Film distribution
Film distribution, also called film exhibition or film distribution and exhibition, is the process of making a movie available for viewing to an audience. This is normally the task of a professional film distributor, who would determine the marketing and release strategy for the film, the media by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing and other matters. The film may be exhibited directly to the public either through a movie theater or television, or personal home viewing (including physical media, video-on-demand, download, television programs through broadcast syndication). For commercial projects, film distribution is usually accompanied by film promotion.
Theatrical distribution[edit]
Pre-studio era film release[edit]
Prior to the decline of the Motion Picture Patents Company (Edison Trust) in 1915, there were two main forms of film distribution: states rights and roadshow.[7]
Under the states rights system, films were sold on a local, territorial basis. The local salesperson would then play the film as often as they desired in an attempt to make as much profit as possible. Film copyright holders would sell rights of a movie directly to the theater or franchise salesperson,[8] typically on a foot-by-foot basis for 10 cents a foot.[7] Absent major studios or national theater franchises, this system was generally the best way to ensure national release of a film, particularly for shorter films. However, in terms of profitability, the states rights system was not the most effective way to screen feature-length films since the film's producers only made money on the initial sale of each film copy.
This method also made it possible to screen films of various genre which may be illegal in one state but legal in another.[8]
With the roadshow system, the producer would enter into an agreement with each theater, with priority given to large-seating and famous theaters. Money would be made via ticket sales. A movie's showing would be limited to drive up demand and to help create a sense of prestige.[7] Although this method helped increase film earnings for the producer, given its nature, a movie's release would only be at the regional level. Some of the first road show films were the Italian film Cabiria (1914) and the American The Birth of a Nation (1915).[9]
Standard release[edit]
The standard release routine for a movie is regulated by a business model[10] called "release windows". The release windows system was first conceived in the 1970s as a strategy to keep different instances of a movie from competing with each other,[11] allowing the movie to take advantage of different markets (cinema, home video, TV, etc.) at different times.
In the standard process in 1979 in the United States, a movie was first released through movie theaters (theatrical window), then released to pay television for a short run before being re-released in theaters. It then returned to pay television before being made available for free-to-air television.[12]
Currently, after a movie is released through movie theaters, it is released to home video and VOD services. After an additional period, it is usually released to pay television, and then made available for free-to-air television.[13]
Simultaneous release[edit]
A simultaneous release takes place when a movie is made available on many media (cinema, home video, VOD) at the same time or with very little difference in timing.
Simultaneous releases offer great advantages to both consumers, who can choose the medium that most suits their needs, and production studios that only have to run one marketing campaign for all releases. The flip side, though, is that such distribution efforts are often regarded as experimental and thus do not receive substantial investment or promotion.
Simultaneous release approaches have gained both praise, with investor Mark Cuban claiming movies should simultaneously be made available on all media allowing viewers to choose whether to see it at home or at the theater,[14] and disapproval, with director M. Night Shyamalan claiming it could potentially destroy the "magic" of moviegoing.[15]
Cinema owners can be affected if they have to share their opportunity window, especially at the beginning of the movie lifecycle, since, according to Disney, about 95% of all box office tickets for a film are sold within the first six weeks after initial distribution.[16]
Among relevant simultaneous release attempts are Bubble (2006) by Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh, EMR (2005) by James Erskine & Danny McCullough, and The Road to Guantanamo (2006).
Shrinking of the theatrical window[edit]
Between 1967 and 1974, the average theatrical window in the United States between a film's theatrical release and its showing on TV was just over five years.[17] By 1979, with the advent of pay television, films were normally made available to pay television in the United States one or two years after theatrical release.[12] With the advent of home video, the National Association of Theatre Owners in the United States passed a resolution in 1980 objecting to the proposed release of video cassettes at the same time as a film was released in theaters on the basis that their release would negatively impact theatrical revenues.[18] The window between theatrical release and free-to-air television in the United States at the time was normally three years.[19] By 1983 in the United States, the theatrical window before a film would be made available to other media, (at the time, firstly cable or pay TV) was around a year.[20] In France, with the rise of home video, a law was created to give a theatrical window of one year before a film was made available to home video with it then being available to pay television then free-to-air television two or three years later.[13] By 1985 in the United States, the theatrical window before a film was released on home video was normally four to six months, depending on the performance of the film at the box office.[21] Films in the US were then available for pay-per-view four months later[11] and, approximately two years after its theatrical release date, available for free-to-air television. The reduction in the theatrical window impacted subrun theaters that showed films after they had been screened by first-run theaters.[20] By 2019, the theatrical window had been reduced to an average of three months in the United States.[22] Major movie studios reportedly pushed to shrink the theatrical window in an attempt to make up for the substantial losses in the DVD market suffered since the 2004 sales peak. These attempts have encountered the firm opposition of theater owners, whose profits depend solely upon attendance and therefore benefit from keeping a movie available on their screens.[10][23]
In early 2010, Disney announced it would be putting out the DVD and Blu-ray versions of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland 14 weeks after the movie's release date (instead of the then usual 17) in order to avoid competition from the 2010 World Cup.[10] In response to such statements, theater owners made threats not to show the movie on their screens,[24] but later reconsidered their position before the movie was released.[25] As of 2019, most major theater chains mandated an exclusivity window of 90 days before release on physical home video and rental availability, and 74–76 days before digital sell-through.[26]
Other strategies are also being deployed in order to make up for slow DVD sales. Most major studios have considered making movies available to VOD services shortly after their theatrical release for a premium price.[23] In July 2010 Netflix secured a deal with Relativity Media in which the latter agreed to distribute a number of major movies to the aforementioned VOD service before Pay TV.[27]
Producers of relatively smaller-budget movies are also utilizing new release strategies. In 2009, the movie The House of the Devil premiered on VOD systems on October 1, and received a limited theatrical release one month later. In August 2010, it was announced that the movie Freakonomics would be released on video on demand on September 3, one month before its theatrical release. The British sci-fi movie Monsters has also undergone the same release timetable. After Netflix bought the worldwide distribution rights to Beasts of No Nation, the film was simultaneously released theatrically and online through its subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service on October 16, 2015.[28]
In late 2018, five of the major Hollywood studios, including Universal and Warner Bros., identified that they were working on an agreement that would see certain movies receive a premium video-on-demand release within weeks of their theatrical premieres.[29] Nothing came out of these discussions, and after Disney bought 21st Century Fox, then Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that the theatrical window is working for the company and they had no plans to adjust it.[30]