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.