Sales – theatrical UK and international sales
This position offers the closest relationship between exhibition and distribution. When a cinema programmer books a film, it’s the sales person they will contact – firstly to ask if the film is available on the date they want it, and secondly what the terms of the booking will be for their cinema.
These terms confirm what the distributor’s cut will be – a flat fee or a percentage of the box office takings.
For an independent cinema, it’s usually a combination of the two, with values decided at by considering factors including the amount of time and screenings a cinema can give to a film, the size of the audience (and therefore revenue) they will be able to generate, whether the film has already screened in another venue nearby, the “size” of the film, the distributor’s plans and/or expectations for the release, etc.
If it’s a small release, distributors may be more flexible. If it’s a wide release, the distributor will have higher expectations for the amount of money the film can make, so may require the cinema play it for longer (e.g. three weeks rather than two), probably for all shows (meaning the cinema won’t be able to show any other films in that screen for the length of the film’s run) and will likely charge higher terms.
Buyers/Acquisitions/Rights
A film buyer working for a distribution company is responsible for identifying and acquiring the films the company distributes.
Buyers attend major international film festivals and film markets, where most films are sold. A distribution company may have a very good existing relationship with a sales company or director (perhaps they released their previous films) and therefore get first dibs on their latest project. Buyers may also be looking at acquiring back catalogue titles, e.g. older films that they may wish to re-release. They will need to find out who holds the rights for the geographical territory they wish to release the film in.
Rights are usually acquired for a fixed amount of years, so it may be that the rights held by one UK distributor have expired, presenting an opportunity for another UK distributor to now buy the rights. Rights are divided into theatrical (referring to films screening in cinemas), and video – which means the company can release the film for home entertainment.
Films can also be sold with Video on Demand (VoD) and TV rights so a distribution company can sell these on to the highest bidder. The more rights a company acquires, the more expensive the sale will be!
Home entertainment
The home entertainment division of a distribution company handles any film released on Blu-ray/DVD or VoD services. Home entertainment releases follow a film’s theatrical release in cinemas to capitalise on any press it has received.
There is usually a ‘window’ between a film’s theatrical and home entertainment releases. This enables the cinemas to maximise income from the film’s initial release prior to its home entertainment release; as many exhibitors understandably believe that if the cinema release of a film coincides with its availability on home entertainment formats, fewer people would go to see it at the cinema.
However, distributors have become more flexible on theatrical windows (especially since the onset of COVID-19) with some releasing films in cinemas and on VoD simultaneously, though most are still usually at least a few months long.
VoD services are now just as important as the Blu-ray/DVD release of a film, if not more, and choosing which service to use is a key job for the home entertainment division. As above, on some titles, distributors may choose to launch the film on VoD at the same time as a limited cinema release, in order to gain as much media coverage as possible.
Production
Some distribution companies produce (make) films as well as release them. Production teams source potential new projects – they read lots of scripts (many submitted to them, but some sourced by them) and may acquire the film rights to novels or plays they feel would make good films. They may also partner with other production companies on new film projects.
Marketing
The most public-facing department in distribution companies and one of the most important, as it is the work done in this department – posters, social media and trailers – that the public are most likely to see and which will eventually (hopefully!) drive them into the cinema.
The marketing department decides on the design of a film poster and accompanying artwork and where (and how wide) to place it – online, on social media, in print (magazines and newspapers), on buses / at bus stops and various other sites.
The marketing campaigns that they design will be meticulous, and will cover all of the above fields and more. They will decide the look of the trailer, as well as the amount of different trailers they will create; and will get it produced and edited using clips from the film. They will put together bespoke assets for social media campaigns to share with cinemas.
PR
PR stands for Public Relations which is a little misleading, because someone who works in PR will actually have very little contact with the public through their job and will mainly deal with journalists. However, the articles, reviews and coverage they manage to generate will be seen by the public and will hopefully (if it is positive coverage!) encourage public interest in a film.
There are two main areas of PR – firstly, unit publicity, which is publicity generated while a film is being made, and includes organising the filming of EPKs (Electronic Press Kits) and getting interviews on set with key actors (or ‘talent’ as they are often referred) or the director for magazines, online articles, social media, newspapers or blogs. The other area is getting journalists to review films, which they may watch at film festivals, press screenings or online via advance viewing link.