Film distributor

Information about Film distributor

A film distributor is an independent company, a subsidiary company or occasionally an individual, which acts as the final agent between a film production company or some intermediary agent, and a film exhibitor, to the end of securing placement of the producer's film on the exhibitor's screen. In the film business, the term "distribution" refers to the marketing and circulation of movies in theaters, 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 he will profit financially by showing the film.

Once this is accomplished, the distributor then secures a written contract stipulating the amount of the gross 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"), collect the amount due, audit 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, 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, 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 around the world (a process that is beginning to be replaced by digital distribution) as well as the creation of posters, 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 or subtitling for the film, and securing censorship 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.

This is an incomplete and general overview. The actual practices of film distributors may vary from this model at different points in time during the history of film, and according to different national business practices affecting film distribution. Thus, a full explication of this topic must account for all periods and nations since the beginning of film, or limit itself to the study of specific times and lands.

Historical distribution approaches

In the days of the classical Hollywood cinema, the studios used the studio system, producing and distributing their own films to theaters that they also owned — a practice known as vertical integration. The studios' control over distribution was greatly weakened in the U.S. when, in 1948, the court case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. 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

A subsidiary, in business, is an entity that is controlled by another entity. The controlled entity is called a company, corporation, or limited liability company, and the controlling entity is called its parent (or the parent company).
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Agent in Commercial Law is a person who is authorised to act on behalf of another (called the Principal) to create a legal relationship with a Third Party. Section 182 of the [Indian] Contract Act, 1882 defines Agent as “a person employed to do any act for another or to
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Production company refers to a company responsible for the development and physical production of performing arts, film, radio or a television program. The company may also be directly responsible for the raising of funding for the production or may do so through an intermediary.
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movie theater (North America), also known as a cinema (Australia, United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as North America), a movie house, or the pictures, is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ("movies" or "films").
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Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.
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Marketing is a social process which satisfies consumers' wants. The term includes advertising, distribution and selling of a product or service. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, often through market research.
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movie theater (North America), also known as a cinema (Australia, United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as North America), a movie house, or the pictures, is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ("movies" or "films").
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Contract Law
Part of the common law series
Contract
Contract formation
Offer and acceptance  · Mailbox rule
Mirror image rule  · Invitation to treat
Firm offer  · Consideration
Defenses against formation
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Gross profit or sales profit or gross operating profit is the difference between revenue and the cost of making a product or providing a service, before deducting overheads, payroll, taxation, and interest payments.
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worldwide view of the subject.
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The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, project or product.
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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.
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Print may refer to:
  • Printing, mostly using a printing press
  • Printing press, printing with moveable metal type, see also Letterpress printing

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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,
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Shipping is physical process of transporting goods and cargo. Virtually every product ever made, bought, or sold has been affected by shipping. Despite the many variables in shipped products and locations, there are only three basic types of shipments: land, air, and sea.
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Digital distribution (Also known as digital delivery) is the principle of providing digital information and content over the Internet in the form of products or services.
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poster is any large piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly textual.
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Advertising is paid, one-way communication through a medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled by the sponsor. Variations include publicity, public relations, etc..
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A foreign film is a film from a foreign country. Many people throughout the world think that the vast majority of films are from the USA and, more specifically, productions from Hollywood.
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dubbing or looping is the process of recording or replacing voices for a motion picture. The term is most commonly used in reference to voices recorded that do not belong to the original actors and speak in a different language than the actor is speaking.
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Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language—with or
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Censorship is defined as the removal and/or withholding of information from the public by a controlling group or body.

Typically censorship is done by governments, religious groups, corporations, or the mass media, although other forms of censorship exist.
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1890  • 1891 • 1892 • 1893 • 1894
1895 • 1896 • 1897 • 1898 • 1899

1900s

1900 • 1901
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Business ethics is a form of the art of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment.

In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand for more ethical business
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Classical Hollywood cinema or the classical Hollywood narrative[1], are terms used in film history which designates both a visual and sound style for making motion pictures and a mode of production that arose in the American film industry of the 1910s and 1920s.
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A film studio is a controlled environment for the making of a film. This environment may be interior (sound stage), exterior (backlot), or both. In general parlance, the term is synonymous with "major film production company," due largely to the fact that the leading production
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The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the early 1950s. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios (a) producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots
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In microeconomics and managing management, the term vertical integration describes a style of ownership and control. The degree to which a firm owns its upstream suppliers and its downstream buyers determines how vertically integrated it is.
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1910s  1920s  1930s  - 1940s -  1950s  1960s  1970s
1945 1946 1947 - 1948 - 1949 1950 1951

Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII
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United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued Feb. 9-11, 1948
Decided May 3, 1948

Full case name: United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. et al

Citations: 334 U.S.
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