Langues appliquées - Anglais : Economie, gestion, droit, AES - 4e - 141

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Distributors will then typically attempt to align their releases with the most demographically
suitable theaters, subject to availability of screens and to previously established relationships with
exhibition chains. They accomplish this by analyzing how similar films have performed previously
in each potential location and then by developing a release strategy that provides the best possible
marketing mix, or platform, for the picture. Sometimes, the plan may involve slow buildup through
limited local or regional release; at other times, it may involve broad national release on literally
thousands of screens simultaneously.
However, instead of negotiating, distributors may also sometimes elect, several months in advance
of release, to send so-called bid letters to theaters located in regions in which they expect (because of
demographic or income characteristics) to find audiences most responsive to a specific film's theme
and genre. This would normally be the preferred method of maximizing distributor revenues at times
when the relative supply of pictures (to screens) is limited, as had happened in the late 1970s. Theaters
that express interest in showing a picture then usually accept the terms (i.e., the implied cost of film
rental and the playing times) suggested by the distributor's regional branch exchange (sales office)
Such contracts between distributors and exhibitors are usually fairly standard from picture to
picture and are arranged for large theater chains by experienced film bookers who bid for simultaneous
runs in several theatres in a territory. The key phrases used in all contracts are screens, which refers
to the number of auditoriums and playdates (sometimes called engagements), which refers to the
theater booked.
Standard contracts between distributors and exhibitors would, however, almost always call for a
sliding percentage of the box-office gross. Contracts are now largely a function of the quality of theater
location, number of screens, and number of seats and are also often supplemented by payments for
placements of trailers, which are ads for coming attractions.
Some films are supported with national network-television campaigns arranged months in advance,
whereas others use only a few carefully selected local spots, from which it is hoped that strong wordof-mouth advertising will build. Sometimes a picture will be opened (limited release) in only a few
theaters (i.e. playdates) in New York or Los Angeles during the last week of the year to qualify for that
year's Academy Award nominations and then later be taken into wide release of up to 2,000 national
playdates (i.e., engagements/ theaters). Or there may even be massive simultaneous saturation release
on more than 3,000 screens at the seasonal peaks for which strategically important prospective dates
(that purposely exclude World Cup and Olympic event periods) are staked out for up to five years
ahead of time. Regional or highly specialized release is appropriate if a picture does not appear to
contain elements of interest to a broad national audience. And simultaneous global release is now
often used to thwart unauthorized copying.
Since the 1960s, exhibitors have tended to consolidate into large chains operating multiple screens
located near or in shopping-center malls in order to achieve economies of scale. Meanwhile, older movie
houses in decaying center-city locations have encountered financial hardships as the relatively affluent
consumers born after World War II have grown to maturity in the suburbs, and as crime and grime
and scarcity of parking spaces have often become deterrents to regular moviegoing by city residents.
© Harold L. Vogel, Entertainment Industry Economics, 2015,
published by Cambridge University Press, reproduced with permission.
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