Sifter

Sifter


Buying films for thousands of theaters

May 29, 2024

Paul Serwitz has made his career as a film buyer, including Regal Cinemas for 25 years and most recently, President and COO of Landmark Theatres. He’s now consulting as a distributor on a new comedy opening this weekend called Summer Camp. Paul will talk about that movie, but he’s also got lots of interesting insights into the biz of buying and distributing films.

– The difference between buying & booking a film

– The sliding scale and bidding process for film rentals

– Negotiating with film companies to get the right films in the right cinemas

– How Landmark Cinemas is different and how they coped with Covid

– Why art house theaters are suffering

On Part 2, he’ll talk about booking issues for various genres, what’s coming in 2024 and going to Oscars.


LINKS

Summer Camp trailer

Ray Bentley’s podcast about the Midnight Movies

Joe Masher podcast Part One

Joe Masher podcast Part Two

My review of Anyone But You