Evaluation - Distribution

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A distributor is responsible for the marketing of a film. They are usually a different company to the production company of that film, although some big companies like Disney, own a distribution company, therefore keeping profits within the company. Within the film industry the distributor publishes and markets the film therefore getting it into cinema and getting it out on DVD.

Digitisation is changing the cost of distribution due to lots of people having readily access to a computer, meaning people can easily create promotion posters, ad campaigns, promotion on social media, etc. This means that people can create awareness for the film much more easily than before. Due to social media being free, and being very popular, means that lots of film distribution companies make a profile/page for the film.

My film production is a typical horror film. Its a micro-budget film Indie film without any established star. It has a similar setting and idea/plot to Cabin in the woods and Cabin fever. For the 90 min feature film, I would estimate the budget to be around $10 million, based on other similar Indie horror films.

The most successful distributors of 2016 are: Disney, Warner Bros, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Paramount, etc. These distributors, market lots of different genres of film, which is probably one of the reasons why they are the most successful. These distributors both make and lose money on lots of films. Not many films are 'successful'. This means making their money back in the opening weekend in the US. Lots of films will not make their money back in opening weekend in the US, but make more money than the budget in other countries and in DVD sales. But this is still recognised as a failure, in the film industry. Overall distributors do make money, The main most successful ones are typically US based companies. Some successful existing UK indie horror films are: The Last Exorcism (Daniel Stamm, 2010), Magic Magic (Sebastián Silva, 2013), The Devil's Business (Sean Hogan, 2011). All these UK films were successful in the box office with them making their money back in the opening weekend.

Both Liongate and StudioCanalUK have managed good distribution, therefore making them a good choice for distribution. I think that StudioCanalUK would be the best choice as they are a UK based company. Studio productions are more likely to market big feature films, with big budgets and major star actors, due to them more likely to make the money back, this then bankrupts indie producers. Lots of films don't make it past the distribution stage, therefore release their films on YouTube and Vimeo, these companies then pay the channel owner dependant on how many views and likes that the video gets. This can be an emergency way of promoting the film, by displaying ads on the video.