Sunday 15 November 2009

Role of distribution company

The role of a distribution company is to get hold of a film and identify the largest possible audience for each film they acquire and to market that film to its target audience. The distribution company also has to work out a budget for each specific film for goals of budgets and profits.


There is a 6 step plan that the distribution companies work by:

Focus on the audience

The target audience has to be specific by age group and gender, also lifestyles and social networks are useful. This information is needed to promote a film to appeal to the target audience. It’s important to keep the target audience in mind, but also to try and appeal the film to a wider audience for a better chance of success in the cinemas. The cinema is a popular social activity for young adults between the ages of 15-24 in the UK.

Rolling the distribution dice

Nobody can predict how an audience will react to a film, therefore it is very difficalt to create a 'hit' film. The only way to get close to a 'hit' film is to conduct market research with the public and to pre-release test screenings. If a movie is a 'hit' and another film is released that is very similar to it, it's still not a garuntee that it will be as successful.

The competative jungle

There is always going to be competition within distributuion companies, competeing for certain films, targeting certain audiences and similar release dates. Alot of the competition depends on a specailised or event film, star power, with well-known actors/actresses. Also the expectations for a particular film on achieveing such goals as being nominated for an award or a sequel possibility or good reviews from film critics.

Satisfying anticipated demand

All film releases are dealt with in different ways. For example, a film can be released simultaneously at many different cinemas, this is usually used for large-scale sequels to accomodate a larger audience.

Digital regeneration


Digital was released and made a good impact on distribution companies, this is mainly because the disks which the films are copied on are less expensive and also can be sent across the internet by email, which saves money on postage and packaging. Also it decreases the chance of a film becoming damaged.

Budgeting the release

When the film is completed the distributers confirms the release preparations. Also the budget is calculated. Distributors in the UK pay the costs for the releasing of the film, they include marketing, print duplications and advertising this also covers the launch of the film before it is released.

No comments:

Post a Comment