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Video Distribution Agreement

Video distribution agreements are legal documents between a filmmaker, who sells a completed film, and a distributor, who will manufacture and sell DVD copies of the movie to retailers.
  1. Territory and Media

    • Territory in an agreement is usually called domestic (for selling the film in the United States and some or all of Canada) and foreign (selling it in the rest of the world). Media, in the case of home video, covers the allied market of home video and is contrasted with ancillary rights like merchandising.

    Term

    • Video distribution agreements cover the term, the time period during which the distributor will try to sell the video. This can include rollover clauses based on short licensing periods with built-in performance milestones that, if met, extend the distributor's term.

    Fees

    • Distributors usually arrange a distribution fee based on a percentage of overall revenues from the video. This percentage can be based on a 50/50 split with the filmmaker after distribution costs are subtracted, or it can be a royalty split, in which the filmmaker receives a set dollar amount from each video sold (in the neighborhood of 25 percent) and the distributor keeps the rest. The distributor will likely deduct promotional and marketing expenses from the revenue haul as well.

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