Film distribution and marketing

Film distribution refers to how the film is made accessible for the target audience to view, as it is responsible for marketing the product. This can be done through a number of different revenues; digital distribution, theatrical release, home entertainment or TV programmes by broadcasting trailers and posters to persuade people to go see the film.

A film distributor will be in charge of choosing the film's release date and with that deciding what revenue to choose e.g home entertainment or theatrically. Another duty they would be responsible for is picking the target audience in which the whole marketing system depends on this being suitable. They must also monitor the delivery of the films to exhibitors making sure they are delivered on time and safely. Distributors are also involved in the physical elements of advertisement such as; trailers, posters, adverts for newspapers/magazines and television to ensure they are targeting the largest possible audience.

Examples of some well knows global film distribution companies are Warner Bros, Dreamworks, Paramount, Miramax, 20th Century Fox and Pixar. Warner Bros are owned by global media conglomerate Time Warner, this results in keeping profits of the film mainly in house due to Time Warner owning magazine, DVD and cinema companies.

The reach refers to how a film reaches it's audience and the aim is to spread the film as far as possible to a large audience.This is relative to film distribution as the industry professionals aspire to gain a wider reach to achieve a larger global audience. They heighten their chance of this by sharing their products on as many media platforms as possible.

A marketing plan is constructed when film making because it helps figure out how they are going to raise awareness for their film and which way will create the largest income. The plan fully elaborates on advertisement and marketing campaigns to focus on achieving the marketing objective. With the film's target audience in mind it searches for suitable methods in which they can attract the masses. An example of this could be The woman in black releasing a teaser trailer over a year before the film hit cinemas. The ideology of this is to start a chain of people talking and building excitement for the film. Also by advertising on social networking sites this is to attract feedback in hope more people will become aware of the film.The marketing plan also contains their ideal budget and other finance expenses. Nearer the time an increase of posters, trailers and multiple forms of advertisements increase such as pairing up with other companies e.g when the NME produced a full spread of the latest Batman blockbuster.

As a marketing plan is essential the company also needs a distribution plan. This is when the target audience is identified and thorough research is constructed to find out the most sufficient way to reach them and when exactly to release it. For example, even though the film may be ready to release, depending on what genre the film is they may wait until it a time of the year it more suitable such as a rom-com would peak around Valentine's Day and a horror around Halloween. This would also work if there was a moral panic in the media and a film about a similar subject was released such as Team America and the moral panic about terrorists.

Film companies use advertising, publicity and promotion to attract and persuade people to watch their films. Even though these sectors realistically all pursue the same aim, separately they play different roles. Advertising is something the company does to bring their product to the audiences attention. Publicity is not directly conducted by the company, it is due to how the media talks about their product (film) and can promote it further. Promotion is used to encourage you to engage with a film and making people remember the product.

Here is a teaser poster, teaser trailer, main poster and main trailer for The Woman In Black.
According to IMDb it was released in 61 countries. It was shown on 2,855 screens in the U.S on the opening weekend and 412 in the UK.