Film Industry - Distribution

Distribution - The Role of the Distributor

- Film distributor brings the movie to the marketplace.
- There is a release plan for every movie.
- Distribution companies like MGM, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox have their films straight from the production company.
- Small, independent distribution companies like Lionsgate, Metrodome and Momentum
buy films at festivals to distribute.
- To attract an audeince, they need a unique selling point.
- Distributors are very clear about who are the target audience.
- The 15-24 age group is the largest and most frequent audience for films.
- They have to get a large audience for the film to get a large amount of ticket
sales.
- The distributor decides when the movie is released.
- Movies for younger audiences are usually released in the summer holidays.
- For research, they get audiences to see rough drafts of movies and ask them to
do a questionnaire.
- Distribution spend money to advertise and market their movies.
- How much will it make? How much will be spent?
- They decide what will be the best media formats for that movie.
- Distribution can advertise by using posters, TV, promotions and premieres.

Distribution - The Campaign

- The marketing campaign needs to bigger than other movies that are out at the same
time to get an audience.
- They usually consist of the following: Trailer, poster campaigns, radio spots, TV
spots, outdoor advertising, internet and mobile.
- The advertising campaigns have to be synergistic.
- The first element is the poster as it is the first look of the movie.
- The trailer is the second element and the most important key to the movie as the
way the sound and the graphic is portrayed helps the audience decide what to see.
- Teaser trailers are often made before the film is completely edited to make it
snappier.
- Trailer doesn't need a voice over
- On the TV spot it should include the unique selling point, the title, date and who
is in it.
- Most movies have their own official websites.
- Some films use viral campaigns to make their movie known.
- Press relations and publicity like reviews and interviews.
- Reviews from newspapers and magazines can have an impact on the sales of the
movies.
- They track the audiences awarenessof the movie 4 weeks into being released in
cinemas.
- Word of mouth takes over before movie comes out by having previews of movies
before the release date.
- The opening weekend is crucial for a movie.