Film Distribution and Marketing

 

The Process of a film to cinemas and where distributors come into play:

Someone has an idea for a movie.They create an outline and use it to promote interest in the idea.A studio or independent investor decides to purchase rights to the film.People are brought together to make the film (screenwriter, producer, director, cast, crew).The film is completed and sent to the studio. 

The studio makes a licensing agreement with a distribution company.
The distribution company determines how many copies (prints) of the film to make.
The distribution company shows the movie (screening) to prospective buyers representing the theaters.
The buyers negotiate with the distribution company on which movies they wish to lease and the terms off the lease agreement.
The prints are sent to the theaters a few days before the opening day.
The theater shows the movie for a specified number of weeks (engagement).
You buy a ticket and watch the movie.
At the end of the engagement, the theater sends the print back to the distribution company and makes payment on the lease agreement.

 

 

Film distribution is a vital part of making a film available to the public; without an audience the film can't make any money. The film is made available through theatrical release in cinemas, being introduced on DVD and Blue ray or on a television programme. It is the task of the distributor to identify and deliver the largest posibble audience for every film.

The film distributor is in charge of setting a release date and the method by which the film will be distributed (theatrical etc.). The film distributor may be a company or an individual who owns distribution networks and can therfore release the film through vertical integration. If the distributor doesn't own networks then they use theatrical distributors or sub-distributors. If the budget is small or the distributor is limited then the distribution of the film will also be limited: dealing only with a particular product e.g. only in DVD and Blu-ray and even only distributed in one country. An example of this is the film 'Colin' which was released in one cinema in England with an estimated budget of $70.

Reach means the breadth that the film is distributed over and the frequency of its viewings. It is the estimated number of individuals the audience of the film reaches over a specific period of time. For example, 'Colin' had a very small reach because it had an extremely small budget and therefore was only shown for one screening on its opening weekend. Compared to a film like 'Cabin in the Woods' with a budget of $30,000,000 and shown in 2811 cinemas in the opening weekend, which had a large reach. To maximize exposure to potential audiences of the film, adverts, trailers, posters and other advertising mediums are distributed, and then film companies can find the reach using media ratings of the number of households/individuals who see the adverts at least once during a specific time period.




Marketing is how you define your product, promote your product, distribute it and develop a relationship with your customers (audience). The marketing plan includes making your film desirable to the audience by making it attractive, affordable and available. To be successful, the marketing plan must address competition as well as economical, social, political, cultural and technological factors so that the public are attracted to the film. Marketing should begin before the film has even been made so that distributors can get involved early. Marketing should know who they intend to target and a realistic idea of where to find these people in order to advertise successfully, paying attention to genre will help to define the film and the target audience. There must be a unique selling point to the film because after the process of putting the film together, it could fail if the distributors and public are not interested in it. Audience breakdown is a classic way to market a film well because you can determine where to position the film in the marketplace to reach the audience.


The distribution plan should be designed as early as possible in order to increase flexibility and funding options. Priorities and target audiences should be understood to determine distribution avenues and release sequence. The distribution plan means identifying potential partners and positioning in the market. Distribution rights such as film festival, theatrical, video, DVD sales, web sales and iTunes can be split between companies and agents.
 A distribution team includes a strategist, a producer’s rep, a foreign sales agent, a webmaster, an outreach coordinator, theatrical and semi-theatrical bookers, print and online publicists and a fulfilment company.


Advertising is something which has been designed by a company in order to give the public and target audiences a positive idea about their film (product), this is technically biased because it focuses on the positives of the product and is influenced by a paying company. However, publicity comes from a neutral and impartial source which isn’t controlled by the film makers; this means that publicity is often more credible with honest views and often more negative opinions than advertising poses. Advertising is targeted to particular audiences and is therefore more creative with innovative, positive ideas whilst publicity is limited in creativity as well as having a less focused audience. Promotion should include a commitment to community involvement in order to receive positive feedback from the public. Involvement can range from sponsoring communities, to fund raisers and events which will promote the film/ product the company has made. For example, premieres and events are examples of promotion for films because they are not products targeted at an audience like advertising, but they are organised by the company with a positive view of the film, unlike publicity. The events may gain publicity which helps to get a bigger response from the public.