10 Problems With The Modern Movie Industry Nobody Ever Admits

5. The Distribution Model Is F*cked Up

OK, remember when I glossed over the whole popcorn income point because it's so overdone? Well, there's actually a lot more to it than people realise; that entire model is now broken. We all know distributors take a good chunk of a movie's ticket sales (typically a lump sum straight up and then a high percentage of any gross after that), so the theatres turned to confectionary with a high mark-up to make their dosh. However, with everything going digital, the entire nature of distribution has changed. Those high costs developed from when physical film needed to be printed and shipped to each cinema, but nowadays most chains just download the movies off a secure internet connection. Now look, I don't know the costs of making a DCP (although, having made some in the past, it's not too taxing) and getting it sent out digitally, but I'm willing to bet it's much lower than making actual film and sending it out in massive shipping boxes. So the cost of releasing a film has greatly diminished, yet distributors still charge pretty much the same as the physical rates for their services so they can get more money to cover ballooning budgets, a deficit that is kindly passed down to the consumer. So the cinema is essentially a perverse place that has over time become a cesspit of delinquency where the age old popcorn adage is still the biggest indictment on the whole thing. And it doesn't get better when you step outside...