Film Opening Evaluation 4 - Distribution

Film Opening Evaluation 4 - Distribution

Task: Decide how you are going to reach your target audience.

We're a new, therefore as startup company I think it may be difficult for us to distribute our film at first. However, we may be able to solve this problem easily, as our film is targeted at teenagers, and middle aged women with media intensive professions (see previous blog).

Having this target audience means that we're able to distribute it online, such as via Netflix or iTunes, as our target audience will most likely use these websites. This is also a good channel of distribution, as our target audience is a working class and may not have time to go to the cinemas, therefore purchasing a movie/streaming it online may be a better option for them, as they can save it to watch in their free time with their partner, friends, and family. Online distribution is also much cheaper than screening the movie on cinema. This could save costs for us and increase our profitability as we're a startup company.

In terms of when to release our movie, I think a good time would be sometime early or mid year. This is because all of the big films tend to be released towards the end of the year, therefore sometime in late Winter or Spring would be a ideal time. Early year is also FilmFestival season. This means that we can submit our film towards this event and have a chance at earning some prestigious awards, which would help promote our film on it's own, as well as draw attention to the film (increases audiences trust) and make them want to watch the film more.

Another possible option would be to make a deal/sign a contract with a big film distributor pre-production (after the planning is done and we present them with our concept), and then make a deal by either selling them our film or asking for a percentage of every copy sold. This is another viable option as they have much more resources than we do in order to promote and distribute the film. It also increases trust in the product, as it gives guarantee to the audience to a certain extent that this is a good film being distributed by a large, well know company.

If we had to choose a company (or rather what distribution company we'd prefer to choose us), it would be 20th Century Fox. This is because they've distributed another film similar to ours; Jennifer's Body. This means they know who to distribute the film to, and how to distribute it in such a way that our target audience can easily reach our product.