Film DistributionBy Tiarnan Greene

Introduction

When films are being produced, a big part of post-production is how will the film be marketed for distribution and distributed around the world.There are many ways how a production company would be able to distribute and market their movies in order to gain talk and revenue for the movie. Whether it’s through cinema release, digital release, adverts or merchandise.In this presentation I will be exploring the many ways films are distributed and how different types of distribution types can affect how well a movie does during its box office release.

How do movies get distributedAs a producer, it’s important to make sure that their film will be released in order to make a profit, they would use different types of distribution methods to do so. Example of distribution methods include: Cinemas – This is the most used place to distribute films, The cinema is usually where people go to

see new movie releases if they don’t want to wait till the DVD or digital releases. It’s the most effective method that a film company would use in order to generate money quickly when the film is released. This is what is called the ‘box office’ comes into it, which is the money they get during the cinema run of the film, this means the movie is able to produce money fast instead of waiting for it through merchandise and DVD sales.

DVDs – Another very common method used by film companies. After a few months of a new film buying release, film companies will release the DVD of the movie, this means they help the store by selling the DVD and the film company as they split profits on DVD sales. Typically lots of dedicated fans of the movie will buy them, there are also other reasons as perhaps fans are buying the DVD because it’s their favourite director, actor(s), film franchise or genre. There are also films that are released straight-to-DVD but usually these movies won’t do as well as those that have been released in cinema first. Disney Movies are a good example, The Lion King was released in cinemas and gained a profit of $943.5 million whereas The Lion King 1 ½, the direct-to-DVD movie only gained a profit of $55 million from DVD sales, showing that direct to DVD movies wont gain a big profit.

Digital Releases – This distribution method has come more used in the past few years, now as well as DVDs producers also release their movies on Media software's and on-demand services such as ITunes, Google Play Store, Netflix and YouTube. This is a more convenient method for people to use as it means they don’t have to buy physical copies of the movies which makes it easier for people to own as they can have it on their phones or tablets, it’s also less expensive than a physical copy and gives people the option to buy/rent the film (renting a film is cheaper for people but means the movie is only available for a short time) and again, there's revenue for both the production company and the service that's providing the film.

How do movies get distributed How do producers distribute?There are different types of ways that companies can choose to distribute their movies, sometimes producers will choose to find a distribution company in order to distribute the movie or they will choose to self-distribute themselves, and not use another company. Usually producers will distribute their movies is by finding a distribution company instead of self distributing for example, Jurassic Park was distributed by Universal Pictures. Usually the distributer will have a credit at the start (“Universal Pictures presents….”). This method is a very common method to use instead of distributing themselves as they are able to use another company to help market and distribute the finished films while production companies work on the film. Some companies however, will choose to distribute themselves, these films are usually independent filmmakers who don’t have a big enough budget to hire a company to distribute for them and are not very known in the media industry so do not have the fame power to potentially get picked up by a company, exceptions are usually if the film is a very good one and a company sees plenty of potential to gain a profit.Usually companies will try and get as many cinemas to show there films out in the cinemas, depending on the budget, Movie franchises such as Marvel wont usually have a problem distributing the movies as they do quite well in the box offices and have a big budget to be distributed around the world to many cinemas. Indie films will struggle to get a big cinema release but may be able to release locally or for film festivals but this means usually they may not produce a big profit from using local cinemas/film festivals but still are hopefully able to generate a profit.

These will feature before the movie to show who helped distribute the movie if they have used Universal to distribute

Budget Considerations when promoting a new movie

When it comes to releasing a movie, the budget can play a massive part in how well a film does in the box office. After the film is completed the remainder of the budget needs to be used carefully to market their movie and to distribute the movie, they do this by releasing trailers online, posters and news of the movie throughout different media types in order to get word of their movie out there. Some companies will choose to release trailers in as many places as they can to generate some word of their new movie, for example in America, companies may use the advert times during the Super Bowl, a big sporting event watched by millions, to promote their film and during the 2014 Super Bowl, a 30 second advert cost $4 million and a 60 second ad cost twice as much, so smaller films may not be able to use this way to get word out there and for a normal advert to be on the TV, the costs can vary depending on when you have your advert on the TV, if its on during times when people are at work it can cost a few thousand but if its at prime viewing times such as between 6 or 7pm the cost can go into the hundred thousands. There is also the chance of being able to have the films posters on billboards and buses, something done commonly for big releases in the UK. Prices can start at about £190 to have their poster on a bus shelter panel or on the side of a bus. Nowadays, using social media films release their trailers for free on YouTube or Facebook and post on Facebook or twitter about their new movie which is a cheaper alternative but does a good job on spreading the word. For example, the producers of Star Wars: The Force Awakens released their new trailer onto YouTube and was able to gain 53 million views and went viral across the internet and on movie news websites, meaning you do not have to pay large amounts of money to spread the word of movies.An example of how budgets affect the performance of a film at a box office is by looking at two films released in August 2010- ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’ and ‘The Expendables’ with Scott Pilgrim’s budget being $60 million and $82 million respectively with Expendables being able to produce over $274.5 million due to having plenty of money for advertising and being able to have trailers across the globe on TV and movies and lots of big names attached (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Staham) while Scott Pilgrim only produced $47 million and had very little star power and not a lot of TV advertisement time and some cinema trailers which shows you do need a good budget for advertising and hopefully some star power to get your movie noticed and out there for people to see and talk about

Marketing for distributionWhen it comes to distributing a new movies, producers will also have merchandise and other marketing techniques to get their movie noticed. There is the obvious use of advertisements in the cinema, on TV and on social media but there are also things like posters, sneak peeks, clothing and toys to help promote the movie.An example of using all of these are Marvel Films, if we take the latest Avengers movie as an example you will be able to find a huge toy line for the characters in the movie at toy stores and conventions, they also release a clothing line with the different characters on t-shirts, so consumers will be able to find one of their favourite character and be able to buy it which means money is not only coming from the movie sales, but also merchandise sales. Stores such as HMV also have T-Shirts and posters in stock for big films like Avengers, Batman v Superman and Star Wars 7. They also release the soundtracks and scores of movies with very popular soundtracks, an example is ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ soundtrack, which featured a lot of older and popular songs from the 70s and 80s and became the second best movie album sold in the UK in 2014.

Examples of Avengers merchandise people would be able to buy in stores

Marketing for distributionPosters also use Star Power to get the attention of customers, if we use expendables as an example again you can see they have bigger stars near the top of the poster (Sylvester Stallone) and smaller, lesser known stars near the bottom (Terry Crews) this is because people will look at the stars of the film in the poster and if they see a familiar name of an actor, or one they enjoy watching, they are more likely to go out and watch it instead of having lesser known actors at the top as they may be unfamiliar with them and might not go and see the film if they don’t know anyone in the film.Sneak Peeks are usually short clips that are posted throughout social media and at conventions for example Comic-Con so people can see more of the film and get a glimpse into what the film will be like and can make a judgement on whether or not they will like the movie and will go see it or not.The cast may also choose to go on big talk shows watched by many people (Graham Norton/ Jonathan Ross in the UK, Conan/Jimmy Kimmel in the US) to promote their movie so they can get more people interested into the movie. Sometimes they will send 2 or 3 stars to a talk show, depending on how big the movie release is and the actors may also bring a small preview of the movie to present the new film to viewers to get them interested into the movie

The big actors of Avengers 2 on Jimmy Kimmel to promote Avengers as Marvel was expecting a huge release and a large box office

Film Festivals and distribution

Now when indie filmmakers are finding it hard to get producers and distributers to notice their movies and to show that it does have the potential to do well is by submitting there movie to a film festival, there are several different movie festivals that a filmmaker might decide on where to submit such as the Cannes film festival, BFI London Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival. Usually a film maker will pay an entry fee to get in and have selected times and days when there film will be played, big names will usually have a lot of screening times and days, and will usually be played in the big theatre rooms while smaller films may have less times to be watched and be played in smaller theatre rooms. What happens is sometimes there are competitions for what was the best film at the festival or critics may choose what were the best films at the festivals, this will catch the attention of some producers and distributors and get in touch with the filmmakers in order to make a deal to distribute their film.

An example of using film festivals to get their film noticed and distributed in theatres is the movie Clerks – The director, Kevin Smith, did not have the money to distribute as he produced his movie independently so he submitted his movie to Sundance Film Festival. The festival then lead to a producer who works for the film company Miramax, the producer and Smith were able to agree that Miramax could distribute Clerks and was able to get $3 million at the box office. Now Kevin Smith is a big independent director and has been able to expand the Clerks franchise, and still submits to film festivals , more recently Clerks 2 was entered into the Cannes film festival and many of his films were met with positive reviews which shows that using film festivals to present your movie is an effective way in order to gain a following and potentially find distributors to distribute your movie.

Releasing a foreign movie in the UK

When releasing a foreign film in the UK it can be difficult to be released across the country, what usually happens is most foreign filmmakers will submit their films into film festivals in order to get some notice in another country. Now a lot of foreign filmmakers also have their films be put onto Netflix as they have a category for foreign films and stores that sell DVDs and CDs i.e. HMV usually have a part of the store with foreign films, so the filmmakers are able to generate a profit outside of their country. Its usually difficult for a filmmaker to have their movies out in theatres as not enough people would go to see it for many reasons for example: Its hasn’t been advertised anywhere, its not very known in the country and a big problem for some people is they want to hear and understand the film instead of reading subtitles. Which means its hard for a foreign filmmaker to make a lot of money in the box office. Some Filmmakers have chosen to dub over their movie with English actors to make it easier for people who find it harder to concentrate on the movie while reading subtitles, films from the Japanese studio ‘Studio Ghibli are a good example of this as they create a subtitled version of their movies and an English dubbed version of their movies. Which was able to get £196,000 in the UK box office and shows it can work in the UK but it wouldn’t be as successful as some filmmakers may hope for.

Foreign movie selection on Netflix