RESEARCH: ROLE OF THE DISTRIBUTOR

I used the FDA site The Film Space to research the role of the distributor. Distribution is about connecting the films to the audiences it is the heart of the film enterprise.

WHAT?

From what I learnt from the FDA site all films must be looked at as individuals and must be handled at its own value with an individual plan being made up and not just be planned just based on numbers and statistics. The must get this right so they can ensure they distribute it to the right target audience and in a way, it will reach them. This is dependent on whether the film is a sequel, based on a play/book or part of a movie franchise. This is also dependent on who is in the film, how famous they believe the film will be if they have old established talent for example Tom Cruise or they draw attention to new talent, talent that has just been seen in a recent successful film. The distributor must look at what is the particular film genre, how similar films have performed. 

EXAMPLE: CAPTAIN MARVEL 

Captain Marvel for example had to focus on WHAT the film was about and WHAT they were trying to achieve, Marvel were trying to achieve a strong female image, so they can distribute their film to a wider target audience.

As Batey says each film has its own individual distribution plan as there are so many different genres. I looked at the distributor Working Title and looked at the different films they produce and how they distribute them with posters, trailers and more. 

The High Note is a new romantic comedy about a musician set in the glamorous world of LA. 

Johnny English Strikes Again is a comedic spy parody.

Mary Queen of Scots is a historical film adaptation.

Yesterday is a musical romcom biopic.

These are all film trailers that grabbed my attention and I myself am interested in, this is only a handful of the films that Working Title distribute and make distribution plans for, it shows the wide variety of films they deal with and how they target the right audience. 

WHEN?

Acquire film for release, it is about when the distributor is going to release the film, this is an important decision as shown in the videos Batey states that this in the UK 700 feature films are released every year, this shows the competitiveness in the film industry, and when you distribute is very important as it will determine which film is doing better, each film wants to be the best. Different types of films will be released at specific times in the year dependant on the genre of the film and when they think they are most likely going to reach their target audience, for example horror movies are most likely going to be released at Halloween, Family movies will be released in the summer as families have more time to go together and Art House movies will jostle in the market place as they want to be released well in advance to be considered for a big film award such as Cannes, Oscars etc.

Stephen King’s IT, was released In September

 a month before Halloween, giving it time to grow

 and be heard about before Halloween season.

Grown Ups, a family friendly film was released in summer so families could see this film together.

The FDA yearbook shows us films that came out in the Christmas period, these included the animated Grinch and the Nutcracker, these are both remakes of famous Christmas films that have already been produced and are newer versions or for the Nutcracker it is a remake of the ballet that is performed yearly around the seasonal time. These films are clearly relevant to release at Christmas as they have always been marketed as Christmas films or ballet. 

Often other factors that the distributors cannot control will effect the release and the box office figures, for example football matches or a change in weather because cinemas are product driven, distributors are trying to widen their target audience. In 2018 the FIFA World Cup took some audience members away from cinema for multiple weekends to watch the football. Weather can also impact as if the weather has been bad and there is a sudden change with hot sunny weather audience members are less likely to attend the cinema. 

Genre can affect timing of the film release compared to trailer as shown in the graph above by the FDA. Animated films usually will have a longer period between the release of the trailer and the cinematic release, this is to excite the audience more and drip feed them sneak peeks of the film to heighten excitement and anticipation this is done by lots of live action films such as the Avengers films. 

WHO?

Key consideration has to be made to this point. The most frequent cinema goers tend to be young adults (20’s), however in our modern world the audience Is becoming even more varied and now varies between 8-80-year olds. The largest audience sector for cinema is between the ages of 16-32, 91% of this age bracket attended the cinema In 2018, this resulted in 77 million visits. The FDA researched a growing change on viewing, by age, TV audiences are getting older whilst OFCOM found that 48% of 12-15 year olds say that YouTube is their favourite online platform for entertainment and 19% picked Netflix. This will impact distributors greatly on how they market and distribute their films. 

Audiences contain a complex pattern of consumer segments, which varies substantially film by film, week by week. Different movies can have different appeals to people at different times for example, family outings, a girls night for example seeing Mama Mia Here we go again.

HOW?

This is about what the best distribution plan is for the specific film, how is it going to be marketed? What the distributor thinks they can achieve at the box office? How much can they afford to spend on the release of the film? An example of really good distribution method is Ken Loach’s, Sorry We Missed You. eOne the distributors of this film offered the opportunity for global screenings to be made local so they could reach their specific target audience, and the people the film is really about, by offering local screenings at schools, community halls and local pubs. 

The FDA talks about the different kinds of marketing strategies. They estimate that the UK's film distributors' investment in accompanying 916 new films to the market in 2018 surpass expectations with an astonishing £350m. Half this of this is paid for advertising, using digital platforms such as social media and physical media around the UK. The rest of the money goes towards advertising in more cinematic ways such as film posters, trailer productions, publicity and premieres, digital cinema packages. The UK is a large territory for box office figures although the high costs of marketing and distribution results in the distributor gains low returns. The film industry is an extremely competitive congested marketplace this means that it makes decision making more difficult and makes planning release dates hard.