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55-518: First Independent Films was a British film distributor and home video company that replaced Vestron Video International's UK operations. Vestron Video formed their international division Vestron Video International in 1981, including a UK subsidiary. In May 1990, HTV , the ITV franchise holder for Wales and the West of England, acquired Vestron UK and renamed the company to First Independent Films. Although

110-526: A lockout affecting the schedule they opened the season at Houston; and 2022, when another lockout led to their opening the season at Atlanta). The Chicago Cubs have been the Reds' most frequent Opening Day opponent, visiting Cincinnati for 36 season openers, most recently in 2007. The Pittsburgh Pirates , against whom the current Reds organization played their first opener in 1882, are a close second with 32, most recently in 2023; no other team has more than 19 (by

165-480: A British film distributor or production company is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Film distributor The distributor may set the release date of a film and the method by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing; for example, directly to the public either theatrically or for home viewing ( DVD , video-on-demand , download , television programs through broadcast syndication etc.). A distributor may do this directly, if

220-445: A copy of the DVD is ordered, and then ship it to the customer. A distributor may also maintain contact with wholesalers who sell and ship DVDs to retail outlets as well as online stores, and arrange for them to carry the DVD. The distributor may also place ads in magazines and online and send copies of the DVD to reviewers. Although there are now numerous distribution techniques, in the past

275-401: A distributor is going to distribute a movie on a physical format such as DVD, they must arrange for the creation of the artwork for the case and the face of the DVD and arrange with a DVD replicator to create a glass master to press quantities of the DVD. Some movie producers use a process called "DVD-on-demand." In DVD-on-demand, a company will burn a DVD-R (a process called "duplication") when

330-486: A non-theatrical screening are that the latter has to be to a closed audience in some way, e.g. pupils of a school, members of a social club or passengers on an airline, and that there can be no individual admission charge. Most non-theatrical screening contracts also specify that the screening must not be advertised, except within the group that is eligible to attend (e.g. in a membership organisation's newsletter or an in-flight magazine ). Non-theatrical distribution includes

385-492: A pitcher to start on Opening Day is considered an honor, regardless of whether they are on the home or visiting team. Hall of Fame pitcher Early Wynn , who played for the Washington Senators , Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox , once said: "An opener is not like any other game. There's that little extra excitement, a faster beating of the heart. You have that anxiety to get off to a good start, for yourself and for

440-415: A profit and eliminate failure. These new distribution methods benefited audiences that were normally too small to reach and expanded the content of television. With the new age of technology, networks accepted the fact that it was a consumer demand industry and accepted the new models of distribution. The primary distribution companies will usually receive some billing for the film. For example, Gone With

495-529: A regular season in MLB history, and the first time since 1968 that all major league teams were scheduled to start the season on the same day, although two games were subsequently rained out and postponed to Friday, March 30). In 2019, MLB scheduled an even earlier opening day for most teams on Thursday, March 28; this excludes a two-game series on March 20 and 21 between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics at

550-583: A small film company, the company distributed a wide selection of genres. The company's main third-party partner was Turner Entertainment Co. , with First Independent distributing products from Castle Rock Entertainment , Turner Pictures Worldwide Distribution , Hanna-Barbera Cartoons and select New Line Cinema releases (alternating with their main UK partner Entertainment Film Distributors ). First Independent also distributed local and independent films. The company began to meet its demise after Turner Entertainment Co.

605-449: A specified time period. The latter are often purchased by pubs and students' unions , to enable them to show occasional feature films on a TV in their bars. Some distributors only handle home video distribution or some subset of home video distribution such as DVD or Blu-ray distribution. The remaining home video rights may be licensed by the producer to other distributors or the distributor may sub-license them to other distributors. If

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660-404: A studio decides to partner with a native distributor, upon release both names will appear. The foreign distributor may license the film for a certain amount of time, but the studio will retain the copyright of the film. When a film is produced and distributed by an independent production company and independent distributor (meaning outside the studios), generally an international sales agent handles

715-440: A theatrical exhibitor, the distributor secures a contract stipulating the amount of the gross ticket sales the exhibitor will be allowed to retain (usually a percentage of the gross). The distributor collects the amount due, audits the exhibitor's ticket sales as necessary to ensure the gross reported by the exhibitor is accurate, secures the distributor's share of these proceeds, surrenders the exhibitor's portion to it, and transmits

770-416: A weekday afternoon) and go out to the ballpark for the first of 162 regular season games. Teams' home openers serve as the only regular season games during the year in which the entire rosters of both teams as well as coaches and clubhouse staff are introduced to the crowd prior to the games; for the rest of the year, ballparks only introduce the starting lineups and the teams' managers . Some teams, among them

825-495: A year in the United States alone on direct buys of advertising such as TV commercials, billboards, online banner ads, radio commercials and the like. That distributor-spending figure does not include additional costs for publicity, film trailers and promotions, which are not classified as advertising but also market films to audiences. Distributors typically enter into one of the two types of film booking contracts. The most common

880-414: Is a team's first game of the season on their home field. Equivalents to Opening Day occur throughout the sport, including minor leagues, college baseball , high school, and youth leagues. Because MLB generally begins its season earlier than the other professional baseball leagues, its Opening Day is the one most commonly recognized by the general public. Most minor leagues start a few days later, but within

935-610: Is about the only sport left—now that football players report to training camp before the Fourth of July, and hockey players start skating in Indian summer—that still has a time and is true to it. There is no sports event like Opening Day of baseball, the sense of beating back the forces of darkness and the National Football League. You always get a special kick on Opening Day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like

990-437: Is also responsible for ensuring a full line of advertising material is available for each film which it believes will help the exhibitor attract the largest possible audience, create such advertising if it is not provided by the production company, and arrange for the physical delivery of the advertising items selected by the exhibitor at intervals prior to the opening day. Film distributors spend between $ 3.5 billion and $ 4 billion

1045-421: Is the aggregate deal where total box office revenue that a given film generates is split by a pre-determined mutually-agreed percentage between distributor and movie theater. The other method is the sliding scale deal, where the percentage of box office revenue taken by theaters declines each week of a given film's run. The sliding scale actually has two pieces that starts with a minimum amount of money that theater

1100-424: Is to keep—often called "the house nut"—after which the sliding scale kicks in for revenue generated above the house nut. However, this sliding scale method is falling out of use. Whatever the method, box office revenue is usually shared roughly 50/50 between film distributors and theaters. If the distributor is handling an imported or foreign film, it may also be responsible for securing dubbing or subtitling for

1155-470: The New York Mets , have had their broadcasters as the master of pre-game ceremonies for their home openers, which also typically feature appearances by retired players, local celebrities or media personalities, politicians, and other dignitaries. Prior to Opening Day, the teams' managers have to decide the starting pitchers for the game, an assignment typically given to the ace of each team's staff. For

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1210-714: The St. Louis Cardinals , most recently in 2014), largely due to the Cubs and Pirates rotating as the Opening Day opponents from 1899 to 1916, then the two teams and the Cardinals rotated from 1917 to 1952. Following the then- Boston Braves relocation to Milwaukee during the 1953 spring training, the Braves swapped schedules with the Pirates and the Opening Day opponent for the Reds began to be rotated amongst

1265-610: The Tokyo Dome in Japan. The opening of the 2020 season was originally scheduled for Thursday, March 26, but was rescheduled to Thursday, July 23 and Friday, July 24 due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The 2021 season opened on Thursday, April 1. The opening of the 2022 season, originally scheduled for Thursday, March 31, was delayed to Thursday, April 7 due to the 2021–22 lockout . The 2023 Major League Baseball season opened on Thursday, March 30. It

1320-618: The Washington Senators , Walter Johnson pitched a record nine shutouts. Two of his more famous starts include a 3–0 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics in 1910 and a 1–0 marathon victory while battling the A's Eddie Rommel for 15 innings. On March 29, 2018, Matt Davidson of the Chicago White Sox hit three home runs in his team's opener against the Kansas City Royals at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium . He became

1375-409: The airlines and film societies . Non-theatrical distribution is generally handled by companies that specialize in this market, of which Motion Picture Licensing Company (MPLC) and Film bank media are the two largest: Motion Picture Licensing Company Film bank media Representing the major Hollywood studios and independent producers. Home video media is sold with a licence that permits viewing in

1430-514: The 2011 season on a Thursday (March 31) or Friday (April 1) rather than the traditional Monday, in order to prevent the World Series from extending into November. Similarly, most teams opened the 2012 season on Thursday (April 5) or Friday (April 6). However, subsequent seasons through 2017 returned to Monday openers for most teams. For the 2018 season, all 30 teams were scheduled to open the season on Thursday, March 29 (the earliest domestic start for

1485-491: The 2025 season occurred on Thursday, March 27th; 28 of the 30 teams played their first game of the season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs having played their opening game March 18 at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. In the beginning, there was no baseball. But ever since, there have been few beginnings as good as the start of a new baseball season. It is the most splendid time in sport, in part because baseball

1540-604: The Blue Jays beating the Indians, 7–4, in 16 innings. The previous record for longest Opening Day game was on April 19, 1960, at Cleveland Stadium . That game, lasting 15 innings, also saw the Indians in a losing effort, 4–2, versus the Detroit Tigers . The Philadelphia Athletics and Washington Senators also played a 15-inning season opener on April 13, 1926, with Washington winning, 1–0, at home. On rare occasions, predominantly in

1595-457: The Wind was shown on the one sheet as "A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Release". A modern example, Jurassic Park , would be the credit " Universal Pictures presents ...". The Universal production logo also opened the film's trailer . In some cases, there is split distribution as in the case of Titanic (1997) : " 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures present ...". Both companies helped to finance

1650-516: The day off to cheer on the Reds . For decades, the first pitch of every major league season officially took place in Cincinnati, and the Reds remain the only major league team to always open the season with a home game (the sole exceptions, since the beginning of the 20th century, being in 1966, when they started the season at Philadelphia after rain washed out the opening series in Cincinnati; 1990, when due to

1705-411: The distributor owns the theaters or film distribution networks, or through theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors. A limited distributor may deal only with particular products, such as DVDs or Blu-ray, or may act in a particular country or market. The primary distributor will often receive credit in the film's credits , one sheet or other marketing material. If a distributor is working with

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1760-472: The early 20th century, a team would open its home season with a doubleheader . The first of these came when the Boston Americans hosted the Philadelphia Athletics for two games on April 20, 1903, with Boston winning the first game, 9–4, and Philadelphia taking the second game, 10–7. The most recent Opening Day doubleheader in the major leagues came on April 7, 1971, with the Chicago White Sox defeating

1815-451: The exclusive right to exploit the film in various media (theatrical, TV, home entertainment, etc.) for a certain amount of time. This term, used mainly in the British film industry , describes the distribution of feature films for screening to a gathered audience, but not in theatres at which individual tickets are sold to members of the public. The defining distinctions between a theatrical and

1870-413: The film, and securing censorship or other legal or organizational "approval" for the exhibition of the film in the country/territory in which it does business, prior to approaching the exhibitors for booking. Depending on which studio that is distributing the film, the studio will either have offices around the world, by themselves or partnered with another studio, to distribute films in other countries. If

1925-461: The film. Opening day Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season . For Major League Baseball (MLB) and most of the American minor leagues , this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent years it has occasionally fallen in the last week of March. In Nippon Professional Baseball , this day typically falls during

1980-558: The first U.S. President to open the season in this manner. Harry S. Truman threw first pitches with both his right and left arm in 1950. On April 4, 1994, Bill Clinton inaugurated the Cleveland Indians ' new ballpark, then known as Jacobs Field and now as Progressive Field , with the first pitch. George W. Bush did the honors to inaugurate Nationals Park for the Washington Nationals on March 30, 2008. Ted Williams

2035-557: The fourth major leaguer with three home runs on Opening Day, following the Toronto Blue Jays ' George Bell in 1988, Chicago Cubs ' Tuffy Rhodes in 1994 and the Detroit Tigers ' Dmitri Young in 2005. The St. Louis Cardinals were the first major league team to open their home season with a night game , beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4–2 at Sportsman's Park on April 18, 1950. The first interleague Opening Day game

2090-477: The game to the Phillies. In 1940, Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller threw a no-hitter to open the season against the Chicago White Sox . It remains the only no-hitter in Opening Day history. Twelve U.S. Presidents have thrown the ceremonial first pitch of the season. On April 14, 1910, baseball enthusiast William Howard Taft attended the Washington Senators ' home opener at National Park , becoming

2145-502: The home only. Until these technologies were widespread, most non-theatrical screenings were on 16 mm film prints supplied by the distributor. Today, the most common business model is for a distributor to sell the exhibitor a licence that permits the projection of a copy of the film, which the exhibitor buys separately on a home video format. These licences can either be for individual, one-off screenings, or cover an unlimited number of screenings of titles represented by that distributor for

2200-697: The host Oakland Athletics in both games (6–5 and 12–4, respectively). In 1968, Greg Washburn , a pitcher in the California Angels organization, pitched two Opening Day games in the same year—first for the San Jose Bees of the California League , and then for the Quad City Angels of the Midwest League . Washburn won both openers 2–0. This is the only record of a pitcher pitching two openers in

2255-412: The last week of March. For baseball fans, Opening Day serves as a symbol of rebirth; writer Thomas Boswell once penned a book titled, Why Time Begins on Opening Day . Many feel that the occasion is a moment to forget last season, in that all teams begin anew with 0–0 records. Pre-season exhibition games are usually played in the month before Opening Day, during spring training . A home opener

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2310-402: The licensing of international rights to the film. The international sales agent will find a local distributor in each individual international territory and license the exclusive rights to the film for a certain amount of time but in the same case as the studios described above, the production company will retain the copyright of the film. This means that this distributor in a certain territory has

2365-466: The prints' return to the distributor's office or other storage resource also on the contract-based return date. In practical terms, this includes the physical production of release prints and their shipping around the world (a process that is being replaced by digital distribution in most developed markets) as well as the creation of posters, newspaper and magazine advertisements, television commercials , trailers, and other types of ads. The distributor

2420-453: The remainder to the production company (or to any other intermediary, such as a film release agent). The distributor must also ensure that enough film prints are struck to service all contracted exhibitors on the contract-based opening day , ensure their physical delivery to the theater by opening day, monitor exhibitors to make sure the film is in fact shown at the particular theatre with the minimum number of seats and show times, and ensure

2475-695: The rest of the National League . Fittingly, the Reds were also the first team to host an Interleague game on Opening Day when the team hosted the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the first year of year-round Interleague play in 2013. Since 1994 ESPN has often televised a regular-season game the night before "Opening Day" and recent years have seen the staging of season-opening series in Mexico , Puerto Rico , Japan, and Australia. While these are technically "opening games", Major League Baseball still reserves

2530-486: The same week; the short season Class A and Rookie leagues are exceptions, as they begin in June. College, high school and youth baseball seasons vary widely depending on location and weather conditions. For generations, Opening Day has arrived amid pageantry. In Cincinnati , home of the sport's first openly all-professional team , the annual Findlay Market Parade marks an official "city holiday" with young and old alike taking

2585-598: The same year in professional baseball. Hall of Famer Tom Seaver holds the record among major league pitchers for the most Opening Day starts, doing the honors 16 times in his career with the New York Mets , Cincinnati Reds , and Chicago White Sox . The record for most consecutive victories on Opening Day by a team in history is ten, shared by the Boston Beaneaters (1887–1896) and the Houston Astros (2013–2022). Major League Baseball had most of its teams open

2640-437: The studios and networks were slow to change and did not experiment with different distribution processes. Studios believed that new distribution methods would cause their old methods of revenue to be destroyed. With time, the development of new distribution did prove to be beneficial. The studios revenue was gained from myriad distribution windows. These windows created many opportunities in the industry and allowed networks to make

2695-789: The team. You know that when you win the first one, you can't lose 'em all." In 2014, Ozzie Smith , with the support of Anheuser-Busch , began a campaign using the We the People site on WhiteHouse.gov to petition the U.S. government to make Opening Day an official national holiday . In 1907, the New York Giants forfeited their game at the Polo Grounds to the Philadelphia Phillies , 9–0, after rowdy fans made and threw snowballs. Without police available to restore order, umpire Bill Klem awarded

2750-573: The theatrical and home video divisions under their banner. Sony continued to use First Independent as a secondary brand for its archived titles on VHS and DVD, although no new products were released under the name. The First Independent Films company itself remained as a "dormant company" and was relocated to The London Studios , the headquarters of ITV plc until being folded on 20 December 2016. Films distributed theatrically by First Independent Films include: 1991: 1992: 1993: 1994: 1995: 1996: 1997: 1998 1999: This article about

2805-472: The title "Opening Day" for the first day in which multiple games are played. (For the first time ever, three televised games were played on Sunday, April 3, 2016, before the traditional "Opening Day" slate of games on Monday, April 4.) Opening Day is a state of mind as well, with countless baseball fans known to recognize this unofficial holiday as a good reason to call in sick at work or be truant from school (as most teams typically play their home opener on

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2860-477: Was a .449 hitter in openers, with three home runs and fourteen runs batted in during fourteen such games and at least one hit in each game. On April 4, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 714th career home run on Opening Day at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium , tying Babe Ruth on Major League Baseball's all-time list. Aaron finished his career with 755 home runs. In 14 season openers for

2915-457: Was played between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (AL) and the Cincinnati Reds (NL) on April 1, 2013 at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park . The Angels won the game in 13 innings, 3–1. The longest Opening Day game in major league history was played on April 5, 2012 between the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays . The game, played at Cleveland's Progressive Field , ended with

2970-601: Was sold to Time Warner in 1996 and Warner Bros. took over distribution of Turner's properties from them, aside from New Line Cinema releases which reverted fully to Entertainment Film Distributors. The commercial failure of G.I. Jane in the UK led to United News & Media , by this point the parent company of HTV, to exit out of the theatrical market and put the company up for sale in February 1998. Columbia TriStar Home Video 's UK operations purchased First Independent's assets and remaining library shortly afterwards and folded

3025-537: Was the first time since 1968 that all major league teams played and the first opening day that 30 teams played as there were only 20 teams in 1968. The opening of the 2024 season occurred on Thursday, March 28th; 28 of the 30 teams played their first game of the season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres having played their opening game March 20 at the Gocheok Sky Dome in South Korea . The opening of

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