The Role of the Mighty Distributor!!!

The distributor has a key role in the film industry, there job is to show the film to the audience, via advertisement and showing the film. Distributors have to deliver to the largest audience they can with the material they have been given. Without the distributor there would be very little film industry, nothing would be advertised and the films would struggle to sell out of the cinema.

For the distributor they have many areas to cover, one being the film value chain, which are Cinemas, Home entertainment (DVD, Bluray & Online), Pay/Subscription TV and Free to air television. Cinemas offer the best place to view a film as you can be completely taken into the story and be fully immersed in the film. When attempting to get a film into the cinema the distributor must discuss it with the following: Film-makers & Producers, Exhibitors (who will present the films), External Partners, such as publicists and advertising agencies. Cinemas are a unique place for films to be advertised as it offers a place for film goers to see a film in the best way possible and to see what films they would want to see the next time they go to the cinema.

UK distributors obtain there films via 4 different sources:

1. A third party sales agent, acting on behalf of a producer

2. A flow of content from a parent studio

3. A studio or production company with whom the distributor has negotiated an output deal.        

4. A single title acquired at any stage before, during or after production.

There is high competition between distributors as to how they get there product and when they get it making it a fierce market. The distributors will look for new films which are likely to make a huge profit, are original and look incredible, you have to also factor in the idea of a local film. British made films sell better in Britain. Distributors like to have a deal in place with producers before the film in is in production based on its marketability and playability. For a producer to achieve this they need to seek finance from another area, such as:

1. Pre-sales via a third party.

2. Bank loans (but not best in a economic decline)

3. Investors

4. Private individuals

5. Tax Schemes

6. Public subsidies

The distributor has to sign a contract with the producers as to what they can do with the film. such as release it in cinemas, publicise it and to be locally edited to support the surrounding area.

When working with higher budget films the distributor is more likely to be involved earlier on so they can work on the advertising of the product to build up more of a hype for the film. When a distributor is bought in earlier on they then have some control of the project and it's development. Sometimes the distributor makes a advanced commitment so they can get the licence of distribution and theatrical prints and advertising. When a broadcaster contributes to a film, like film four, they are likely to pre-secure TV rights as part of the deal so they can get ahead of other broadcasters in this case the distributor will only have he rights to cinema, DVD/Bluray and downloads. The distributor will right a report about the marketing of the film such as spend, forecasts and actual revenues. This will be done quarterly for the first year, and if the film is really popular this would carry over for a second year bit other wise the second year would only have 2 reports and that would be the same each year.

The distributor must work out estimates with the producers and the low medium and high film turn overs so they can work out what profit they can turn over as they will need to turn a profit for the film to be a success. The distributor must figure out there target audience demographically and psycho-graphically so they can target the film at the largest audience they can. a different type of audience needs a different type of advertising and sales technique. although the distributor must attract a huge audience by making the film appeal to a wide audience but they must not lose the core target audience as the main one. For example a comedy horror which is primarily a comedy shouldn’t be shown as the scariest horror film because it will scare away the people going in for the comedy.the ways that the films are shown in different ways is through other forms of media, such as posters, online, mobile and TV advertisements. Another way is a form synergy by selling merchandise, McDonald's is always good for selling toys the publicise films, which is a form of synergy. but other merch such as t-shirts, film soundtracks and other such goods are sold in there bucket loads to publicise the film.

The key to the distributor is to excite the audience about a film they have yet to see, they only have one chance to make this impression as most people decide early on what films they want to see and don’t want to see. inspiring a young audience is always a attractive prospect as they have the ability to bring in bigger audiences as the younger the film goer the more chance they will have to bring family along but if there slightly older there is more chance they will go in a group.

Originally films came out in the Us then spread over the world, but now there is more of a fight to get it to your own country first. in the first week a film can pass £100m with a international opening. and this will carry on as the European, Asian and African markets grow. Ticket sales are currently worth 850 million making the UK one of the most lucrative film countries, but with everything else you can get out of a cinema these days, such as sweets and drinks and other releases like DVDs it can turn over £2.5 billion.

The distributors office is filled with scripts to be carefully read through, each script is a potential pay packet, so each script is carefully read and appreciated in anyway it can be. each script has to be read through to work out:

1. Marketing
2. Publicity
3. Sales
4. Technical
5. Acquisition & Legal
6. Finance & Accounting
7. Administration

The role of the distributor is to excite a audience to the film they are trying to publicise as to attract a wide audience to make the film as successful as possible. With out them the film industry would die out because no one would be really excited to see a film unless they had done the background checks to see if the film was being made, who was in it and so on. This is not a easy job, but with out it movies would now be what they are today.