How does film distribution work in India

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Film distribution is the process of making a movie available for viewing by an audience.

How does film distribution work in India?

This is the question people often ask. The following steps summarize the film distribution process in India

Selection of movie for release

The first step in film distribution is to select movies that will be released to public theatres. Usually, multiplexes do not show regional language or low-budget movies; they prefer English or Hindi movies with big budgets, good audiences’ responses, and famous stars. There are thousands of movies made every year all over India but only 400-500 movies get released for theatrical release each year because 200 run on PVR and 100-150 run on single screens. Films which does not make it to theatres can still get a DVD release. Many films never get screened at all and remain unseen even though they are made with big budgets and top stars.

Print and advertising (P&A) costs

Making a movie is just one part of film distribution. Once the movie is selected, it must be advertised well so that viewers know about the release of the movie and look forward to watching it. Advertisements can be in print media or electronic media such as television. Print advertisements cost Rs 4-10 lakhs for a week’s run, while television commercial ads typically cost Rs 50 lakh – 1 crore per month depending on the size and spending power of the target audience. Many movies do not recover their P&A costs even if they do good business at the box office.

Advancing’s/ticket booking online or through the multiplex office

Once the movie is advertised, viewers start looking forward to seeing the movie. If there are no advance bookings online for a movie, people usually go to the theatre the day it opens and in some cases even queue up in front of theatres to get tickets in advance. Advance booking is done through multiplexes’ own website or by going to the multiplex office.

Release of movie

Once advance booking is completed, the movie is shown in theatres for the time period as decided by producers. Usually, weekend shows are booked first and then Monday-Thursday shows depending on how much revenue can be earned from a single day’s showings. Many movies do not get a good number of screenings initially but do good business in the second or third week of their release.