Sample Book Chapters
Chapter 7 -- Distribution To Theaters
Chapter extracts in this section of the website amount to 4,000 words distilled from 110,000 words in the print book.
Cinema represents one of the few film platforms where distributors collect film rentals—their share of box-office spending by moviegoers—on a per-person basis. One cinema ticket permits only one viewer, unlike television, video, and pay-per view, where any number of persons may view. So film distributors like the economics of cinema.
This book focuses on the United States and Canada, which for the purpose of theatrical distribution are considered a single territory called the domestic market. Films almost always open simultaneously in both countries because of the common language (with the exception of French-speaking Quebec province) and because most of Canada’s thirty-two million population lives close to the U.S. border.
Despite growing competition from movies on home video and television, U.S. cinema remained steady in this decade, 1.4 billion admissions in 2007, according to major-studio trade group Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) (see table7.1 below).
The film-classification process in the United States is entirely voluntary, and this is somewhat understood, even within the film industry. Thus, the industry-run Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA) is one of the world’s few non-government national film-rating systems.
In evaluations, CARA does not ban films, unlike classification boards in other countries, and makes no judgment of artistic quality. Each rating is established by a majority vote of the anonymous CARA panel. Filmmakers have the right to ask why a rating was given and, with that feedback, to submit a revised version of a film that will be evaluated from scratch. Filmmakers can challenge a rating to an appeal board from CARA, getting the chance to formally rebut a decision.
In an April 2007 report, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asserted the industry’s inconsistent characterization of the level of violence in PG-13 movies compared to R-rated movies may be confusing to parents. Although parents report a relatively high satisfaction level with the MPAA system, some critics assert that, over time, “ratings creep” has resulted in more violence in films rated PG and PG-13.
Some have argued that the level of violence in PG-13-rated movies, in particular, has increased over time, blurring the line between PG-13- and R-rated violent content. CARA faces a dilemma of being damned if it does (move with or behind evolving society mores) and damned if it doesn’t (be too rigid).
Text copyright © 2009, Robert Marich. All rights reserved.
Table 7.1. Domestic admission growth, 1983–2007
1-year; 2-admissions in billions; 3-% change prior year.
2007 1.400 bil 0.3%
2006 1.395 1.4%
2005 1.376 -7.3%
2004 1.484 -2.4%
2003 1.521 -4.9%
2002 1.599 11.2%
2001 1.438 4.0%
2000 1.383 -3.9%
1999 1.440 0.1%
1998 1.438 6.2%
1997 1.354 2.7%
1996 1.319 8.9%
1995 1.211 -2.3%
1994 1.240 4.9%
1993 1.182 7.6%
1992 1.099 2.6%
1991 1.141 - -
1990 1.189 -5.9%
1989 1.263 16.4%
1988 1.085 -0.3%
1987 1.088 7.0%
1986 1.017 -3.7%
1985 1.056 -11.9%
1984 1.199 0.2%
1983 1.197 - -
Source: Motion Picture Association of America