How Do Movie Theaters Get Movies? The Chain, Step by Step

How do movie theaters get movies? They rent them. A cinema never buys a film: it licenses the right to show one title, on named screens, for agreed dates, from the distributor that controls the film in its country, and pays that distributor a share of the ticket money as film rental. The film then arrives as an encrypted digital file, on a drive or by satellite, and a separate key unlocks it for the booked screens only. Nearly everything about how cinemas run follows from that arrangement. This guide explains how cinemas get movies, from the distributor's slate to the first frame on your screen, with what each link costs, the numbers the big circuits disclose, and a worked settlement.

Step	Who does it	What changes hands
1. Release	The distributor	Release date, width and marketing plan
2. Booking	The cinema or its film buyer	A licence for named screens and dates
3. Terms	Both sides	The rental percentage, minimum run, any guarantee
4. Delivery	A delivery company	The encrypted Digital Cinema Package (DCP)
5. Key	The distributor's key service	A KDM per screen, valid for the booked dates
6. Playback	The cinema	Sessions on sale; the film plays
7. Settlement	The cinema, then the distributor	A box office report, then the rental payment

1. The distributor holds the film

Every commercial film is released in each country by a film distributor: a studio's own distribution arm for the big releases, or an independent distributor for specialised, foreign-language and documentary titles. The distributor decides when a film opens, how wide, and with how much marketing behind it. For a cinema it is the counterparty for everything that follows. Our directory of film distributors by country lists who they are in 17 markets.

So where do movie theaters get their movies? In the US and Canada, mostly from a small number of companies. In 2025 Disney's distribution arm took 22.6% of the domestic gross and Warner Bros. 21.7%, according to The Numbers' 2025 distributor chart. Add Disney's separately branded 20th Century Studios (5.2%) and the Disney group alone handled more than a quarter of every ticket sold. The top three distributors together took 62%.

Show the data as a table

Distributor	Share of 2025 domestic box office
Walt Disney	22.6%
Warner Bros.	21.7%
Universal	18.0%
Paramount	6.5%
Sony Pictures	6.4%
20th Century Studios	5.2%
Lionsgate	3.8%
A24	2.6%
Focus Features	2.5%
Angel Studios	1.9%
Amazon MGM	1.4%
Neon	1.2%

AMC, the largest US circuit, gives the same picture from the cinema side. In its 2025 annual report (10-K) it says films from its seven largest studio distributors (Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, Paramount, 20th Century Studios and Lionsgate) made up about 83% of its US admissions revenue. In Europe its five largest distributor groups supplied about 76%. A cinema's programme is mostly a negotiation with a handful of companies, plus a long tail of independents such as A24 (2.7% in 2025), Neon (1.2%) and GKIDS (0.5%) that matter far more to an art house than their share suggests.

2. The cinema books it

Booking is the agreement to play a particular film, on particular dates, on particular terms. AMC describes licensing films "on a film-by-film and theatre-by-theatre basis", and that is the norm: there is no annual subscription to a studio's slate. Each title is negotiated for each site.

Large circuits have in-house film buyers who negotiate directly with every distributor. Most independents use a film buyer or booking agent who represents many venues and carries the relationships for them. That is often the only realistic way a single-screen gets a new release on opening weekend. Independent buyers charge in different ways: Clark Film Buying, a US service for independents, lists a flat monthly fee, a fee per booking or screen, or a percentage of box office as the models in use, with its own fee set by screens, locations and booking strategy.

What a booking commits you to

• Screens and dates. Which auditoriums play the film, from which Friday (or preview date), for how many weeks.
• A minimum run. Distributors set a minimum playtime for new releases. Clark's FAQ lists minimum playtime, holdover figures and showtime policies among the rules distributors set. Reports on Disney's terms for Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017 said other Disney releases usually required a two-week minimum, and the Star Wars titles four weeks in the largest auditorium.
• A holdover figure. If the film's weekend gross clears an agreed number, the cinema must keep it for another week.
• Show counts. Some bookings specify a minimum number of shows a day or a "clean" run (every show) rather than a split screen shared with another title.

When a booking is refused

Two things usually stop a booking. The distributor may decline because the cinema is too small for the title's opening strategy, or because of clearance: an exclusive run already granted to a nearby competitor. Both are negotiable over time, and both depend on the cinema's track record for reporting and paying reliably. Clark lists grossing history, ticket prices and location among the factors that decide which titles a venue can get.

In the US the rules here changed recently. The Paramount consent decrees, in force since 1948, had banned practices such as block booking (bundling several films in one licence) and circuit dealing (licensing a film to every cinema in a chain at once). A federal judge terminated the decrees in August 2020, with a two-year sunset on the block-booking and circuit-dealing bans, as the Justice Department had requested in its court filing. Licensing film by film and theatre by theatre is now a commercial habit rather than a legal requirement.

How a new cinema opens accounts with distributors

A new venue cannot simply email a studio and ask for this Friday's release. Distributors treat each new exhibitor as a credit risk, because the cinema collects the money first and pays the rental weeks later. Expect the process to look like this:

1. Appoint a film buyer, or decide to book yourself. Clark's FAQ gives this as the first step for a new venue.
2. Complete each distributor's paperwork. Expect each distributor to ask for its own account or credit application. Clark says new venues need "signed and notarized paperwork from the distributors" before they hold a licence to show their films.
3. Meet the technical and venue requirements. Clark notes that distributors require a permanent location, approved projection equipment that is permanently installed, and a ticketing system. In practice that means DCI-compliant projection with a media block whose certificate the distributor can cut keys against.
4. Agree payment terms. Film rental is paid direct to the distributor, not through the buyer. Clark says distributors take cheque, ACH or wire, not credit cards. A new account with no history may be asked for faster payment or a deposit until it has a record.
5. Set up box office reporting. Your ticketing system needs to produce per-title, per-day, per-price reports, and, in the US, to report to Comscore (see step 7).

Allow weeks, not days, before your opening programme. Our guide to opening a cinema covers the rest of the timeline.

3. The terms decide what the film costs

There is no purchase price. The cinema pays film rental: most commonly a percentage of the box office, highest in the opening week and stepping down the longer the film plays. Specialised and repertory titles are often booked for a flat fee instead, and some bookings carry a minimum guarantee, a floor the cinema pays even if the film underperforms.

Cinemark's 2025 10-K describes the three formulas it uses. A sliding scale is "based upon box office performance of the film for its full theatrical run", from a standard matrix agreed with each distributor before release; it says most of its rental is negotiated this way. Firm terms are a percentage agreed before the run, either one rate for the whole run or rates that decline week by week. And a settlement rate is agreed at the end of the run "based upon how the film performs". AMC adds that in some European territories rental is set weekly, and some licences use a per-capita deal: a flat amount per ticket rather than a share of revenue.

Deal type	How the cinema pays	Where you see it
Sliding percentage	A share of box office that falls week by week, or is set by the film's total gross	Most new releases
Firm terms	A percentage fixed before the run, for the whole run or per week	Smaller titles, smaller circuits
Flat fee	A fixed amount per screening or per week	Repertory, specialised, one-off events
Percentage with a guarantee	The percentage, or the guarantee if higher	Event titles, riskier bookings
Per capita	A flat amount per ticket sold	Some European territories
House nut deals	Split after an agreed allowance for the cinema's costs	Older contracts and some territories

Our film rental calculator runs each structure on your own grosses and shows the effective rate.

How much do movie theaters pay for movies?

Yes, movie theaters pay for movies, and it is their largest single cost. Across a whole year, US circuits hand roughly half to three-fifths of their ticket revenue back to distributors. The best public evidence is in the annual reports of the listed circuits, which disclose film costs as a share of admissions revenue.

Show the data as a table

Year	Cinemark US (incl. advertising)	AMC US	AMC international
2017	55.7%	52.5%	42.2%
2018	56.3%	54.2%	41%
2019	57.2%	54.9%	42.4%
2020	53.3%	49%	38.9%
2021	53.6%	45.3%	38.9%
2022	57.8%	50.6%	39.4%
2023	56.9%	50.8%	39.7%
2024	57.9%	51.6%	38.9%
2025	58%	51.2%	38.5%

In 2025 AMC's US film exhibition costs were 51.2% of US admissions revenue. Cinemark's US film rentals and advertising were 58.0%; that figure includes advertising, so it overstates pure rental. Both rose in years of big blockbusters and fell in 2020 and 2021. AMC's 10-K for 2021 gives the reasons: more revenue from lower-grossing films and library titles, which carry lower terms, and "lower film exhibition costs were paid on films with shorter exclusive theatrical windows". Outside the US the share is lower: AMC's international markets paid 38.5% in 2025, and Cinemark's international markets 51.4%.

Year	AMC US	AMC international	Cinemark US*
2019	54.9%	42.4%	57.2%
2022	50.6%	39.4%	57.8%
2023	50.8%	39.7%	56.9%
2024	51.6%	38.9%	57.9%
2025	51.2%	38.5%	58.0%

*Film rentals and advertising as a share of admissions revenue. Source: each company's 10-K for the year.

The biggest titles push the early percentages higher. In November 2017 the Wall Street Journal reported that Disney asked US cinemas for about 65% of ticket revenue for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, up from 64% on earlier Star Wars films, plus four weeks in the largest auditorium (summary of the WSJ report). Holding a film longer lowers the average percentage, which is one reason a cinema's economics improve when a title has long legs.

Do cinemas pay for movies up front?

Usually not. Rental is paid after the film has played, from box office already collected. AMC's 10-K says film rentals are "ordinarily paid to distributors from 20 to 45 days following receipt of admissions revenues", and that this float partly finances its operations. Flat fees and guarantees are the exception: they are owed whatever the film takes.

The consequence shapes the whole business. Since around half of every ticket goes back to the distributor, a cinema makes its margin elsewhere: on concessions, which carry no rental, and on events, advertising and hire. That is covered in detail in how movie theaters make money.

Theatrical windows: how long cinemas have a film to themselves

The theatrical window is the time between a film opening in cinemas and becoming available at home. It sets how long a booking can earn before the audience can wait for the sofa, and it now varies by studio and by title.

Show the data as a table

Measure	Days to first home release
Universal–AMC deal, most titles (2020)	17
Universal–Cinemark, $50m+ openers (2020)	31
Average, wide releases 2024 (Omdia)	36
Average, wide releases 2025 (Omdia, prov.)	39
Studio pledge, CinemaCon 2026	45
Top 10 films, 2025 (Omdia)	51
Disney average, 2025 (Omdia)	61.6

• 2020: the 17-day deals. In July 2020 AMC and Universal agreed that Universal titles could go to premium video on demand after three weekends, about 17 days (Hollywood Reporter). Cinemark's November 2020 deal added a second tier: 31 days for films opening above $50 million (Cinemark announcement).
• 2024 to 2025: drifting longer. Research firm Omdia measured the average first home-rental window for wide releases at 36 days in 2024 and a provisional 39 days in 2025. The top ten films averaged 51 days in 2025 and Disney 61.6 days (Celluloid Junkie report on Omdia's study).
• 2026: 45 days as the stated floor. Cinema United's chief executive called for 45 days as an industry standard at CinemaCon 2025. At CinemaCon 2026 every major studio restated a commitment to at least 45 days, and Universal said it will move to a 45-day window from 2027 (TheWrap, April 2026).

For an operator the window matters in two ways. A longer window supports later weeks of a run, which is where the rental percentage is lowest. And, as AMC's filings show, shorter windows have come with lower terms, so the window is a factor in the rental negotiation, not only in attendance.

4. The film arrives as a file: how digital movies are delivered to theaters

Almost every new film now arrives as a Digital Cinema Package (DCP): an encrypted set of picture, sound and subtitle files, typically well over a hundred gigabytes for a feature. There are three ways it gets to the cinema.

Method	How it works	Examples
Hard drive	A rugged removable drive, known as a CRU drive, is couriered to the cinema and returned after ingest	Still used for smaller sites and as a fallback
Satellite	The DCP is broadcast to a receiver and storage unit at the cinema	Digital Cinema Distribution Coalition (DCDC) in the US
Broadband	The DCP is downloaded over the cinema's internet line to an on-site appliance	Deluxe, Gofilex, Motion Picture Solutions, Qube Wire

In the US the main satellite route is DCDC, a joint venture of exhibitors and distributors. Cinemark, which owns about 14.6% of it, describes it in its 2025 10-K as operating "a satellite distribution network that distributes all digital content to U.S. theaters via satellite". In Europe, delivery is split between companies such as Gofilex, Motion Picture Solutions and Deluxe, using broadband and satellite with drives as backup. Whichever route, the package is then ingested onto the cinema's library server and copied to each screen that will play it. Our DCP name validator decodes the long file names so you can check you have the right version, language and format.

A DCP that has arrived cannot yet be played. The picture and sound are encrypted.

Who paid for the switch to digital: the virtual print fee

Digital projection replaced 35mm prints in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The cost fell on cinemas and the savings went to distributors, who no longer struck and shipped prints. The virtual print fee (VPF) bridged that gap: distributors paid a fee each time they booked a film onto a financed screen. In the US the largest scheme was Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP), formed in 2007 by AMC, Cinemark and Regal. DCIP collected $180.1 million in VPFs in 2017 and $174.5 million in 2019, according to the DCIP accounts filed with AMC's 2019 10-K. Its studio agreements expired in October 2021, and Cinemark says VPFs "will not be received in future periods". For a cinema buying projectors today there is no VPF; the equipment is its own capital cost.

5. The key unlocks it, for your screens and dates only

The distributor issues a Key Delivery Message (KDM) for each screen that will play the film, valid only between a start and an end time that match the booking. Keys are small files sent by email or through a delivery portal, and they are cut against the certificate of each screen's media block. A booking extended by a week needs new keys; a film moved to a different screen needs a key for that screen; a replaced media block needs its new certificate on file with every distributor. Most Friday-night emergencies are key problems, not equipment problems. Our KDM checker reads a key file and tells you which device and dates it covers.

How do cinemas get movies early?

Cinemas often have a film on their servers days before it opens. This is normal, and it is safe for the distributor because of the key. The DCP is delivered early so there is time to ingest it, check it and fix a damaged or missing file. But it stays encrypted until the KDM's start time, which is set to the first licensed show. That is usually the preview slot, such as a Thursday evening before a Friday opening, not the release date.

• Embargo. The booking and the key make the release date enforceable. A cinema cannot show a film before its key opens, however long the file has been on the server.
• Previews and early-access shows. A preview, fan event or early-access screening is a separate licensed show. The distributor sets its date and time, and the KDM is cut to start then.
• Press and trade screenings. These are arranged by the distributor with their own keys, usually for a single show.
• Trailers and adverts. These usually arrive unencrypted, weeks ahead, so they can be built into playlists.

6. The show is built and run

The cinema builds a show playlist, with adverts, trailers, the feature and automation cues for lights and masking, and schedules it against each session in the theatre management system. The same sessions are published to the website, the app and listings partners, and tickets go on sale. The programmer's weekly decision, which film goes on which screen at which times, is constrained by everything above: minimum runs, holdovers, show-count commitments and key validity.

7. The distributor is paid

After each play week the cinema reports its admissions and box office per title, and the distributor invoices its rental. Clark describes the report as covering a seven-day play week, showing tickets sold each day at each price point with taxes, and rental is calculated on the net figure after tax. In the US, cinemas also report daily grosses to Comscore, which compiles the industry box office that distributors, the trade press and the circuits' own filings quote. Both AMC and Cinemark cite Comscore data in their 10-Ks.

Under a sliding scale or a settlement deal the final rental may be agreed only when the run ends. Cinemark accrues rental "based on estimates of the final settlement rate, which occurs at the conclusion of the film's run". This settlement is where a cinema's reputation is really made: prompt, accurate reporting is what persuades a distributor to give a small venue a film on opening weekend next time. Our film settlement template lays out the weekly sheet.

Worked example: settling one week of a new release

The figures below are illustrative, not quoted terms. Take a two-screen independent playing a new studio release in its opening week on firm terms of 55% of net box office, with a $2,500 minimum guarantee. Ticket prices include 6% sales tax: adult $13, child and senior $10, Tuesday discount $7.

Day	Admissions	Gross (incl. tax)
Friday	170	$2,120
Saturday	234	$2,850
Sunday	190	$2,260
Monday	38	$464
Tuesday	96	$672
Wednesday	34	$418
Thursday	36	$450
Week	798	$9,234

1. Remove tax. $9,234 ÷ 1.06 = $8,711.32 net box office; $522.68 goes to the tax authority.
2. Apply the terms. $8,711.32 × 55% = $4,791.23.
3. Check the guarantee. $4,791.23 is above $2,500, so the percentage applies. Rental due: $4,791.23.
4. What the cinema keeps. $8,711.32 − $4,791.23 = $3,920.09 from tickets, before staff, rent, power or the card fees on those sales.

The weekend (Friday to Sunday) produced $7,230, or 78% of the week's gross. That is why a film's terms, holdover figure and show times are all argued about the weekend.

Now the soft case. If the same week had taken $3,000 net, 55% would be $1,650, but the guarantee makes the cinema pay $2,500: an effective rate of 83%. A guarantee only matters when a film disappoints, which is exactly when it hurts.

Over a run the rate falls. Suppose a scale of 55%, 50%, 40% and 35% across four weeks with net box office of $8,711, $5,600, $3,100 and $1,700. Rental is $4,791 + $2,800 + $1,240 + $595 = $9,426 on $19,111 of net box office, an effective 49.3%, close to the circuit averages in the 10-Ks.

Independent, foreign-language and repertory films

How do independent theaters get movies that are not studio releases? The same chain applies, but the conversation is different. Independent distributors book by phone and email rather than by a fixed release schedule. Terms are more often flat fees or firm terms, and openings are platformed, starting in a few cities and widening if the film works (see wide and limited release). Foreign-language films are booked from the distributor that holds rights in your country, not from the film's home studio.

Older films are a separate business. Repertory titles are licensed from whoever controls the catalogue in your territory. That may be the studio's own classics department or a specialist such as Park Circus, which licenses studio and independent catalogues to cinemas. Venues that are not commercial cinemas, such as film societies, libraries, schools and pop-ups, usually need a public performance licence instead. In the US those come from non-theatrical licensors such as Swank Motion Pictures and Criterion Pictures; in the UK, from Filmbankmedia. Repertory titles are not subject to clearance, are usually cheaper, and nobody else markets them for you.

What this means for a small cinema

Every step above is a relationship or a process, not a purchase, and most of them favour scale. The things an independent can control are the ones that make it a reliable partner: reporting on time, paying within terms, keeping media block certificates up to date with every distributor, holding a film while it works, and actually marketing the titles it books to an audience it knows. The last of those is where owning your own website, app and customer data stops being a nice-to-have. A distributor weighing up a small venue wants to know it can fill seats without the national campaign doing all the work, and grossing history is what buyers and distributors look at first.

Sources and method

• Distributor market share: The Numbers, 2025 distributor chart (domestic: US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam; includes money earned in 2025 by films released earlier). Read from the page as published in March 2026.
• Film cost ratios: AMC Entertainment 10-K filings for 2017 to 2025 (US markets and international markets segments) and Cinemark Holdings 10-K filings for 2017 to 2025 (US and international segments), via SEC EDGAR (AMC) and SEC EDGAR (Cinemark). AMC reports film exhibition costs; Cinemark reports film rentals and advertising. Each year's figure is taken from that year's filing.
• Licensing terms, payment timing, DCDC and VPF history: AMC and Cinemark 10-Ks as above; DCIP financial statements in AMC's 2019 10-K; Cinemark's 2022 10-K for the October 2021 end of the VPF agreements.
• Booking practice for independents: Clark Film Buying FAQ.
• Paramount decrees: US Department of Justice filing; CNBC, 7 August 2020.
• Windows: Hollywood Reporter (July 2020); Cinemark and Universal announcement (November 2020); Omdia figures as reported by Celluloid Junkie (June 2026), with 2025 figures marked provisional by Omdia; TheWrap (April 2026).
• Disney's Last Jedi terms: Wall Street Journal report of November 2017, as summarised by Gizmodo.
• The worked settlement uses illustrative prices, admissions and terms chosen to show the arithmetic. They are not any distributor's actual terms.