Films created to be shown first in traditional movie theaters
These appear in nontheatrical locations after they have completed their runs in movie theaters in the United States and abroad.
Edison
Nontheatrical exhibition
Phonograph
Parlors
Kinetoscope
Parlors
Lumière Brothers
Cinematographe
Public Screening, 1895
Theatrical Model
copied by Edison
Vitascope, 1896
Invention of the Cinema
“First time someone showed a film and charged money for the experience”
Historical Major Studios
MGM
Warner Brothers
20th Century Fox
Paramount
RKO
Universal
Columbia
United Artists
Studio System
Late–1920s to the 1950s
Assembly Line Production
Star System
promoted actors by name
under-contract to particular studio
Feature Films
films lasting over 70 minutes in length
A and B Pictures
developed as part of double features, 1930s
Vertical Integration
Production facilities
Distribution networks
First-run exhibition
Broken up in the 1940s
Three Tier System
Production
Distribution
Exhibition
Contemporary Major Hollywood Movie Firms
AT&T/Warners
Disney-Fox
Sony/Columbia
Viacom/Paramount
Comcast/NBC-Universal
Conglomerates
film studios are valued for their content libraries
conglomerates can distribute film over the network
Production and Distribution Firms
Film Production Firms
Film Distribution Firms
Independent Producers
Development
Coming up with an idea, writing a script, and pitching it
Sources for Ideas
Adaptations
Books are a significant source for movie ideas
Scriptwriters
Talent Agents
Packaging
The selling by a talent agency of the personal services of multiple agency clients, particularly leading actors and director, to a studio or independent producer for a project.
Assembling by a talent agency of most if not all facets of a project, including script, talent, production, marketing, distribution, and financing, employing as many agency clients as possible.
Pitch
Treatment
On-Spec
Green Light
Compensation
Salary
Back-End Deals
Pre-Production
Developing, planning, and visualizing the idea
Preparing the budget
Hiring crew members
Making a schedule
Production
Shooting scenes
Working with cast
Securing Locations
Reviewing Footage
Post-Production
Editing the Film
Adding Titles
Adding Music and Foley
Compositing Special Effects
Distribution
distribution rights
DVD region codes enforce territorial distribution rights
Releasing Movies
Release date
Historically, American movies would be released to US theaters first… then to foreign markets
Day-and-Date Release
Distributors
Big Six
Independent Distributors
Release Patterns
Wide release
Saturation release
Platform release
Exclusive release
Block Booking
historical practice, outlawed in the 1940s
distributor forces exhibitors to book blocks of their films
an agreement between a distributor and an exhibition firm that specifies the date on which the distributor will make the film available to the exhibition firm’s theaters, the number of weeks the theaters agree to run the film, and when and where competing theaters can show the same film; it also sets the financial arrangements between the distributor and the exhibition firm.
Distributor takes a certain percentage of ticket revenues from the film with the exhibitor keeping the rest.
Percentage-above-the-nut
Typically distributors get about half the box-office receipts
Digital Distribution to Theaters
Film: prints had to be duplicated and distributed to theaters.
Digital cinema package
Satellite cinema package
Post-Theatrical Windows
Television outlets
Subscription TV
HBO, Showtime, Starz
Cable TV
TNT, USA, AMC
Broadcast networks
NBC, Fox
Local TV stations
Home Video
Direct-to-Consumer
Videocassette recorders, 1970s
Digital video disc, 1990s
Home video distribution
Sell-through outlets
stores in which consumers buy the videos rather than just renting them.
e.g., Best Buy
Rental outlets
companies that purchase releases from movie distributors and then rent them to individual customers on a per-day basis.
e.g., Blockbuster
Digital Direct-to-Consumer
Movie download
when a person pays a company to send a digital copy of a movie to his or her computer, digital TV set, or smartphone.
Sale: “owned” by the user who can replay it and move it to another device
Rental: stored on the device but not permanently stored or available, usually 2–3 days.
Movie Streaming
Cable company, Netflix, Hulu, etc.
Viewable on digital TV, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
File is not stored on the device.
Piracy
Film piracy is the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted films for profit