Lily-Mae Landell A2 Media Blog

Film Distribution

The term film distribution is the competitive business of launching and sustaining films in the market place. It is the distributor’s job to bring each film to the market by identifying its audience and take into consideration why they’d go and see it. They have to estimate the revenue potential across all the formats of its release. They also have to develop plans and partnerships to build awareness and interest in the film. As well as aiming to convert as much interest as possible into cinema visits they have to actually persuade exhibitors to play the film.

It is the distributor who is responsible for the marketing of the film. The distributor is usually the one to set the release the date of the film and the method of which a film is to be made available viewing, for example directly to the public either theatrically or for home viewing. They will also make a campaign to make the film as well- known as possible. This would include advertising; they may choose to advertise in a specific area to target a certain target audience.

Reach is referred to the total number of different people or households exposed at least once to a medium during a given period. Sometimes reach can be confused with the number of people who will actually be exposed to and consume the advertising. The size of the reach can depend on how much profit the film makes, relating to film distribution. If the film distributors of a film decide to have large reach and advertise to a wide range of people it will be costly, however it could allow for them to make more money. Distributors might decide to have a large reach by advertising everywhere, the result of this can increase the amount of viewers of the film. On the other hand it can be a risk if the film is not popular a loss or a smaller profit may be made.

The marketing plan is designed by the company which describes the plan to achieve their specific marketing objective within a certain time. The start of the plan is usually identifying what the consumers would like, this can be identified through market research. The marketing objective will not only create visibility but it will also raise awareness and engage interest in the product. There are multiple ways to market a film such as posters, trailers, online and mobile apps and sometimes even on the radio. Being able to market the film in various different ways makes it reach out to the audience. Another element that is used to market films is social networking sites. In this day and age social networking sites play a huge part within our lives. Marketing a film on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, will allow your product to be shared across a large range of audiences.

Advertising, publicity and promotion are all different elements within distributing a film. Advertising tends to be the materials in which the company decides to market their brand with. For example they might advertise in magazines, posters and television. When choosing what advertising method to use, the company will chose the methods in which they believe to be the most effective way of getting the product across to the consumer. Publicity is the methods that might be used to gain the public’s attention to the product. Examples of this would be premieres and interviews. Promotion is a way of raising awareness of the product. For example selling merchandise with the film’s title or actors names on it. Some magazines or newspapers may include a free t-shirt or mug with the film on to promote the movie.