The distributor must also ensure that enough film prints are struck to service all contracted exhibitors on the contract-based opening day, ensure their physical delivery to the theater by opening day, monitor exhibitors to make sure the film is in fact shown at the particular theatre with the minimum number of seats and show times, and ensure the prints' return to the distributor's office or other storage resource also on the contract-based return date.
In practical terms, this includes the physical production of release prints and their shipping around the world (a process that is being replaced by digital distribution in most developed markets) as well as the creation of posters, newspaper and magazine advertisements, television commercials, trailers, and other types of ads.
The most common is the aggregate deal where total box office revenue that a given film generates is split by a pre-determined mutually-agreed percentage between distributor and movie theater.
The other method is the sliding scale deal, where the percentage of box office revenue taken by theaters declines each week of a given film's run.
The international sales agent will find a local distributor in each individual international territory and license the exclusive rights to the film for a certain amount of time but in the same case as the studios described above, the production company will retain the copyright of the film.
This means that this distributor in a certain territory has the exclusive right to exploit the film in various media (theatrical, TV, home entertainment, etc.)
The defining distinctions between a theatrical and a non-theatrical screening are that the latter has to be to a closed audience in some way, e.g. pupils of a school, members of a social club or passengers on an airline, and that there can be no individual admission charge.
The latter are often purchased by pubs and students' unions, to enable them to show occasional feature films on a TV in their bars.
In DVD-on-demand, a company will burn a DVD-R (a process called "duplication") when a copy of the DVD is ordered, and then ship it to the customer.
A distributor may also maintain contact with wholesalers who sell and ship DVDs to retail outlets as well as online stores, and arrange for them to carry the DVD.
These windows created many opportunities in the industry and allowed networks to make a profit and eliminate failure.