The Role of the Distributor

In order for a film to be successful, it needs to be distributed correctly and to a relevant audience. This is conducted by a distribution company, like 'Columbia Pictures' and 'Twentieth Century-Fox', which are two very large distrubtion companies and 'Summit Entertainment' and 'IFC Films', two smaller businesses. Rather than just selling it to a mass target audience, a distribution company needs to establish the very core of this mass market, and mainly target that, whilst keeping the rest of the vast target audience interested. Along with this, the distributors must attempt to, not only attract the typical target audience established by the genre of the film, but also attract those who may not stereotypically fall into that category.

The three key aspects of a marketing plan, which is created by the distribution company, are; publicity, advertising and promotion. Distribution is the highly competitive market of launching and sustaining films, with an objective of achieving the highest possible return in the box office and in the overall market. Movies have the power to shape our lives in many ways; they can amaze us as well as amuse us. However, they don't stop there, they push past this by affecting and influencing the music we listen to, fashions we adopt, the advertising we see around us and the games we enjoy.

In order to bring a film to a product driven market, it is the distributor's job to:

• Establish, identify and address its audience
• Create a USP and a reason for the audience to go and see it
• Estimate the potential revenue created by all formats of the films release, e.g. the film itself, merchandise, sponsorships etc
• Build relationships between themselves and other media companies to support the films appeal, raise awareness and build interest
• Convert interest into actual cinema visits
• Convince and persuade the exhibitors/cinema operators to show the film

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