The future of film distribution

At the dawn of the 21st century, filmmaking has reached a global industrial scale, films are released by several tens of thousands per year (mainly due to the fact that the cost of their production is reduced). Consider the main channels of distribution of motion pictures, as well as their disadvantages and merits.

The object of the study selected several films of 2008, different in genres, budgets and box office, in order to average the financial performance of film studios.

Iron man
Budget - $ 186,000,000
Cinema fees - $ 577,194,114
DVD sales - $ 156,541,577 (27.12%)

Juno
Budget - $ 7,000,000
Cinema fees - $ 230,312,938
DVD sales - $ 50,457,002 (21.9%)
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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Budget - $ 175,000,000
Cinema fees - $ 393,085,977
DVD sales - $ 36,268,336 (9.22%)

In the examples considered, which are fairly typical of the modern film market, DVD sales are significant, but rarely exceed the bar at 30% of the total fees. Information on renting movies in iTunes and similar services is not yet available and talking about their effectiveness as financial instruments is possible only with a fraction of the assumption.

Suppose that you can evaluate the distribution channels of films by the following parameters:
- Cost of viewing
- Image quality
- Manage your viewing
- degree of ownership

Consider the main channels used to distribute films:

Cinemas
+ Maximum viewing effect
+ Low viewing cost
- It is not possible to control the viewing
- Unavailability of the film after the expiration date

DVD
+ Ability to manage viewing
+ Availability of films at any time.
- Low image quality
- High viewing cost

Blueray
+ Ability to manage viewing
+ Improved image quality
+ Availability of films at any time.
- High viewing cost

HDTV rental
+ Ability to manage viewing
+ Improved image quality
+ Low viewing cost
- Unavailability of the film after viewing

As a result of the review, there are two favorites, however BlueRay loses to HDTV rental in terms of viewing costs, which is decisive for many. Therefore, at the moment, in the near medium term, the rental of high-quality films has no competitors among other distribution tools. The success of this direction directly depends on the number of titles in the libraries of such services and the availability of price advantage.