All Topics  
Film distributor

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Film distributor
 
 
  Topics Film distributor Topic Home

A film distributor is an independent company, a subsidiary
Subsidiary

A subsidiary, in business matters, is an entity that is controlled by a bigger and more powerful entity. The controlled entity is called a company , corporation, or limited liability company, and the controlling entity is called its parent ....
 company or occasionally an individual, which acts as the final agent
Agent (law)

An Agent in Commercial Law is a person who is authorised to act on behalf of another to create a legal relationship with a Third Party. Section 182 of the [Indian] Contract Act, 1872 defines Agent as ?a person employed to do any act for another or to represent another in dealings with third persons?....
 between a film production company
Production company

Production company refers to a company responsible for the development and physical production of performing arts, film, radio or a television program....
 or some intermediary agent, and a film exhibitor, to the end of securing placement of the producer's film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 on the exhibitor's screen. In the film business, the term "distribution" refers to the marketing
Marketing

Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large....
 and circulation of movies in theaters
Movie theater

A movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing film ....
, and for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc).
primary agenda of the distributor is to convince the exhibitor to rent, or "book", each film.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Film distributor'
Start a new discussion about 'Film distributor'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A film distributor is an independent company, a subsidiary
Subsidiary

A subsidiary, in business matters, is an entity that is controlled by a bigger and more powerful entity. The controlled entity is called a company , corporation, or limited liability company, and the controlling entity is called its parent ....
 company or occasionally an individual, which acts as the final agent
Agent (law)

An Agent in Commercial Law is a person who is authorised to act on behalf of another to create a legal relationship with a Third Party. Section 182 of the [Indian] Contract Act, 1872 defines Agent as ?a person employed to do any act for another or to represent another in dealings with third persons?....
 between a film production company
Production company

Production company refers to a company responsible for the development and physical production of performing arts, film, radio or a television program....
 or some intermediary agent, and a film exhibitor, to the end of securing placement of the producer's film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 on the exhibitor's screen. In the film business, the term "distribution" refers to the marketing
Marketing

Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large....
 and circulation of movies in theaters
Movie theater

A movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing film ....
, and for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc).

Film distribution process

The primary agenda of the distributor is to convince the exhibitor to rent, or "book", each film. To this end the distributor usually arranges industry screenings for exhibitors, and uses other marketing techniques that will make the exhibitor believe they will profit financially by showing the film.

Once this is accomplished, the distributor then secures a written contract
Contract

A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act which is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement....
 stipulating the amount of the gross
Revenue

In business, revenue or revenues is income that a corporation receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of product to customers....
 ticket sales to be paid to the distributor (usually a percentage of the gross after first deducting a "floor", which is called a "house allowance" (also known as the "nut"), collect the amount due, audit
Audit

The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, project or product. Audits are performed to ascertain the validity and reliability of information, and also provide an assessment of a system's internal control....
 the exhibitor's ticket sales as necessary to ensure the gross reported by the exhibitor is accurate, secure the distributor's share of these proceeds, and transmit the remainder to the production company (or to any other intermediary
Intermediary

An intermediary is a third party that offers intermediation services between two trading parties. The intermediary acts as a conduit for goods or services offered by a supplier to a consumer....
, such as a film release agent). Ordinarily there are standard blanket contracts between a distributor and an exhibitor that apply to all films subsequently booked, although on occasion some of the terms, such as the percentage of the gross to be paid by the exhibitor, may be varied with regard to a particular film.

The distributor must also ensure that enough film prints are struck to service all contracted exhibitors on the contract-based opening day
Opening Day

Opening Day is warmly regarded in North American tradition as the beginning of a new Major League Baseball season. It falls annually around the beginning of April, signaling such a generational feeling of rebirth for some that the writer Thomas Boswell once penned a book titled, Why Time Begins On Opening Day....
, ensure their physical delivery to the theater by the opening day, monitor exhibitors to make sure the film is in fact shown in the particular theatre with the minimum number of seats and show times, and ensure the prints' return to the distributor's office or other storage resource also on the contract-based return date. In practical terms, this includes the physical production of film prints and their shipping
Shipping

Shipping is physical process of transporting product and cargo. Virtually every product ever made, bought, or sold has been affected by shipping....
 around the world (a process that is beginning to be replaced by digital distribution
Digital distribution

Digital distribution is the principle of providing digital information and content over the Internet in the form of products or services. It has been growing steadily and increasing rapidly since the turn of the century due to the rise of consumer broadband....
) as well as the creation of poster
Poster

A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both typography and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly textual....
s, newspaper and magazine advertisements, television commercials, trailers, and other types of ads.

Furthermore, the distributor is responsible for ensuring a full line of film advertising material is available on each film which it believes will help the exhibitor attract the largest possible audience, create such advertising if it is not provided by the production company, and arrange for the physical delivery of the advertising items selected by the exhibitor at intervals prior to the opening day.

If the distributor is handling an imported or foreign-language film, it may also be responsible for securing dubbing
Dubbing (filmmaking)

In film production, dubbing or looping is the process of recording or replacing voices for a motion picture. The term most commonly refers to voices recorded that do not belong to the original actors and speak in a different language from the one in which the actor is speaking....
 or subtitling for the film, and securing censorship
Censorship

Censorship is the suppression of freedom of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful or sensitive, as determined by a censor....
 or other legal or organizational "approval" for the exhibition of the film in the country/territory in which it does business, prior to approaching the exhibitors for booking.

Historical distribution approaches

In the days of the classical Hollywood cinema
Classical Hollywood cinema

Classical Hollywood cinema or the classical Hollywood narrative, are terms used in history of film which designates both a visual and sound style for making motion pictures and a mode of production used in the Cinema of the United States between roughly the 1910s and the 1960s....
, the studio
Movie studio

A movie studio is, in the established sense of the term, a film distributor. Literally, however, the term denotes a controlled environment for the making of a film....
s used the studio system
Studio system

The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Cinema of the United States from the early 1920s through the early 1950s....
, producing and distributing their own films to theaters that they also owned — a practice known as vertical integration
Vertical integration

In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies are united through a hierarchy with a common owner....
. The studios' control over distribution was greatly weakened in the U.S. when, in 1948, the court case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.

United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., Case citation was a landmark United States Supreme Court anti-trust case that decided the fate of movie studios owning their own theatres and holding exclusivity rights on which theatres would show their films....
 forced the major film studios to sell all their theaters. Today, major studios and independent production companies alike compete for screens in theaters.

See also