Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Critiquing Hollywood: The Political Economy of Motion Pictures
- 2 Film Production in the Digital Age – What Do We Know about the Past and the Future?
- 3 Movie Industry Accounting
- 4 Theatrical Release and the Launching of Motion Pictures
- 5 The Film Exhibition Business: Critical Issues, Practice, and Research
- 6 Profits out of the Picture: Research Issues and Revenue Sources Beyond the North American Box Office
- Appendix
- Index
- References
5 - The Film Exhibition Business: Critical Issues, Practice, and Research
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Critiquing Hollywood: The Political Economy of Motion Pictures
- 2 Film Production in the Digital Age – What Do We Know about the Past and the Future?
- 3 Movie Industry Accounting
- 4 Theatrical Release and the Launching of Motion Pictures
- 5 The Film Exhibition Business: Critical Issues, Practice, and Research
- 6 Profits out of the Picture: Research Issues and Revenue Sources Beyond the North American Box Office
- Appendix
- Index
- References
Summary
The supply chain for movies released for theatrical exhibition consists of the distributor, exhibitor, and the audience, as shown in Figure 5.1. The audience has opportunities to watch movies in a number of distribution outlets: domestic theaters, foreign theaters, home video, and cable and network TV, where the time lags between the releases of the movies in successive outlets differ but are typically measured in months (Figure 5.2). Despite the availability of these multiple release windows, the theatrical performance of films in the United States has been considered by practitioners to be a critical success driver: “Theatrical exhibition is the major factor in persuading the public what they want to see, even if that public never sets foot inside a motion picture theater. And how well and how long a picture plays in theaters has everything to do with its value in other markets” (Daniels, Leedy, and Sills 1998, p. 34). The main reasons as to why the theatrical experience is believed to have such a significant impact on the performance of the movie in its other distribution channels are the buzz created by the studios prior to and during the theatrical release dates, generated through high advertising spending, and the attention given by the media to box-office performance and figures. It is interesting to note that the recent phenomenon characterized as “TV screens get larger and movie theater screens get smaller” has, to date, not had a significant negative impact on the moviegoers' behavior.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Concise Handbook of Movie Industry Economics , pp. 138 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
References
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