摘要:19.1. THEATRICAL EXHIBITION AGREEMENTS
19.1.1. License Agreements
Movies are "rented" or "licensed" to exhibitors. This agreement between distributors and exhibitors is called the License Agreement. When agreed to and signed by the exhibitor, the license provides the right to play the movie, subject to the specific terms set forth in the contract or agreement.
The terms do not provide for a specific amount of money, but for film rental, which is an agreed-upon percentage of the box-office gross (the amount of money collected by the theatre for that particular movie).
Most licensing agreements are similar. All include fine print that spells out the terms in greater detail. Most of the elements included in the agreement are self-explanatory. Other items require some explanation:
• No./Days refers to the number of days the movie has been licensed to play.
• Playdates refers to the date that the movie will open.
• Engagement % Terms sets forth the percentage of box-office gross that becomes film rental, as specified in the agreement.
• House Allowance refers to the theatre expenses, which are deducted before the film rental is calculated. More detail about the house allowance is presented in the next paragraph, "The 90/10 Percentage Deal."
• Guarantee refers to an agreement that requires the theatre to guarantee a minimum amount of film rental to the distributor.
• Advance is the same as a Guarantee, but a specific amount of money is actually advanced to the distributor when the contract is signed. Guarantee and advance are covered in greater detail in the "Bidding and Negotiations" paragraph (below).
• Holdover % Terms are the percentage terms agreed to for the holdover weeks. A "holdover" clause requires theatres to extend exhibition of the film another week if the previous week''s revenue exceeds a stipulated amount.
• Min. % Terms by Week are the specific floors or minimum percentage of gross agreed to for