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40-458: PROGRESS is a German film distributor . It was established in 1950 to handle the release of films produced by DEFA , the state-controlled production outfit of communist East Germany . Since 1989 Progress distributes the entire DEFA film collection. Since 2019, PROGRESS has been digitizing and making accessible the complete holdings of DEFA as well as a growing number of international collections by other archives which are being made available to

80-436: A 'dupe negative'), which in turn is a copy of an interpositive (these were sometimes referred to as 'lavender prints' in the past, due to the slightly colored base of the otherwise black-and-white print), which in turn is a copy, optically printed to incorporate special effects, fades, etc., from the cut camera negative. In short, a typical release print is three generations removed from the cut camera negative. A check print

120-445: 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

160-401: 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

200-486: 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

240-415: 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

280-449: 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

320-404: 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

360-440: 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

400-495: 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

440-416: Is a type of release print used for checking the quality of release prints before they are made. The post-production of many feature films is now carried out using a digital intermediate workflow, in which the uncut camera negative is scanned , editing and other post-production functions are carried out using computers, and an internegative is burnt out to film, from which the release prints are struck in

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480-437: 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

520-456: Is often recycled. EKs (showprints) are even more expensive as they are almost completely made by hand and to much higher quality standards. Perhaps only five EKs will be made of a widely distributed feature, compared to thousands of standard prints. They are intended primarily for first-run and Academy -consideration theatrical runs in Los Angeles and New York City. This accounts for two of

560-421: 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

600-530: Is the only remaining manufacturer of colour release print stock in the world. Along with Kodak, ORWO of Germany also sells black-and-white print stock. Other manufacturers, principally DuPont of the United States, Fujifilm of Japan (the penultimate company to discontinue colour print stock ), Agfa-Gevaert of Germany, Ilford of the United Kingdom and Tasma of the Soviet Union competed with Kodak in

640-424: 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

680-473: Is used in printing to ensure that only the area of the frame shot in the camera that is intended to be projected is actually present on the release print. Some theaters have also used aperture plates that mask away part of the frame area that is supposed to be projected, usually where the screen is too small to accommodate a wider ratio and does not have a masking system in front of the screen itself. The audience may be confused when significant action appears on

720-544: The Allied Occupation of Germany. Rudolf Bernstein and Georgri Nikolayevich Nikolayev, later director of Soviet film production Lenfilm , were appointed German and Soviet directors. PROGRESS was the only film distributor in the German Democratic Republic .The repertoire includes more than 12,000 films from nine decades. Almost half of them were feature films and documentaries by DEFA, the only film studio in

760-409: 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

800-638: The GDR: After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, PROGRESS—on behalf of the DEFA Foundation—began marketing the entire collection of films that show a now non-existent country. Other collections from the 20th century were added. Many of the former East German films were re-released and became cult classics. In 2019, Progress was acquired as PROGRESS Film GmbH by LOOKSfilm, based in Halle. Since 1 April 2019,

840-457: 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

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880-420: The bulky release print to a movie theater for public exhibition. The cost of a release print is determined primarily by its length, the type of print stock used and the number of prints being struck in a given run. Laser subtitling release prints of foreign language films adds significantly to the cost per print. Due to the fear of piracy, distributors try to ensure that prints are returned and destroyed after

920-411: 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

960-487: The entire film heritage of the GDR has been made internationally accessible on the platform PROGRESS.film. In addition, PROGRESS evaluates film materials from ministries, parties and authorities as well as other collections on behalf of the federal government. Thus, an increasing number of archive collections are made available to the public on PROGRESS.film. In total, PROGRESS' holdings include 25,000 films and recordings from around

1000-451: 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

1040-413: 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

1080-452: The film. Release print A release print is a copy of a film that is provided to a movie theater for exhibition. Release prints are not to be confused with other types of prints used in the photochemical post-production process: In the traditional photochemical post-production workflow, release prints are usually copies, made using a high-speed continuous contact optical printer, of an internegative (sometimes referred to as

1120-502: 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

1160-402: 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

1200-430: The masked-off edges of the picture. Director Brad Bird expressed frustration at this practice, which some theaters applied to his film The Incredibles SFIFF: Brad Bird's State of Cinema Address: SFist . Release prints are generally expensive. For example, in the United States, as of 2005, it typically cost at least US$ 1,000 to manufacture a release print, and that number did not include the additional cost of shipping

1240-441: The movie's theatrical run is complete. However, small numbers of release prints do end up in the hands of private collectors, usually entering this market via projectionists , who simply retain their prints at the end of the run and do not return them. A significant number of films have been preserved this way, via prints eventually being donated to film archives and preservation masters printed from them. The polyester film base

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1280-434: The normal way. This procedure eliminates at least one generation of analogue duplication and usually results in a significantly higher quality of release prints. It has the further advantage that a Digital Cinema Package can be produced as the final output in addition to or instead of film prints, meaning that a single post-production workflow can produce all the required distribution media. As of March 2015, Eastman Kodak

1320-436: The print stock market throughout most of the twentieth century. The person operating the printer on which the release print is struck must take several factors into consideration in order to achieve accurate color. These include the stock manufacturer, the color temperature of the bulbs in the printer, and the various color filters which may have been introduced during initial filming or subsequent generation of duplicates. At

1360-466: 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

1400-452: The public on a historically curated platform. PROGRESS was founded on 1 August 1950 as a German–Soviet company. Like DEFA, PROGRESS Film was a monopoly company, and its films were carefully vetted by the regime for their content. PROGRESS took over this role in the early 1950s from Sovexport, a Soviet-controlled company which operated during the period following the Battle of Berlin in 1945 and

1440-453: 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

1480-437: 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

1520-409: The theater, release prints are projected through an aperture plate , placed between the film and the projector's light source. The aperture plate in combination with a prime lens of the appropriate focal distance determines which areas of the frame are magnified and projected and which are masked out, according to the aspect ratio in which the film is intended to be projected. Sometimes a hard matte

1560-554: The typically five produced. Two EKs are usually reserved for the film's producer. The remaining EK is usually archived by the film's distributor. Conventional release prints, which are made from timed internegatives, usually contain black motor and changeover cue marks as the printing internegatives are "punched" and "inked" for this specific purpose. Showprints, being made from the composited camera negatives, which are never "punched" or "inked", have white motor and changeover cue marks as these marks are punched (or scribed) directly on

1600-587: The world, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present (as of January 2021). This article about a film production company or film distributor 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

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