From Reel to Reel

A behind-the-scenes look at how movies make it to the silver screen (or your flat screen TV).

Settling in at your local theater for a good flick and a bucket of buttery popcorn is a beloved American pastime, dating back to the days of nickelodeon theaters. But how exactly do movies make it from the set to the big screen, and then onto DVD or your favorite online streaming service?

We’ll lift the curtain on the film distribution supply chain, and what the burgeoning streaming industry dominated by giants like Netflix and Amazon means for the big movie studios. Lights, camera, action!

From the Set to the Theater

Making a movie often requires months or years of on-set shooting, millions of dollars, and a hefty cast and crew — but the final leg of the journey, during which the film makes its way to eager audiences across the nation, is arguably the most arduous.

Once a film has been shot and edited, it’s sent to the studio for final approval and prepared for distribution. The studio then sets the terms for the film’s distribution, determining where the film will play, how many theaters will show it, how long its theatrical run will last, and how the profits will be split. The six major film studios — 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Columbia, Universal, and Disney — have their own distribution companies that secure national and global distribution rights, while smaller studios usually rely on independent distributors.

Once the distributor and studio establish a distribution strategy, the studio transports release prints to the approved theaters a few days before the film’s opening. The theater then shows the movie until its initial theatrical run ends (though the studio has the option to extend the run of a more popular movie). At the end of its run, the theater sends the prints back to the distribution company, which usually destroys them to prevent piracy — but sometimes stores a handful of copies in an archive or sells them to collectors.

DVDs Still Matter

The end of a film’s theatrical run is not the end of the film distribution supply chain. After providing the movie to theaters, most distributors obtain ancillary rights to distribute the movie in other formats like DVD, Blu-Ray, and cable. As the only physical options for secondary distribution, DVDs and Blu-Rays get into the hands of consumers via online sales or brick-and-mortar entertainment retailers.

As people continue to migrate to digital channels, however, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs aren’t as popular or profitable products of the home entertainment industry as they once were. Indeed, many studios now offer digital copies with the purchase of a physical copy, or even release a digital version of a film to streaming services before the DVD or Blu-Ray is available.