{"id":11249,"date":"2018-09-19T15:30:52","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T13:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ismaelmartin.com\/the-three-subsectors-in-film-distribution\/"},"modified":"2018-09-19T15:30:52","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T13:30:52","slug":"the-three-subsectors-in-film-distribution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ismaelmartin.com\/en\/the-three-subsectors-in-film-distribution\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three Subsectors in Film Distribution"},"content":{"rendered":"

The film industry is made up of several sectors where most companies are grouped<\/strong>: production, exhibition, and film distribution<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the case of distribution<\/strong>, it can in turn be divided into three main subsectors<\/em> that segment the market. Understanding these subsectors<\/em> well is very important, whether you are going to move your film or if you need to acquire the rights for exhibition in a theater or platform. <\/p>\n

Jose Luis Palacios, from Cine Artistic Metropol<\/a> in Madrid, commented on Twitter at the beginning of the year about the problems he had acquiring the rights for theatrical exhibition of some short films.<\/p>\n

We often speak of distributors in a generic way without properly considering the specialization of each one, and we may encounter problems.<\/p>\n

Distribution companies or freelance distributors are segmented primarily according to an exhibition window<\/strong>, and based on this they acquire certain rights or others.<\/p>\n

The main subsectors<\/em> are three: theatrical<\/strong>, festivals<\/strong>, and sales to<\/strong> television, VOD, and other platforms<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Distributors Specialized in Theatrical Exhibition<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Better known by the English term theatrical<\/em><\/strong>. These distributors base their business model on managing the rights for theatrical exhibition<\/strong>, they are responsible for designing a release strategy and maintaining contact with programmers at different theaters in the country. <\/p>\n

It should be noted that theatrical exhibition, as an exploitation window, is usually not sufficient to amortize the purchase of these rights<\/strong>, so these distributors also acquire the rights for television, festivals, and other platforms. In this way they design exploitation across all windows, but only in their own countries. <\/p>\n

The most common strategy is usually to release first in theaters and then amortize the remaining windows<\/strong> to make the purchase of these rights profitable. Disruption in this model is causing platforms like Netflix to purchase rights worldwide and challenge the business models of these distributors. <\/p>\n

They work primarily with feature films, to a lesser extent with documentaries, and they do not consider short films; they always work with long-format content. The reason is clear: short films and medium-length films have no commercial relevance in the theatrical exhibition sphere<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Although there are initiatives for exhibiting short films in theaters, there are very few distributors that manage exploitation rights for theatrical exhibition; the market practically does not exist.<\/p>\n

This was one of the problems Jose Luis encountered when trying to acquire exploitation rights for his theater. He was in contact with the distributors of the short films, but they did not manage theatrical rights. <\/p>\n

Distributors Specialized in Film Festivals<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Short film distributors primarily manage festivals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While distributors specialized in theatrical exhibition make an initial investment both in purchasing and launching films, distributors in film festivals have a different business model<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In most cases they offer a service to the producer or director, designing a strategy, submitting and sending to film festivals around the world<\/strong>. Therefore they work in an international scope, primarily without exclusivity. <\/p>\n

They primarily target festival programmers<\/strong>, with whom they are usually in contact and know the programming lines of most festivals.<\/p>\n

Festival distributors have developed significantly in recent years, especially in the short film sphere, as it is their main circuit. These distributors have evolved and many of them also work with feature films. <\/p>\n

There are also distributors specialized in festivals that only work with feature films or documentaries.<\/p>\n

Sales Agents<\/strong><\/h2>\n

They are freelancers or agencies specialized in selling film rights in the international market<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We could consider them as the third subsector<\/em> within the distribution sphere, as they are responsible for finding national theatrical distributors, or other windows, such as VOD, television, etc.<\/p>\n

Sales agents represent films in international markets, they know buyers and distributors well. Good sales agents can make a film profitable even before its release, through presales and sales to other countries. <\/p>\n

They also work with festivals<\/strong>, especially the most important ones that have strong markets, such as Cannes<\/strong>, Berlin<\/strong>, Toronto<\/strong>, and even Sundance<\/strong>. The key for a sales agent is to know the international market well and have a prominent presence at these markets, so they have to travel extensively throughout the year. <\/p>\n

Market Segmentation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Taking into account these three subsectors<\/em>, there are companies that can cover all windows, although this is not the most common. There are companies specialized in festivals and sales, others only in festivals<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

There can be many different combinations.<\/p>\n

What you really need to be clear about are the different rights they manage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If you hire a festival distributor that also does sales, you will have to make two contracts, or clearly define their scope of action in each case, and whether theatrical rights are included or not.<\/p>\n

If you are going to hire another company that will manage rights in international markets, research how they work, which markets they attend personally, and whether they usually make their catalog profitable.<\/p>\n

In the case of Jose Luis, who manages a theater in Madrid, or if in your case you are organizing screenings outside the festival sphere, you also need to be clear about this framework to know what rights you need to request and from whom.<\/p>\n

The operation of the distribution sector is increasingly complicated, so it is essential to be clear about some concepts. Keep in mind that it is a sector in continuous evolution and subject to disruptive processes that are changing its operating structures very rapidly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The film industry is made up of several sectors where most companies are grouped: production, exhibition, and film distribution. In the case of distribution, it can in turn be divided into three main subsectors that segment the market. Understanding these subsectors well is very important, whether you are going to move your … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-festival-strategy","category-film-distribution"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Three Subsectors in Film Distribution - Ismael Martin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The film industry is made up of several sectors where most companies are grouped: production, exhibition, and film distribution.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ismaelmartin.com\/en\/the-three-subsectors-in-film-distribution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Three Subsectors in Film Distribution - 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They have a scope of action that is national and even regional in nature<\/strong> and usually purchase rights at major international markets such as Cannes<\/a>, Berlin<\/a>, or Toronto<\/a>. The purchase of these rights is usually done only for the distributor’s country, for a limited time, and exclusively. <\/p>\n