FILM DISTRIBUTION BY ERIN BARBER
WHAT IS FILM DISTRIBUTION Movie bosses spend A LOT of money making their films and in order to make a budget they need as many people as possible to have the chance to go and see it. Without having films in Cinema’s all over the County, if not Countries then it doesn't enable the option for people to be able to go and see it, which means you are cutting out audiences that would want to see the film. This is why its important to get the best distribution deal possible as this will allow more people to see the film which makes more money. Film distribution describes everything that happens in between production (making the film) and exhibition (people watching the film in cinema, DVD, television, via the internet, a plane or anywhere else!)
FILM DISTRIBUTION: The process of launching a film into the marketplace and then sustaining the publics interest To be financially successful a film has to be marketed, positioned and publicised
SO WHO IS ‘THE DISTRIBUTER’ THE DISTRIBUTOR 1. BUY RIGHTS TO THE FILM 2. INVEST IN FILMS PRODUCTION 3. IF THEY’RE ALREADY PART OF THE LARGER ORGANISATION THEY WILL AUTOMATICALLY DISTRIBUTE.
The distributor has to acquire the rights to a particular film. There are three stages that they can do this: Invest in a Film’s Production Buy the rights to Film after it’s been made If they are already part of the larger organisation, they will automatically distribute.
Most distribution companies are US companies are they dominate the business of Distribution meaning most people go straight to them. These companies will fight for a percentage of the global 60 Billion Dollars generated in the global film entertainment industry. However they obviously are not going to prioritise distribution of an independent film over a ‘Hollywood Blockbuster,' at the end of the day it's a business so they are going to prioritise ‘money makers’ therefore where does this leave independent films. Independent films are often distributed by independent producers, an example is Film4. They distribute films on their television channel, or working title films.
TYPES OF DISTRIBUTION Film distributors in the UK
5 major distributors dominate the UK film industry:
United International Pictures
Warner Brothers
Buena Vista
Twentieth Century Fox
Sony
Roughly 9/10 films seen in the UK are distributed by the above companies
*This does change yearly…..
POSITIONING A major concern of the distributor is to decide how many copies to circulate in the cinemas. The average 35mm costs around £1000 They must decide whether to do a ‘saturation release’ (mainstream cinema) or an ‘art-house release’ (art-house cinema.) Films rarely break even just from cinema release. The success of a cinema release will rely on word-of-mouth to secure DVD sales. Distributors will use target audience statistics and test screenings to do this.