible to attend.
Non-theatrical distribution includes the airlines and film societies.
Non-theatrical distribution is generally handled by companies that specialise in
this market, of which Filmbank is Britain's largest, representing the
major Hollywood studios. Home video media is sold with a licence that
permits viewing in the home only. Until these technologies were widespread, most
non-theatrical screenings were on 16mm film prints supplied by the distributor.
Today, the most common business model is for a distributor to sell the exhibitor
a licence that permits the legal projection of a copy of the film, which
the exhibitor buys separately on a home video format. These licences can either
be for individual, one-off screenings, or cover an unlimited number of
screenings of titles represented by that distributor for a specified time period.
The latter are often purchased by pubs and students' unions, to enable them to
show occasional feature films on a TV in their bars.
Home video distribution Some distributors only handle home video
distribution or some sub-set of home video distribution such as DVD and/or
Blu-ray distribution. The remaining home video rights may be licensed by the
producer to other distributors or the distributor may sub-license them to
other distributors. If a distributor is going to distribute
a movie on a physical format such as DVD, they must arrange for the creation
of the artwork for the case and the face of the DVD and arrange with a DVD
replicator to create a glass master to press quantities of the DVD.
Today some movie producers are using a process called "DVD-on-demand." In
DVD-on-demand, a company will burn a DVD-R when a copy of the DVD is ordered,
and then ship it to the customer. A distributor may also maintain contact
with wholesalers who sell and ship DVDs to retail outlets as well as online
stores, and arrange for them to carry the DVD. The distributor may also place
ads in magazines and online and send copies of the DVD to reviewers.
Distribution credits The primary distribution company(s) will
usually receive some billing for the film. For example, Gone With the Wind
was shown on the one sheet as "A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Release". A modern
example, Jurassic Park, would be the credit "Universal Pictures presents …".
The Universal production logo also opened the film's trailer. In some
cases, there is split distribution as in the case of Titanic: "Twentieth Century
Fox and Paramount Pictures present …". Both companies helped finance this very
expensive film. See also
Bel Air Circuit List of film distributors by country
References