Film Distribution

What is meant by the term film distribution?
Film distribution is the process of making a movie available for viewing by an audience.

What does a film distributor do?

Finance: selection of films, rights, financing of prints and advertising.

Promotion: release date, organisation of advertising, partnerships,

Public relations, material (trailers, posters).

Bookings: negotiation with advertisers and cinemas which will play the film.

How does reach relate to film distribution?
‘Reach’ means the amount of people advertising and marketing reaches. If a film distributor decides to have a big reach then it is likely that it will be quite expensive as they will be advertising wherever they can which could increase the amount of people that watch the film. However, if it doesn’t work and the film is unpopular, (e.g. The Green Lantern) then the film could make a loss or a smaller profit.

What is meant by the distribution plan?
The distribution plan is made by management and is a plan that aims to transfer their film to retailers and customers, considering the budget of the film. This may come in the form of deciding the release date so it appeals to the audience (e.g. releasing a horror film near Halloween). They may also have to consider their target audience and put more into advertising in areas that their target audience would be more likely to see (e.g. teens are more likely to see trailers on YouTube or social media sites).

What is meant by the marketing plan?
A marketing plan identifies the objective and the time frame in with they have to complete those objectives. This plan identifies what its target audience would like which can be found out through market research which will also identify what the current market is like. You can market a film through many means: posters, trailers, online (social media sites) and critic reviews.

What is the difference between advertising, publicity and promotion?

Advertising- The materials a company will use to market their product (e.g. magazines, radio, newspapers etc.).

Publicity- This is the methods used to get the public’s attention of the product. In this case, actors may have 5 minute interviews on TV and talk about their film or in the form of premieres.

Promotion- To raise the public’s awareness of the product. A large part of this is merchandise which may be sold after cinema viewings or come free in a magazine.



SAW: The Final Chapter 3D
SAW 3D, distributed by Lionsgate films and produced by Twisted Pictures, was released in 62 countries and in its opening weekend, it was shown in 2,808 screens across the US and took $24,230,123 at the box office. It was shown in 382 screens in the UK and took £3,600,083 and was shown in 411 screens in Russia and took RUR 67,086,524.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC7yCELivB8 -Official trailer



https://www.youtube.com/watchv=wBCSASJrB6I&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DwBCSASJrB6I&has_verified=1      -Teaser trailer

Teaser Poster

Official Poster