Film Distribution and Marketing

What is meant by the term film distribution?Film distribution is making the public and the target audience know about the film

What does a film distributor do?A film distributor has many roles in a highly competitive business these roles can include:

• Identifying its audience
• Considering why they'd go and see it
• Estimating the revenue potential across all the formats of its release
• Developing plans and partnerships to build awareness of and interest in the film
• Aiming to convert as much interest as possible into cinema visits
• Persuading exhibitors to play the film (cinema operators)

Distributors share and discuss their release plans with:

• Filmmakers and producers, who are likely to have nurtured their projects for years through the development and production stages
• Cinema exhibitors present the finished films on their screens
• A host of external partners and suppliers such as publicists designers and media agencies.
  

How does reach relate to film distribution?Reach means how many media platforms the film has promoted this means that if the film has a big reach then it has promoted across the board for example radio, TV, trailers, posters, competitions etc. Reach has high expenses. It costs a lot to have a lot of media platforms to make your film be known about but taking the risk of not having many media platforms can result in not many people coming to watch the film which means profit costs decrease.

What is meant by the marketing plan?Every film has a detailed marketing plan. Film distributors use marketing objectives which include create visibility, raise awareness and engage interest. The marketing plan helps come up with a marketing budget it helps with knowing where to reach their target audience and where they are most receptive to communication. Some of the marketing materials which are involved in the main marketing plan are Word of Mouth, Posters, Trailers and Online+Mobile.

What is meant by the distribution plan? The distribution plan is all about when and how to release, finding out who the target audiences is and finding out if the film is a genre film and finding out if you have a big budget or not for the distributing and seeing if you have competition.

What is the difference between advertising, publicity and promotion? Advertising is the materials when releasing a film for example trailers and posters. Publicity includes things like reviews, its not all about you yourself seeing the advertisement you may hear it from elsewhere which then would make you aware of the film and also interviews. When the people are not in character but they are still publicising the film.  Promotion is about the merchandise. Companies will let people pay them to use their trademark.

Horror Film Teaser- House Of Wax

The distrubutors for this horror film was the Warner Bros, Pictures. The release dates were April 30th 2005 in Tribeca, May 6th 2005 USA July 14th 2005 Austrailia. Opening Weekend $12,077,236 (USA) (8 May 2005) (3,111 Screens) €89,046 (Netherlands) (29 May 2005) (40 Screens)