Film Distribution: A Changing Business

Abstract

This chapter reveals the importance of the video market to processes of change and growth in the film distribution business. Film became a newly lucrative business because the demand for films in the video market grew dramatically in the 1980s. With the recent development of the digital and on-line video market, in which distributors are replaced by new gatekeepers such as digital platform providers and what are called content aggregators, the market share for on-line revenues is also growing year on year. The chapter considers: how do distributors respond to the growing on-line video market? Will digital platform providers and content aggregators become more dominant in the near future? And how does this affect film distribution processes?