Film Distribution

Distribution means in essence, the marketing and duplication of a film, plus getting it into cinemas and the public's eye light. These things are what a distributer has to do for every film that comes out into the film marketplace. The job requires a large loss of personnel beliefs about personnel taste etc, as you have to make sure that the film is as commercially successful as possible for both the distributer and the film company.

There is substantial difference in distribution for different companies. For example, larger, blockbuster distributer companies like Disney, MGM and Warner Bros have it easier to distribute their films as they receive films straight from the development stages of the company, which mean that they instantly now what they are working with. On the other hand, smaller independent distributers like Lionsgate, Metrodance and Maurentin Pictures have to choose which films they are going to distribute, as they don't have he resources to be part of a larger producer. They choose the films by going to film festivals and watching teasers for each film. During this, they have to make several observations: What genre of film it is, what the film's USP (unique selling point) is and who will see the film. It is said that 15-24 is the largest age group that are movie goers: an important factor as the bigger the potential audience, the larger the potential profit for the film.

There are a number of things, however, that both large and small distributors have to take into consideration when marketing the film. Some examples would be that they have to decide upon the release date of the film, as this is crucial to the flim's potential profit. For example, if there is another big budget blockbuster coming out around the same time you plan to release yours, it might hinder the level of traffic that the film makes. Another thing that they must consider is how to get the budget right, as the budget for the marketing must be just right. Use not enough, chances are the film won't be represented very well, use too much and the budget will get out of hand.

In order for the film to be commercially successful, the distributers must run a marketing campaign that will be big enough for the film to be commercially successful. There are a number of ways that the distributers can make a successful marketing campaign.