Glossary of Movie Business Terms
Ad Budget
See Prints and Advertising Budget.
Awards Season
The time of year where most films aimed at Oscar glory come out. It “officially” begins when the nominations for Independent Spirit Awards being announced, but can unofficially begin earlier, if a film with lots of Oscar buzz comes out earlier. The window to release an Oscar film ends on December 31st, but Awards Season itself lasts until the Oscars are handed out late February to Early March.
Budget
See production budget and Prints and Advertising (P&A) Budget.
Domestic Box Office
Total money spent on tickets by moviegoers in the “domestic market”, which is defined as the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Fanboy/Fangirl Effect
Certain films and franchises have a very loyal following, usually due to their source material. Fans of these films will flock to see them as soon as they open, either over the opening weekend, opening night, or during its Thursday previews. The front-loaded nature of these films makes for great headlines during the opening weekend, but at the cost of reducing both the Internal Multiplier and the overall Multiplier for the film. Since young men tend to be the most ardent fans of major franchises, this is described as the Fanboy Effect, but there are films that are most popular among women, like Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey, and this has led to the rise of the equivalent Fangirl Effect.
Home Market
The Home Market can refer to all sources of revenue derived from people viewing movies at home, but often times it refers to primary entry point for most films. i.e. physical media rental / sales and video on demand rental / sales. Other parts of the Home Market includes subscription services, like Netflix or Hulu, as well as the tertiary market, which refers to hotels and airplanes. Finally, there are TV rights.
The Hulk Effect
Back in 2003 when Hulk was in production, Universal bowed to incredible pressure from fans and released early footage of the special effects. The plan was to get the fans talking and build up word-of-mouth. However, the special effects were in the early stages and were so bad that the buzz it generated killed any chance the film had. The next year, the same happened to Catwoman with the early look at Halle Berry's outfit. Just goes to show you, sometimes there is such thing as bad publicity and releasing a teaser trailer for a movie before there’s anything to really tease can be a mistake.
Internal Multiplier
A film’s weekend box office divided by its Friday number. Hype can reduce a film’s Internal Multiplier, while positive word-of-mouth, will increase it. That said, the importance of Thursday previews has reduced the average film’s Internal Multiplier, as Thursday Previews are lumped into Friday’s opening day box office numbers. Films aimed at more mature adults or kids and families tend to have large internal multipliers, while those that have a high Fanboy Effect tend to have lower results. Extreme Fanboy Effect can even result in a movie that earns more on Friday than it does during the rest of the weekend, despite earning fantastic reviews.
International box office
Total box office from all nations outside the domestic market.
Legs
Legs is a term used to refer to how well a film holds onto its box office day to day and week to week. Positive reviews and strong word-of-mouth can help lengthen a film’s legs, but genre and target audience is also important here.
Mendoza Line
The Mendoza Line is originally a Baseball term named after Mario Mendoza, a Hall of Fame baseball player, but one whose defensive skills far outshined his offensive talent. As a result, the Mendoza Line was coined to describe the lowest batting average a player could have before their defensive abilities no longer made up for their lack of offense. In box office terms, the Mendoza Line is the theater average where it no longer matters how good the film’s reviews are, because theater owners will be looking to drop the movie before its word-of-mouth can have an effect. That average is $2,000 per theater. There is only one mitigating factor, which is when a film debuts in Video on Demand before or at the same time as its theatrical release. If this is the case, then usually its box office numbers are meaningless compared to its VOD revenue.
Multiplier
A film's total box office divided by its opening weekend box office. Another measure of the film’s word-of-mouth but over a longer time period and with a much wider range of possibilities. Historically, the average Multiplier for films has gotten lower and it is not that uncommon for a movie to earn more during its opening weekend then it does during the rest of the run. On the other hand, films that open during the Christmas holidays can still have incredible legs.
Prints and Advertising (P&A) Budget
Prints are the actual physical film that are shown in theaters and are quite expensive to make and distribute, costing about $2,000 per print. At one time, each theater needs at least one print and possibly more depending on how many screens the film is playing on. However, digital distribution has changed this aspect of the movie industry making it much easier for smaller films to get a wider distribution. The advertising part of the budget is the amount spent on just that, advertising. Most of the money is spent on TV, but radio, newspapers and magazines, the Internet and in-theater advertising are also very important. The average P&A budget for a major studio release was nearly $36 million the last time the MPAA reported the figure in 2007. They have since stopped tracking advertising numbers. However, films with $100 million advertising budgets are now common, especially for tentpole releases. Even midlevel releases will spend $40 million to $50 million on advertising.
Production Budget
The amount of money it cost make the movie including pre-production, film and post-production, but excluding distribution costs. The average cost of a major studio movie was about $65 million when the MPAA stopped tracking the number in 2006 and has risen since then. The most expensive films each year commonly cost more than $200 million to make with a few films costing $300 million or more.
Rental
See theatrical rental.
Screens & Screen Count
The actual screen the movie is projected on. Most Theaters have multiple screens, with largest having two dozen screens or more. Screen Count is simply the number of screens a film is playing on. This count is rarely published domestically, but is the basic unit of measurement in many international territories.
The Sequel Effect, a.k.a. Sequelitis
This as essentially a sub-species of the Fanboy Effect specific to sequels. Such films have a built in audience due to the original movie (as otherwise making the sequel would be pointless) and tend to open faster, but have much shorter legs.
Theater & Theater Count
A theater is any place a movie is showing from the smallest cinema on the art house circuit to the largest megaplex. A film's Theater Count is simply the number of theaters a film is playing in at a given time. Domestically, the Theater Count is used to measure how wide a release is.
Theater Average
A film’s weekend box office revenue divided by the number of theaters a film is playing in. Sometimes called Per Theater Average and shortened to PTA.
Theatrical Rentals When a movie is shown in theaters, the studio/distributor and the exhibitor (movie theater) will share revenue from ticket sales. The studio’s share (usually around 50%) is called the “rental”. This should not be confused with video rentals (e.g., through Blockbuster, RedBox etc.).
TV Rights The amount paid by a TV network for the right to broadcast a film. Networks usually get the exclusive rights for a period of time. For major films, there will be sequence of “windows”, with premium cable channels (HBO/Showtime etc.) broadcasting the film first, and then basic cable / network TV following a year or two later.
Video on Demand A movie distribution service where the film is delivered digitally and end user determines when they watch the program. Sometimes this only includes rental / purchases, while other times it includes streaming services like Netflix.
Worldwide box office
Domestic Box Office plus International Box Office.
Yearly Seasons
The year can be divided into a number of seasons, starting with...
Winter
The first season of the year begins the weekend after New Year’s Day and runs till the end of February. This is usually the worst season when it comes to new releases, as the holiday blockbusters are still dominating the box office and several Oscar contenders expand wide. However, there are a few holidays that help boost numbers of new releases, MLK Day, Presidents Day, and Valentine’s Day, and there have been some monster hits released during this time.
Spring
This runs from the beginning of March till the end of April, at least for now. There are some major hits that have come out during this time, but it generally a weak time of the year at the box office, as the last of the holiday blockbusters have faded away and there are no Oscar contenders expanding wide.
Summer
The Summer Blockbuster season used to begin the actual summer began. For example, Jaws opened on June 20th back in 1975. However, since then, the movie industry has stretched the meaning of summer to the breaking point. Memorial Day became the official start of summer, then the first weekend of May, and now with the release of Avengers: Infinity War, the last weekend of April could become the first weekend of Summer. It ends officially on Labor Day Weekend, but unofficially it tends to end a few weeks early and the end of August is a dumping ground.
Fall
Officially begins the weekend after Labor Day, but unofficially begins sometime in August, while the end of October marks its end. This is a bad time of year to release movies, as families with kids and college students are dealing with going back to school, and these two groups make up a huge chunk of the moviegoing public. There are a few monster hits that come out during this time, while Awards Season sometimes starts a little early, but for the most part studios try to avoid this time of year. That said, Halloween does give a boost to any horror film that opened earlier in the fall.
Holidays
There are three holidays that take place during a roughly six-week period, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, and this helps this time of year become the most concentrated with potential monster hits. The movie industry has stretched this Holiday season to start at the beginning of November. This is the best time of year for new releases, because you not only have major blockbusters being released practically every other week, but this is also the heart of Awards Season, so there are a lot of Oscar contenders as well.
Categorization of Acting Roles
We use eight acting role types to define the different performances in a movie, TV show, or stage play.
Leading or Lead Ensemble Members
For movies, we generally use a simple rule to determine whether an actor or actress has a leading role: Do they appear in the movie's theatrical poster? If they do, they have a leading role. If they do not, they do not have a leading role. If there are more than four cast members on the poster, then we classify all actors in the poster as being "Lead Ensemble Members."
Note that movies with large ensemble casts will sometimes have several posters highlighting different members of the cast. See, for example, the posters of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. All characters who get a poster are considered "lead ensemble members."
If the poster shows no actors or actresses at all, then we look at the people credited at the top of the poster. These people are considered the lead actors in this case.
For TV Shows, an acting role is considered to be leading if the actor is credited at the beginning of the show. Lead actors in TV shows are generally considered "lead ensemble members", unless they are the main focus of the show. For example, Sarah Michelle Gellar is classed as having a leading acting role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while Anthony Stewart Head, Alison Hannigan, Nicholas Brendan etc. are all classed as lead ensemble members.
Supporting
With the exception of cameos and leading players, all other cast members listed in the credits are considered to have supporting roles.
Cameo
A cameo is a small role performed by a well-known actor or director, often limited to a single scene, with the casting done specifically because of who they are, not because of their acting talents. Examples of cameos are Alfred Hitchcock's appearances in his films and Stan Lee's brief appearances in Marvel films. Note that small parts played by actors before they became famous are not cameos. Rather, they are either supporting roles or roles as an "extra."
Extra
If someone is not credited, and does not have a cameo, we classify their role as being an "extra." In general, we do not include extras in the credits, although some early roles as extras by now-famous actors and actresses are included.
Interviewee, Documentary Subject, Narrator, Archival Footage
International Markets
China
By far the largest international market. It is the only market large enough that some Hollywood films can actually earn more there than they do domestically. It is the only market that routinely has film in the top five on the weekly international chart. It is the only market that routinely has multiple entries in the top 30 on the international yearly chart. On the other hand, the studio share non-Chinese films is only about 25% of the box office, compared to 40% in most other international markets and over 50% domestically, so Hollywood films shouldn’t chase the Chinese market to the detriment of other places. Films in China tend to have very short legs. It is not uncommon for a film to fall 70% or even 80% during their second weekend of release.
Japan
Used to be the largest international box office market until the rise of China and it is barely ahead of the growing Indian market. That said, it is still an important market for a lot of films and one of the few markets where a movie can reach $100 million. It is also one of the few markets where home grown hits can do well in other international markets. In fact, Anime titles like Your Name. have earned more than $100 million outside of Japan.
India
The largest international market, at least in terms of ticket sales, as well as total movies produced each year. They are actually third in terms of total box office. Their home-grown movie industry is strong enough to keep out most Hollywood films and there are the most insular of the major international markets with only 15% of the box office being earned by non-Indian films. (To be fair, in the United States, imports earn an even smaller percent of the box office). Indian films have enough fans fans in several other international markets to get regular releases, such as the U.K., Australia, and the Middle East. They recently made inroads in China and there have been some Indian films that earned more in China than in India itself. This is an interesting development and one that box office analysts will keep an eye on.
United Kingdom
The biggest producer of international films in terms of worldwide appeal and another market where a film hitting $100 million isn't unheard of, although for a film to bring in $20 million is about as common as a film hitting $100 million domestically. Not only is the local market very productive, is the country that has the most crossover appeal with the domestic market. There are a lot of Hollywood films that are major hits in the U.K., as well as many British films that are hits here.
South Korea
South Korea is a market that has benefited from the recent boom in China, as they two countries share enough similarities is audience tastes that they have worked together on more than a few projects. Additionally, more than half of the countries box office is earned by local hits, so it has a very healthy local movie industry as well.
France
France is right behind in terms of total box office numbers, but despite the countries reputation for its historic film industry, imports represent nearly two third of the countries total box office. That said, French films are the foreign-language films most likely to get a release here and there is a built-in audience among art house aficionados.
Germany
Germany had a boom not to long ago, but that boom has ended and while several international markets have climbed the ranks, Germany has suffered a steep decline. That’s not to say they can’t produce any local and the Fack ju Göhte films have done well in its native Germany. Unfortunately, German films don’t have a built-in audience outside of Germany, with the exception of Austria and the German speaking portion of Switzerland.
Australia
Similar to the U.K., with similar tastes, except the average film will earn just half as much at the box office. Also, the local film production industry isn't nearly as strong. Films tend to open in Australia and New Zealand either on the same date, or within weeks of each other.
Mexico
Mexico has had a good past few years, in part thanks to the large Spanish-speaking population in the United States. Mexican films can now routinely open in the United States and several have earned mainstream success in the process. Unfortunately, foreign-imports, especially Hollywood films, still dominate the box office in Mexico itself.
Brazil
Mexico was not the only market in Latin America that has grown recently, as Brazil has steadily become a major market Hollywood has to pay attention to. However, like Mexico, Brazil’s movie industry hasn’t quite caught up, but there are positive signs.
Italy
Eclectic tastes means films that received just a limited release domestically tend to do well here. Hitting $10 million here is about as common as films hitting $150 million domestically. The Italian market is better than many when it comes to supporting local films.
Russia
The last of the BRIC countries on this list. Russia hasn’t been able to keep up with the others: Brazil, India, or China. Its local industry is doing okay, but it hasn’t had breakout success for a while. Films tend to have short legs here.
Spain
Horror films are the biggest draw here. One of the smaller major markets with $10 million a major milestone for the market and very few making it to $20 million or above. Films tend to open big and drop very fast, 50% second weekend drop-offs are common.
Canada
Canada is part of the domestic market, but if it were a separate market, it would be the 15th largest international. The Canadian film industry is quite healthy, but mostly because it is cheaper to shoot in Canada and pretend Toronto is New York City. It is rare for Canadian films to earn mainstream success here, or anywhere.
Nigeria
While the total box office in Nigeria is not large enough to be in the top 15; in fact, it is so small that the largest hits in Nigerian history, The Wedding Party franchise, only average $1 million in their native market. That said, the country’s movie industry is huge when it comes to making movies and is second only to India in that regard. There are nearly 1,000 movies made in Nigeria each year. Nigerian movies have found success in other African nations, but they haven’t found breakout success outside of of Africa.