Bringing the Film to the Audience: Distribution and Exhibition

Bordwell

Distribution: The Center of Power

Filmmakers need them to circulate filmmakers work. Supply exhibitors screens. Warner Bros. Paramount Walt Disney/Buena Vista Sony/Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox Universal

Big Distribution Companies

advertise films schedule releases arrange for prints to be made in local languages (dubbing/subtitles) Can endure the risks of theatrical moviemaking Filmmakers profit after released on cable, satellite, and home video

Booking Films
US: theater owners bid for each film a distributor releases and it before bidding. Blind booking: distributors force exhibitors to rent a film without seeing it. Block booking: exhibitors pressured to rent a package of films to get a few desirable items.

Exhibitors Business

Usually 10% of gross (90% for distributor) increasing to 70%

But deduction from the gross the expenses of running the theater. snacks

Distributors Business

Distributor the rentals and divides it further.

Usually 35 percent of the rentals as distribution fee Another percentage if helped finance the film Deduces costs of prints and advertising Rest to filmmakers. Producer pays profit participants (directors, actors, executives, and investors who have negotiated a share of the rental returns)
By preselling distribution rights, filmmakers finance production.

Distribution Strategies

Platforming: opening in some cities first and then in others, to build anticipation
Critical support and good word of mouth
Breakback Mountain

Wide release
For deep pocketed major distributors as many prints Signals a must-see film Recoup costs faster Against piracy

Synergy

Coordination of sectors within the company around a branded piece of content

Film Television Publishing Music Video games

Publicity campaign

Distributors are also in charge of

Trailers Soundtrack albums TV making-of Special premieres Electronic press kits
photos, background information, star interviews, and clips of key scenes plot information, star biographies, games, screen savers, and links to merchandise

web page

Wireless communication trailers downloaded to cell phones and textmessaging campaigns

Merchandising

Manufacturing companies buy the rights to use the films characters, title, or images on products.
defray production and distribution costs, distributor can have long-term income from an audience that might never have seen the film.

Cross-promotion = brand partnering

a film and a product line advertised simultaneously (happy meal)

Product placement

Ancillary Markets
more money than the theatrical release airline flights, hotel television systems, pay-per-view television, DVD release, cable broadcast, network broadcast and cable reruns. Video on demand

Blocking copying

Life in Adjacent Media

Paperback novels Comic books TV series Theme park Broadway shows TV cartoons Video games

Theatrical and Nontheatrical Exhibition

Theatrical (paying admission)

Movie theatres, arts centers, museums, film festivals, and cinema clubs By investing on multiplexes and megaplexes overseas, distributors are guaranteed an outlet for their product

Nontheatrical
Home video, cable and satellite transmissions, and screenings in schools and colleges.

DVD market sustains most of the worlds theatrical filmmaking, but movie theaters remain central to the exhibition system.

Artistic Implications of Distribution and Exhibition

Comedies better in cinema

laughter can ripple through a crowd.

Bonus materials encourage to rerun the movie to spot things they missed. Interactive DVD movies: viewers choose how plot develops. Movies designed specifically for mobile phones; mobisodes branching off the broadcast story line. Interactive films that use hyperlinks to amplify or detour a story line. Marketing and merchandising expanding the story Product placement

Image Size
1920s cinemas: wide shots 1950s 10 TV: close shots 1960s smaller cinemas: close shots Cropped image on TV (safe areasingles) VS. Letterboxed (dark bands approximating films theatrical proportions)

Distributors

Exhibitors
Blind booking block booking Small % of gross snacks Platforming Wide release

Filmmakers need them to circulate filmmakers work Supply exhibitors screens advertise films (publicity campaign, merchandising, crosspromotion) schedule releases prints to be made in local languages

Synergy: ancillary market artistic implications