To what extent is digital distribution vital to film?
Digital distribution is the delivery or distribution of digital media content such as audio, video, e-books, video games, and other software. We take technology for granted nowadays since it is so accessible to us. However, digital distribution plays almost the biggest part in how well a movie does before or after its release.
Digital distribution can continue a film’s legacy even after it premieres in theaters. The Fast and Furious franchise released a DLC pack 7 days after the Fast and Furious 7 film officially premiered. They did this through cross-media convergence. Universal Studios and Microsoft collaborated to bring the audience the ability to race in the game as if they were players. This benefitted both companies because they both profited from people learning about and playing the game. Another way that digital distribution can help films is by supporting small companies and indie films. Charles Matthau wrote an article for WIRED titled “How Tech Has Shaped Film Making: The Film vs. Digital Debate is Put to Rest.” In this article Matthau explains that distribution through the platform “YouTube” has significantly altered the ability for small companies to get their advertisements and movies out, and for the better. Matthau writes, “Distribution through YouTube has been the most common form of marketing for quite some time. Studios have released big budget trailers, while indie filmmakers have sought funding and interested eyes posting content through various YouTube channels. [...] YouTube users also crowdsource what is popular with a thumbs up, helping others to find new and interesting content without spending too much time digging for it.” This is just one example of how digital distribution can help films that may not have been seen, become seen.
Warner Bros. has shown a trend when releasing films in their “Lego” franchise. Usually, they will release a video game first, then a movie. They did this again with The Lego Movie 2, releasing yet another video game beforehand. This caused audiences to draw their attention to the entire franchise, creating more money for the first movie and its video game, as well as its successor. Media distribution also benefited a lot the Movie Black Panther. The movie was not very “hyped” before its release date, but after it was finally released the movie gained a lot of popularity and profited a lot from it. After the release of the movie, Disney also released the movie’s soundtrack for download. That was a major key for the movie to be talked about for a long time and never “die” in popularity. Disney has a history of very good marketing and Media distribution. Before the latest Star Wars Movie, Disney partnered up with Epic games and their game Fortnite to bring in game outfits, known as “Skins” for players to buy and use. They also had a live event where thousands of people joined and watched parts of the movie inside the game with their friends. The event and the “Skins” players bought created a huge hype for the movie and certainly Disney and Epic games profited immensely from it.
The movie Spider-Man Homecoming was a movie that had a lot of people very excited when it was announced. The movie certainly did not disappoint and got amazing reviews and people really enjoyed watching it. After the release of the movie Sony also released The movie in streaming devices like Xfinity stream and other streaming sites. Sony benefited a lot from that since many people don’t have the time to go out to the movies or simply just don't want to leave their homes. In the article “Ins and Outs of Hollywood Film Distribution” the author Jonathan Paul writes about digital distribution and how companies profit out of it. In the article Paul writes, “With each passing year, Digital Distribution Is positioning itself to surpass disc-based media as the top home-entertainment revenue. Studios and distributors are including digital copies with physical copies. They’re even beginning to Release digital versions of films to online retailers like iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play before the disc-based option is released.” This shows that digital media distribution is increasing its popularity every day and will soon pass disc-based media and maybe even media delivered in the movies.
Digital distribution is vital for the success of a movie. Digital distribution not only increases the movie’s “hype” and popularity in the case of video game DLCs and cosmetic items but it also keeps the movie alive even after months of its release by soundtrack releases and by allowing people to watch those movies on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, Xfinity stream and many others.
