What You Need To Know About Studio Requirements

While booking movies for your theater seems straightforward, there are some rules you need to follow in order to maintain a good relationship with the film distributors. The most important aspect of this is reading your contract, but beyond the basics of your contract, film policy varies from film to film. While it is a booker’s responsibility to inform you of film policy, here are some fundamental points to keep your theater in good standing with the studios.

Studios set policies for their films to protect their intellectual property. One strict policy the studios have in place is that theaters may not alter the film for any reason. Altering the content in seemingly innocent ways, such as cutting out controversial scenes, pausing for intermissions, or creating your own social media content based on the film without studio approval, can breach your contract with the film distributor, potentially causing legal issues. From the distributor's perspective, a great deal of effort goes into crafting a targeted marketing strategy for each film. If you modify the film, especially scenes meant to appeal to a particular demographic, it may lead to negative perceptions of both your theater and the studio. Another example is creating fan content to play at your theater. Even if the content is created with the best of intentions, theater content can be interpreted controversially and damage the film’s branding.

Not every film will be available to your theater on the national release date due to print counts. A print count is the number of film copies made for theatrical distribution. In the digital age, it applies less to actual physical copies of the film and more towards how many theaters they are looking to book their film at. Studios limit print counts for several reasons. First, they need to tailor their manufacturing and shipping costs for DCPs and marketing materials to the specific film. Not all films target broad audiences, making wide marketing efforts unnecessarily costly. Studios also like to test the audience reactions by platform releasing, meaning releasing to limited markets, then widening their release to the rest of the US. This can help the studios gauge the audience response to their film before spending the money to market to a wider area. Finally, when studios limit their releases, it means their per-screen average gross is higher. Opening films to a wide audience lowers their per-screen average gross, which manipulates their marketing statistics. If a film isn't available at your theater, it indicates that your area's demographic isn't expected to purchase tickets for the film.

For scheduling policies, if you are opening a major studio film on the national release date, expect to play the film for at least three weeks, even if you are in a small town. Studios want their films to have a runway to gross as much as possible, so cutting off a well-grossing film at two weeks limits their film’s potential as well as their ability to bring in profit. If a three-week requirement is not feasible for your business, consider playing films approximately one month after the national release date, when the film is a one-week requirement. Also, unless you receive studio approval, you cannot play two different films on one screen. This is referred to as stacking films. You have to follow the “clean screen policy,” even if you are playing a children’s film for a late-night showing. For the clean screen policy, you also have to play the film every day and at the showtime you are usually open. If you plan to be closed at any point during your normal run, please let your booker know so they can plan accordingly. 

Failing to follow the policies outlined above can result in the studios taking your theater off service, which means that you will no longer receive films from the studios. Cutting out a major studio’s product can be detrimental to your business, so following the policies is a must. Policies are confusing at times and vary from film to film, so if you are having trouble understanding policy or struggling to maintain a good relationship with the studios, please reach out to the knowledgeable staff at Clark Film Buying.