RESEARCH: THE ROLE OF THE DISTRIBUTOR

I used the FDA site The Film Space to research the role of the distributor. 
I watched a video of Mark Batey, Chief Executive of the FDA, who discusses how distributors have to consider the 'what, who, when, and how' in acquiring a film and marketing the film for successful distribution.

• WHAT? - Mark Batey explains that one of the key questions when either acquiring a film is WHAT the distributor thinks are the best selling points of the film are such as; WHAT type of film it is. Batey says that distributors do not need to know 'just what genre it is but are there any comparable films that have been out recently.'  This means that distributors have to research and compare the successes and failure of other film's audience numbers and distribution methods, so that they can plan the right distribution methods and this depends on whether the film is a sequel, a films based on books/plays, part of a franchise or a stand alone film. 

• WHO? - Batey discusses one of the main key questions is WHO is the audience for this particular film. He says that 'the most frequent cinema goers tend to be young adults, students and adults in their twenties.' Distributors use trends in cinema going activity to establish what audiences they are to target. However, distributors keep note of trends, which have recently been changing as explain by Mark Batey, who says, the audience can now 'range from 8 to 80' years-of-age.' 

• When Distributors are looking at the age range of their target audience they have to factor in the trends in the film industry, how many people have visited the cinema and the different technological advances and societal uses of these technologies. For example; the largest audience sector is from the 16-34 bracket, 91% of whom went to the cinema in 2018, making a total of 77 million visits. According to an OFCOM survey, they found that 48% of 12-15 year-olds picked YouTube as their favourite platform and 19% picked Netflix. However, according the observations by the FDA about the growing divergence on viewing patterns by age, the TV audiences have been getting older (over half of TV audiences are in the over-54 category). Due to this, distributors have been putting more trailers for their films in the adverts between TV programmes, so that they can grab the attention of older audiences.

• The FDA observes: The 'movies’ can hold various different appeals to people at different times, for example: a family outing; a party; a date; a girls’ night out; an afternoon or evening with a partner or friend; and a way to stay ‘in the know’ among social peers. Audiences comprise a complex mosaic of consumer segments, varying substantially film by film, week by week.

• WHEN? - Batey explains that distributors, when acquiring a film, decide on WHEN they are going to release their film and this is important because, depending on the type of film, it needs to be release at a time of the year where distributors think their audiences will most likely go to cinemas to see the film. Batey says that one main reason why distributors establish a release date is because in 'the UK about 700 feature films are released every year.' With this amount of films being released in a year, there is vast amounts of competition, mainly when trying to attract audiences to see their film. This is why it is crucial for distributors to release their film at the right time. 

The table shows the different films that were released in all the months of 2018. This shows that distributors have planned the release date carefully so that they can establish what month of the year is best to release their film. Distributors establish the successes and failures of film releases so that can understand what time of year is the right time to release that film.

• For the both 'The Grinch' and The Nutcracker and The Four Realms' distributors decided to publicise these films in November, so that they could release the films in December. The reason for the films being released in December is because the distributors know that with the Christmas market is the best time of the year to release new Christmas related films as they know that more families will go to the cinema to go to see the films.

• However, there are factors that distributors cannot control which can disrupt or help the distribution of their film. examples include a football match or a turn in the weather, as the cinema market is product-driven (meaning they can benefit from other product markets), expanding or contracting according to the films released into it and the extent to which they engage wide-ranging audiences. For example, the FIFA World Cup in 2018 competed for audiences with cinemas, across several weekends of the football fixtures. Alongside this, the third weekend in April had hot sunny weather after a long cold winter 

• HOW? - Distributors focal point is HOW they are going to distribute the film and they also regulate HOW much money they are going to spend on the different types of distribution for the film. Based on these two aspects, distributors form social media pages for the film (like Twitter and Facebook)and they create posters, teaser trailers and trailers, which they release months before the films release. This way they can monitor the money they use and gain more of their audiences attention. Alongside this, distributor set up actor Q&A's, which can involve Youtubers and other influential people, TV interviews and videos from on the set. They will post these videos on social media for the audiences to see and by engaging with them like this, the film will gain the attention of their audience.

• The FDA explains that distributors use different types of marketing strategies: the FDA estimates that UK film distributors’ investment in bringing 916 new titles to market in 2018 exceeded £350m. Around half of this is paid-for UK-wide advertising, using many digital, social and physical media outlets. The remainder of this is formed by other components, such as, advertising, poster and trailer production; publicity and premiere costs; and digital cinema packages to be supplied to cinemas in many formats. The FDA assert that although the UK is a large cinema territory in terms of box-office receipts, the high costs of marketing and distribution mean relatively low returns for the distributor. It is hard to 'cut through' in a congested marketplace and the fact that it is so crowded makes decisions on release dates very tough.