Is it true the a cinema "rents" a film and that a rep for the drops off the film, and then returns to pick the film when the theater is done?
Also, are cinemas given a certain amount of time to show it, or can they keep a film up and running for as long as they are making enough money from lt?
Update:To my knowledge they did it this way for some of the Newer Star Wars episodes, A rep from LucasFilms acted as a courier and delivered a print of the movie off. And then by whatever formula the cinema used was finished with the film and the courier came by to pick it up. So if for some weird reason the sales for "movie x" actually increases, can they let the movie "ride" until the sales drop off?
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Sort of, but not in the sort of shady way that you make it sound. Movie theaters are in the business of showing movies, not warehousing. Once they are no longer showing the movie they don't have any reason to keep it around. Most theaters also show mainly first-run movies, films that were released in the last several weeks. Most films have their biggest gross their opening week period after that it is normal for attendants to decline overtime. Eventually, so few people will want to see a movie in the theater that is no longer economical for the theater to show it. Obviously, a more popular film like Infinity war will have more staying power than an unpopular film, but all of them will eventually leave the theater.
This following online advertisement article indicates that it is usually for a set period of time, but it does not say they can't change their minds if the
movie is doing really well.
However, the theatre also pays the movie studio a percentange of ticket sales.
See the following artictle (advertisement) from CNN which agrees with your stattement that
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Most of the money from ticket sales goes back to the movie studio. A film booker leases a movie to a particular theater for a set period of weeks. The percentage of ticket sales that the studio takes decreases on each week that a movie is in the theater. If the screening was arranged by an independent middleman, he also takes a slice. So the movie has to pull in sizeable audiences for several weeks in order for theater owners to make any serious profits.
During the film's opening week, the studio might take 70 to 80 percent of gross box office sales. By the fifth or sixth week, the percentage the studio takes will likely shrink to about 35 percent, said Steven Krams, president of International Cinema Equipment Co.
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http://money.cnn.com/2002/03/08/smbusiness/q_movie...
well, you're sorta right, but i like the way you make it sound like a guy in an old sunoco baseball cap drops off the film from the back of a pickup, then, a week later, comes to pick it up, probably with his ol' dawg following along behind. He then gets given a roll of $100 bills and spits on them before putting them in the back of his bib'n'brace denims
I've been told that theatres make little or no money on the film itself. They make their money on the concessions.
It's true that most of them rent the film for a while, but some might buy for it to show it more often, but most of ther times it's to expensive to buy it. Rent it for maybe 3 weeks is cheaper because than most of the people have seen it.