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Hello Everyone,

Newbie to this board, I'm not in the theater biz, I'm actually a producer, and I'm bringing a film to theaters in March. I'm up against the clock and this is a new venture for my company.

My question is: How does a brand new distribution company find and contact theatrical bookers for company's like say NA, or Regal? And how do I go about picking the right theaters to book my film for each town? Does the booker offer or suggest? And then is there a contract that memorializes the split after that's negotiated (and can a new company outside Hollywood even negotiate that?)

Sorry for the rambling, as you can see I have a lot of questions, so I thought I'd go straight to the source!!

Any help Much appreciated thanks!!

--Tim

Tim,

I didn't quite understand if you are new to film producing and distribution or just distribution. If it is the first case, I would just concentrate on making a good movie, then enter it to festivals and hope that one of the big distributors will buy it from you.

If you just new to distributing you might want to come to one (or all ) of the trade shows, Showeast, Showwest, Geneva Convention and so on. PLenty of people there that would be good to know.

Good Luck,
Jay

Hi Jay,

I have made many films, and distributed through major companies. However, the studios don't share the wealth, so I have decided to self distribute this time because I feel I have a big hit with this new film. I have seven studios making offers and I have refused them all. If this film makes money, I will be first in line this time... I'm now trying to figure out the process of working with the theater chains myself, and booking the film around the country. ANY help much appreciated!!

Tim

Tim.

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Tim:

All the major chains have bookers. I would suggest you contact them. However, they seem to book only stuff that Hollywood promotes heavily. So perhaps your first move would be to promote the film in the trades (Boxoffice, etc.) and perhaps on TV.

I keep hearing that, but my first film went to 1 hundred screens, including Regal and NA, and we had only 200k P&A budget, and no stars, and certainly outside of hollywood. Have things changed now? I was hoping maybe things got easier with digital projection, not harder.

Tim:

The corporate big boys seem to rely on the distributors to do the promoting and they spend almost nothing on advertising. If your film is foreign or art type you might try personally contacting those theatres. There are a couple of art theatre owners who post on this site. At least one of them is aware of an art theatre group.

Do u have a trailer for your new movie?