Film Distribution and Marketing Questions.

How does a film make money?
The way a film makes it's money is from targeting a select group of audience and appealing to that audience through advertisement and cauing hype around the movie. To help promote a movie, film critics would give a good review about the film, which will interest the audience to go and buy a ticket to see it. 'word of mouth' from freinds and work colleagues also causes the audience to go and see from the film, and marketing from billboards, T.V. advertisements and viral marketing will also attract the audience to go and see the film. While the film is on show, merchandise can be sold to promote the film futher and may include a synergy with another company (e.g. mcdonalds). After the film has stopped showing in the cinema, it will then be released on DVD/Blue-Ray so that it can be bought from the audience.

Where does the money come from?
Profit comes from selling soundtracks to the movie, cinema tickets, dvd sales, mechandise, posters, premiere tickets and advance screening tickets.

Who decides to produce the film?
The person who decides to produce the film and has the final say is the producer. The producer does have help though, from being pitched from a write's idea, to a cinematographer and director suggesting how the film should be filmed.

Where does the money to make a film come from?
The budget of the film comes from companies / a conglomerate who invest in the film. The film company then pitches the film idea to the investers to try and persuade and attract companies to invest in the film. If there is only 1 invester or 2, then it's bad for the film director as he does not have full control over the film, but if plenty of companies invest, he has total control because no company owns 50% of the production etc, and it also gives them a better budget.

What was the relationship between studios and Cinemas in the 1930's/40's?
This was a very popular time period of producing films, more than 600 films were being produced per year which included a lot of successful films.

How has that changed? When?
The way it changed is from new technologies developing and the producing process has been updated. The studio system ended in 1959.
How do studios make money from Video/DVD sales? What rules govern DVD rentals?
The way studios make money from video/dvd sales is from T.V advertisement and from people wanting to buy the film after seeing it in the cinema. Instead of buying the DVD, there's an option to rent the film out, which costs a bit more but the money from the rental will go to the studios. DVD's that are bought and rented must prodvide copyright laws, privacy and age certificate/requirement.
What ways does a studio have of making sure that a Film is profitable? (Stars, property, marketing)
The way a studio makes a film profitable is that they plan the budget before filming the film and plan how to distrubute and advertise the movie.
What other ways does a studio have of making money?
Studio's can make money from advertising the film through posters, billboards, merchandise, adverts on T.V, railers at the cinemas, Mcdonalds & Orange wednesdays (both synergys), magazines, e-mail, leaflets, bluetooth in cinemas and social networking websites.