1.       Production

2.       Distribution

3.       Exhibition

·         Trade body supporting, promoting, representing the range of generic interests of UK theatrical film distribution

·         President Lord Puttnam CBE

·         FDA established 1915

·         Today 22 member companies whose releases account for 96% of UK cinema going

Film distributors deliver the audience 

Filmmakers             Distributors             Cinemas

                                  Audiences

A day in the life of a film distributor

Acquisition

·         Slates or single films from a parent studio or independently VIA a sales agent or production company

Strategy

·         Plan the release-key decisions include when for and how where promoted

Creativity

·         Implement the release-advertising,publicty,premiere,online content, masking & supplying 35mm and/or digital prints by film

Accountability

·         Acting under license, report back to rights holders

The film value chain

·         Theatrical launch

·         Non-theatrical license (hotels,coaches,schools,clubs)

·         Home entertainment (DVD/Blu-Ray, downloads)

·         Licensed merchandising

·         NB: single largest threat is film theft(approx. £100m loss to the UK theatrical sector P.A =up to 20m tickets

UK theatrical market 2008

·         531 films released-product-UD, highly competitive and risky

·         164.2m admissions-2.7 per capita

·         £854m box-office-world top 5

·         Economic multiplier: for every £1 spent on cinema tickets, an additional £2 is spent on related items

·         Theatrical distributors invest £300m + P.A to launch and sustain their releases (P&A)

·         4+ films per week released with digital ST+AD

·         Uk DVD market: 2.5 bn