A Less Popcorn Filled Future for Film Distribution

How film distribution techniques are changing

By Brynn Hughes

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ne day you’re sitting in a movie theater, waiting for the film to start. There’s the quiet buzz of people reclining in their seats, the fizz of your sister’s icee, the buttery, warm smell of popcorn, all warming your senses. The previews start up. The lights go dim. You sit back in your nice, comfy chair and get ready for the next two hours of gripling excitement and then, next thing you know, it’s four months later and you’re up in your room struggling to pick something worth watching on Netflix for your zoom movie night with friends. There’s no more popcorn. No more previews. No more emotions filling the room. It’s just you and your streaming service. The way movies are put out into the world will never ever be the same again - especially after COVID-19.

Film distribution has been a constantly adapting process but it’s changed more than ever in the recent years as the COVID 19 pandemic rages on and technology continues to advance. According to statista, in 1996 there were 7,798 movie theaters in the US but as of 2020, there are only 5,798 theaters around. When the world shut down, film companies had to scramble and reconfigure their release techniques so the industry could stay afloat. They’ve had to shorten theatrical windows and make films theater exclusive. They’ve also experimented with implementing slow releases and utilizing dual releases.

Jennifer Mizener works at Amblin Partners, Steven Spielberg’s company, for Wren

Photo by Geoffrey Moffett on Unsplash

Visual Effects. She said film distribution has changed with the times. New movies used to come out on a Friday and then a new one would be released a few weeks later and then another even more weeks later. Now things are much different.

“With the technology that we have between theater release, television, streaming services, iPhones, and all of these advancements in technology, the film industry, like so many others, are changing with the times in order to be able to provide different kinds of content to people in the different ways that they want to view it,” explained Mizener.

Michael Nordine, a freelance film writer for Variety, explained that studios create new techniques because of their audiences.

“Studios are rethinking their theatrical approach because if it’s not Spider-Man, then people are tending to stay out of the theaters right now,” said Nordine. theater before moving to peoples’ homes, its potential is hurt

“I don’t think [movies are reaching their highest potential with shortening theatrical windows]. The way the theatrical release schedule works now is basically, if you don’t have a strong opening weekend, that’s sort of your whole story. There isn’t much opportunity for movies to have a slow burn release where they pick up momentum as they go along. [For instance], Titanic was the highest grossing movie

of all time until Avatar came out. [Titanic] never made more than something like $10 or $20 million in a single weekend but it kept making a consistent amount every single weekend for a month,” said Nordine. “I think there’s a feeling now that people [who] want to see a movie, will go to see it in the first week or they won’t see it at all. So if the movie underperformed its first weekend then [everyone’s] just going to give up on it “You just hope that immediately.” with all the different Not everyone has been comfortable streaming services going to theaters during the pandemic. that the goal is For this reason, Mizener found the always still the same; theater exclusive method, a technique to try to provide that ensures a movie is in theaters only for people with the best a while before moving to streaming services, quality options that disappointing for the film industry. you can that are “I don’t think that entertaining and hit many have been really successful with the mark.” going in that direction of just saying, ‘we want it on the big screen.’ Of course, so does everyone. We make movies with the idea and the dream of seeing them on the big screen in an audience filled with people, [but that] isn’t the world that we live in right now. While I understand certain movies [get] delayed and plan to be theatrical only because they are a big spectacle… if the world can’t do that, if the world can’t come to you, you do have to figure out how to come to the world,” said Mizener. With fewer people going to the movies, theaters are at risk and if theaters are at risk, so are movies themselves. Movies are meant to be seen in theaters according to Nordine who said movies are special because they are meant to be seen on the big screen. Nordine is worried about theaters’ markets in the future. “I think that the theatrical experience will continue to be more and more of a niche market for people who really value it,” said Nordine Post pandemic, going to theaters will be an exciting outing again according to Mizener. “Many of those theaters and these chains have suffered the last two years. When people feel comfortable again and there’s a big exciting movie out, it will feel exciting again to go to the movies. It won’t just be ‘let’s go to the movies’ it’ll be like, ‘oh, we’re going to the movies. It smells like popcorn.’ It’s just all the experiences that come with that. [We’ll] get to see trailers again and all those fun things that go with it,” said Mizener. Jazmyne Moreno is a film programmer at the Austin FIlm Society Cinema. She explained that film distribution is also changing because of streaming services like Netflix. “[Film distribution is changing for] a number of reasons, I think you have streaming platforms that are often creating a sort of a content machine that you feed constantly,” said Moreno. Nordine agreed that streaming services are just putting out quantity over quality to make money and keep their services up and running. “For me, I like movies to feel special and feel like events. Film Through Time | 22

I think that that’s happening less and less now. Streaming services are sort of just turning them into content,” said Nordine.

While some could argue that these ‘content machines’ only produce projects of less quality, Mizener explained how this content isn’t all necessarily bad. There are still diamonds in the rough that streaming services bring to light.

“It’s interesting because I look at it from both someone that works within this industry and also as somebody that partakes in this industry. There’s the TV and movie fan in me and then there’s the professional and how those meld together… I think that, pandemic or not, having streaming services offers an opportunity for people to have all sorts of different kinds of content but also possibly to see shows or movies that aren’t the blockbusters that need the 100 million dollar opening. [These would] just get swallowed up at the box office by the bigger projects but they still deserve an audience. They’re great projects. So streaming services are able to provide people an opportunity to see projects that maybe audiences might not have seen if they were just going to the theater,” said Mizener.

According to Moreno, determining the success of a film is much harder nowadays because of streaming “You’ve got metrics that we the public don’t quite know. So how Netflix determines how popular a film is or how well it did, is by how many people watched it, but what they consider a watch might be a fuse, a few minutes. So if someone only watched five minutes of a Netflix movie, they ‘watched it’. [That makes it] harder to gauge what a ‘success’ is anymore,” said Moreno.

Mizener explained how the last few years have been good for streaming services but hard for theaters.

“I think from a revenue standpoint, it’s going to be huge. There used to be such a separation between film and television and now all those lines have blurred over the last few years. Then, obviously over the last two, it’s just all mixed in together. I think from a theater owner standpoint, it’s got to be really tough because they’re not bringing in what they used to and having those options. It’s a great opportunity for all the streaming services to jump in on that,” said Mizener.

Mizener, like so many others, felt lucky that streaming services were available during quarantine and that film studios took a chance.

“I think the first couple months [were] a wait and see and then all of a sudden [studios went] ‘you know what, we’re gonna be locked down for a while, people need more stuff. What are our options?’ and they started pairing up more with the streaming services,” said Mizener. “I mean, thank goodness the streaming services were up

Photo by Meg Boulden on Unsplash and going and this was a business model people were executing already because had they done this, maybe 10 years ago and we had a lockdown, we would have all been scrambling desperately for something to watch.”

Rather than movie theaters changing the way the public see movies, Nordine said it’s the streaming services that change public perceptions. To him, movies are meant to be seen blown up on the big screen but nowadays, people aren’t going to the theaters as often as they used to.

“I think [theaters are] the way people have been seeing movies for 100 years. It’s more that streaming services are changing the way people see [movies]... I really value the actual experience [of theaters] but I think to a lot of people, it doesn’t have that same kind of special feeling that it used to.Tickets are so much more expensive than [they] used to be. Food is more expensive than it used to be. For a lot of people it just seems like a hassle,” said Nordine.

Mizener talked about the first movie that was released to streaming services without a theatrical release back in 2020.

“[Trolls World Tour] was the first one [to be released at home instead of in a theater]. It was a Universal film and they were going to release it like everything else and they decided, ‘you know what, we’re gonna give it a shot.’ I think a lot of people thought, ‘oh, that’s nuts, because they’re not going to make the same amount of money,’ but they did a wonderful job, especially for all the families that were home and trapped inside, especially with little kids that you’re trying to keep entertained. It was actually a very cost effective way for a family to watch something new together because now you rented [a movie] for $20 instead of taking every member of your family to the theater for $10-$15$20 a piece. It worked and it benefited everyone. Maybe they didn’t make, I’m not sure of the numbers, maybe they didn’t make the same amount as if they’d come out in theaters but I think the movie reached more people than could necessarily even afford to go,” said Mizener.

With shortening theatrical windows and more people watching movies from home, Moreno said movie theaters can still be saved by offering what streaming services can’t.

“I think that [movie theaters can be saved from becoming a thing of the past] by offering what the streamers can’t, which is that sense of curation. When you’re on Netflix, or Amazon Prime, or any of the others, you’re offered tons of choices but there’s no curation. So you just sort of throw a thing on, you don’t know if it’s the

quote unquote, good or bad or whatever. There’s no real context for it,” said Moreno. “That sense of care and curation that is offered by a theater [and] that sense of community and joining in with other people and their interest is lost when you don’t have that ability to connect to one another. So I think all of those things [will be] lost whenever theaters [are] done.”

Mizener said she appreciates studios who offer both theatrical release and streaming service release simultaneously.

“I applaud those that offer both right away because it reminds us that while this is a business and people want to make money at it, you are thinking about how we want people to see it, and we want people to have the option and not be left out of it,” said Mizener.

Over the last few years, as the COVID pandemic has continued, the film industry has had to constantly adapt. Mizener is most impressed with the industries’ ability to listen to audiences.

“I think our ability to listen to what the audiences are looking for and how they want to see it, not just what they want to see, but how they want to view it [is most interesting]. Especially over the last two years, when everyone’s been in lockdown, how quickly the industry was listening and starting to pivot in order to make sure that the material people were craving was getting to them in whatever form that we could because once everything locked down obviously we weren’t going to the theaters, we weren’t going outside, we were erring on the side of caution and safety for everybody’s health but that didn’t mean people didn’t want things to watch. And of course, we’re all locked in our homes and bored out of our minds. So you’ve got to figure out what is the best way forward to get things,” said Mizener.

Mizener said that the industry changing isn’t a new thing though.

“It is very rare within the industry that I work in where someone goes, ‘well, that’s the way I’ve been doing it for 30 years. That’s the way it’s always done.’ That’s not a statement that works because I can’t even say that about things from two years ago. It’s constantly changing and I love that about it,” explained Mizener.

Going forward, Nordine, Moreno, and Mizener all think streaming services will grow as theaters shrink. Mizener explained her hopes for the future no matter what happens.

“The industry has always changed with the times, with the technology, and with the audience that craves it. This is no different in that sense but you just hope that with all the different streaming services that the goal is always still the same; to try to provide people with the best quality options that you can that are entertaining and hit the mark and the audience that you’re looking for,” said Mizener.

Film distribution will continue to change in the future just like it always has. Who knows what the methods will be like even ten years down the road?

Photo by Jonatan Moerman on Unsplash