Download - Distribution and exhibition
Distribution and Exhibition
Further infoKKS
Distribution is about releasing and sustaining films in the market place
Vertical Integration - the three stages are seen as part of the same larger process, under the control of one company
Horizontal - distribution is necessarily a collaborative process, requiring the materials and rights of the producer and the cooperation of the exhibitor to promote and show the film in the best way possible
What is Distribution?
Acquiring legal rights to show a film
The major US studios generally have their own distribution offices in all the major territories
By contrast, independent producers have to sell their films to different distributors in each territory
‘Local’ distribution – one country – not 90+ territoriesCinema, DVD, TV rights
A local distributor will conventionally share profits equally with the producer for the theatrical leg, pay back higher royalties for broadcast rights, and lower for video/DVD#
How are films usually launched?
When and How?
Scheduling – Fridays
Film Distributors Association – oversee process
Seasonality, light weekends, other releases – optimum success
10 releases a week
Marketing Campaign – most expensive part
Release Dates
In your experience, how are films marketed?
Posters/adverts in newspapers/TV/ Trailers
New Technologies
Viral
Synergies
Above the Line/Below the Line
Film Marketing
Many independent distributors in particular do not have press departments, and will consequently hire a press agency to run a pre-release campaign.
A distributor will consider the use of advance public screenings to create word-of-mouth and advance 'buzz' around a film.
Specialised films 10 prints or less (key independent cinemas) prints 'toured' over a 6-month period to all parts of the UK.
Mainstream films – 200+ prints, simultaneously screening in all major UK towns and cities.
Prints
Transportation
35mm - £1000
Prints hired by exhibitor
Easily damaged
Expensive to store
More bought for first few months then destroyed - waste
Logistics - prints
Film distribution has its own unique procedures.
Success or failure of a cinema release determines how the DVD and TV releases will be handled subsequently.
In the international film business, the rights to screen a film are sold in respect of distinct ‘territories’ such as the UK.
Film Distribution in the UK
Most Hollywood films are distributed directly by the studio which financed the film.
In the UK the cinema box office is dominated by a handful of major distributors.
In any year, the 5 major distributors will account for 90% of the box-office rentals.
Film Distribution in the UK
Distributor Number of
Films
Films
UIP (Paramount/ Universal/ UA/MGM)
7 Shrek, Bridget Jones, Shark Tale, Van Helsing, Lemony Snicket, Bourne Supremacy, School of Rock
Warner Bros 4 Harry Potter, Troy, Scooby Doo Too, The Last Samurai
Buena Vista (Disney)
3 The Incredibles, Starsky & Hutch, The Village
20th Century Fox 3 The Day After Tomorrow, I Robot, Dodge-Ball
Sony Pictures 1 Spiderman 2Independents 2 Passion of the Christ (Icon),
Lost in Translation (Momentum)
Top 20 Box Office Films in 2004:
A Hollywood blockbuster is released ‘wide’ with one or more prints sent to each multiplex. Typically 400-500 prints, each costing £1000. So, a significant investment.
The wide release depends on blanket promotional and advertising coverage for the first weekend to create a ‘buzz’ about the film.
Free trailer packages and electronic press kits are sent to radio and TV stations and newspapers. Preview screenings for journalists are arranged. Stars give interviews and newspaper and TV advertising guarantees exposure.
Cost – over £1m but rely on opening £2m or more at box office
Typical Practice: Wide Release
Digital DistributionDigital projection, especially when married to the increasing use digital formats in production, can now replicate - if not surpass - the image quality of conventional 35mm cinema presentation
Cheaper
Send films as computer files to cinemas across the UK – piracy
Digital Projection
The compressed and encrypted files sent directly to cinemas to be downloaded, de-encrypted (unlocked) and opened as files for screening with digital projection equipment.
The shortened first-run period will allow distributors to release on DVD earlier
DSN sites supports new facilities in 211 screens across the country (out of a total of just over 3,300), small but important step change towards full digital cinema.
Digital Screen Network
Cinema Chain Number of screens
Odeon/ UCI 930Cine UK and UGC 780Vue 580Showcase 250Others 1000
The Exhibitors (cinema chains) in 2004:
Only Showcase remains in American hands, but all the other chains are deeply committed to
distributing American films.