What is the difference between a Distributor and an Exhibitor?
Film distributors in Australia often represent their studio in the US and own the rights for the films distribution. They are responsible for negotiating film rental terms with exhibitors, arranging release dates, providing prints and promoting the movie. In Australia the main distributors are Hoyts Distribution, Roadshow Distribution, Columbia Tri-Star, Twentieth Century Fox, United International Pictures and Buena Vista International. An exhibitor is a company / person that owns cinema/s and rents first release films from the distributors to screen in their theatres. Cinema exhibition represents a major source of revenue for film studios and distributors and accordingly, the success of a film at the box office is crucial to the overall return to the film studio and distributor.
