Movies and TV Stack Exchange
Movies and TV Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [distribution]

Distribution is the process by which a film is released to audiences; by a distributor renting films to a cinema, the creation and sale of home media such as DVD, through broadcast television or via online streaming or download services.

Distribution is the process by which a film or television show is released to audiences; by a distributor renting films to a cinema, the creation and sale of home media such as DVD, through broadcast television or via online streaming or download services.

Please note that asking about where you can download or purchase media is off-topic for this site.

From Film distribution on Wikipedia.

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What is the longest aired episode of a TV series?

It has been rumored that every episode of Season 8 of Game Of Thrones could be ninety minutes long - making each episode comparable with the running time of full-length feature films. It seems very rare for television episodes to run longer than an…
Knetic
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What media format do TV stations use?

When a TV station commissions/buys/rents a TV show, in what format does it get sent to them? I can't imagine it's film that they'd have to transfer themselves, but it should be clearly a better quality than you could buy the shows as home media (as…
Crow T Robot
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Why do broadcasters have a mid-season break in TV season?

There seems to be a three way split in the broadcasting industry between Streaming providers who provide instant access to all episodes of a series Broadcasters who maintain a constant schedule of TV episodes until completion of the…
Venture2099
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Are there "fewer independent theaters than ever"?

In his 09-Nov-2019 New York Times Opinion piece Martin Scorsese: I Said Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema. Let Me Explain. the director, writer and producer laments "the sameness of today’s franchise pictures", and says: It’s a perilous time in film…
uhoh
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Digital Movies, DVD's and the law

I firmly believe in paying for what I watch - they paid to make it, I should pay to watch it. Completely fair. However, I hate physical media: DVD, Blu-ray, you name it. I'm happy to buy them to pay my royalty to those involved, but my understanding…
George Pearce
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Where does poor video quality in some TV series originate?

When I watch re-releases of older TV series, some of them look amazingly fresh, while others have so bad video quality they're unwatchable. Some examples: Freaks and Geeks: Supreme video quality. Could have come right out of Netflix now. Seinfeld:…
forthrin
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Why is international distribution so tangled even for recent movies released first online?

The iTunes trailer for John Dies at the End proclaims that it will be available online, "everywhere" from december 2012 before its cinema release in January 2013. Of course by "everywhere" they mean the USA and nowhere else. Those of us in…
matt_black
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Showing Old Movies in Theater

I live in Austin, Texas, home to Alamo Drafthouse. Alamo often shows older movies as part of a theme, a "quote along" for "Spinal Tap" where the audience is encouraged to blurt out their favorite lines. Or, "Master Pancake Theater", where comedians…
Tim Lavin
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On their U.S. release date, what time of day are movies first shown?

When a date is provided for a US release, does it mean it will be released first thing that morning (matinee) or evening?
Sedona
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What causes a high budget title to be direct-to-DVD?

We've all heard the saying "released straight to DVD" to indicate the failure of a movie to make it into the theaters. Now, I'm not talking about the "made for DVD" films, or foreign films that were released there in theaters and then find there way…
Reactgular
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How are movies distributed internationally?

How is a movie, for example a Hollywood movie that is produced in USA make it across the globe? In what form of storage device and who has the responsibility of physically transferring the movie from one country to another? Or is it done through the…
Aki
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What determines a movie's run at a particular theater?

What determines a movie's run at a particular theater? Do owners decide day to day whether to pull a title, or do they have fixed distribution deals that predetermine the length of a run? If a movie is doing well or doing badly can a theater change…
Tyler Durden
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TV Shows with Season Parts 1 & 2

Why do some shows have certain seasons broken into 2 parts, when their spacing would otherwise mean that they were separate seasons altogether? Many examples are from non-network stations: Sex and the City Season 6, Parts 1 & 2 Entourage Season 3,…
Chris Schiffhauer
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Is there a way to view the "TV Edits" of movies without waiting for them to come on TV?

When Dumb & Dumber came on TBS, I pulled my eight year old on the couch and said "Here..let's watch this." The laughs started when Jeff Daniels walked out in the dog suit and didn't stop till the credits rolled. It was a fun, bonding moment. When it…
ray
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How do movie channels get movies to be in HD if they've not been released on an HD source?

I just got a copy of the Twilight Time edition of Christine and the colors are a lot more vibrant than the other versions released on DVD. I believe Twilight Time was the first Blu-ray release of Christine. So how do cable channels get a DVD-like…
J. Litke
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