Film Distribution

Film Distribution is basically the process of a series of steps to ‘get the movie out there’, it is up to companies to buy the film and show it in Theatres. The first part of the process is where the producer/Companies acquires the rights to film a story or treatment, then the screenplay is developed by one or two more writers. After this, the Production finance and crew and cast are confirmed. The principal photography takes place, in studios or/and in agreed locations, followed by some months of post-production, scoring and editing. The Distributor develops release strategy, considers the release date and takes delivery of a master print of the finished film, once this is done the Distributor presents the film to exhibitors and negotiates bilateral agreements to have it shown in cinemas. The Distributor’s marketing campaign aims to create a ‘want to see’ buzz’ among the target audience and launches the film. Film prints including the British Board of Film Classification certificate are delivered to cinemas a few days before opening, the film’s run extends any number of weeks subject to demand, which may be augmented by additional marketing. Finally, to complete the whole film distribution process, after following its run in the cinemas, the film is released in other formats (home entertainment, television) and quickly becomes a catalogue title. Every film has its own distribution plan, which the film distributor develops in consultation with the producers and/or studio as appropriate. The most important strategic decisions that a film distributor makes are when and how to release a film in order to optimise its chances. This is done through a combination of market knowledge, commercial experience, statistical research and professional judgement; distributors gauge the audience for each film and set clear targets for the release. Some of the things that a distributer considers are; who can be convinced to buy a cinema ticket to see it and why should they do so? Can the film be positioned within a popular, recognisable genre? What sort of audiences have similar films attracted recently? When were they released? When film distributors have estimated what their film may earn, they prepare a budget to release it. Sometimes final distribution plans may be confirmed only when the finished film is available to view. Reach relates to film distribution as the distributors need to reach certain agreements and aspects of the distribution process. For example they need to reach the correct release date by making sure the film is ready to distribute, they also need to make the film successful so they can reach the correct budget they expect to get from sales. A marketing plan contains a list of actions, this outlines the organisations overall marketing efforts. The things that are included in the marketing plan are Financial data, Product data, Sales and distribution data, Advertising, sales promotion and merchandising data. The distribution plan is where the product is organised in where it is going to be shown and sold. Also you have to consider how the customers are going to purchase the products whether it is going to be in local stores or online websites, this will be considered as you also have to think about the selling price. You also have to think about how many copies of the film you are going to produce and sell as it costs to make, do you think a profit is going to be made? Advertising is used to encourage and persuade an audience, the main focus point of advertising is tv commercials, however there are other forms of advertising as you also see banners on websites, trailers at cinemas and also posters in magazines and shop windows. Publicity is more of a promotion process as you have to promote things to get your audience to be interested in them, The forms of publicity that are suitable for promoting a film are Event sponsorship, organise a tour of your project and arrange a speech about the film Promotion is all about making the product well known before it is even released, the main thing to do in promotion is influence your audience and customers to buy it when it is released. The best ways of promoting the product are personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing and publicity. When you are promoting a product you need to present the information well to the customers and also try to increase the demand of making your customers to purchase the product. SAW IV: This film was released in October 2007; in the opening weekend the film reached number 1 and was shown in 3,183 theatres and gained $31,756,754. The average income from the opening weekend screening was $9,976. Domestically in the whole time of its release since October 2007 it has had a total income of $63,300,095. The main distributor of this film is Lionsgate which is the distributor for UK and USA.