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Topic: Print Buying Cooperative

Donald Brown
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 131
From: Lincoln, DE
Registered: Sep 2009

posted 12-26-2013 08:40 PM

With the current use of exhibitor print buys, the distributor retains all ownership. The exhibitor merely pays for a print which the distributor was unwilling to furnish otherwise. One of the most successful print buys, that I am aware of, was undertaken by Hoyts immediately preceding the the phenomenal success of The Blair Witch Project.
The concept of a cooperative would require an association of regional exhibitors located within some manageable distance from one another. Each exhibitor would provide the print buy for a specific release or for a number of releases. The prints would then circulate within the circuit of cooperative buying theatres.
The print movements within a regional coop' could be coordinated in advance by the cooperating exhibitors, or they could be managed by the Technicolor UPS tandem as they are now.
The concept would have some very broad similarity to the old resort booking system. Such a system would provide a mix of first-run and sub-run product for participating exhibitors.
Don Brown

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Bill Enos
Film God

Posts: 2081
From: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 01-17-2014 07:15 PM

By the time the contracts are drawn up, reviewed and modified by the participants in the coop, the attorneys paid, the lawsuits settled and the first several prints contracted for at least 3 to 4 years will have passed and assuming film is still available each of the members will have wasted enough resources to have made the conversion in the first place.

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Adam Fraser
Master Film Handler

Posts: 499
From: Houghton Lake, MI, USA
Registered: Dec 2001

posted 01-17-2014 07:37 PM

After reading multiple VPF and MLA contracts, I have no doubt that the studios would require so much legal work it would be impossible and would cost more in legal fees than just purchasing digital equipment.

Example simple VPF contract that never happened: You book a first run movie, we will subtract $250 from the first two week's rent for a term of 5 years if you purchase qualifying equipment.

Example Studio VPF contract: You must sign an NDA to read the contract. Some were at least 20 pages long. There were at least 6 different versions, with so many stipulations and big brother clauses we just said screw it and paid for our equipment ourselves.

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