Buying and Selling Movies Isn't Really 'Buying and Selling': Industry Column 1 (Free Article)

What kind of commercial activity is 'buying and selling movies'?

At film markets, all kinds of audiovisual works, including movies and television programs from around the world, are bought and sold. In a normal transaction, you pay a seller to buy something you want, and ownership of that item is transferred to the buyer. If you buy an egg, you are free to do whatever you want with it, right?

The 'buying and selling' of movies is a little different from that.

Even if you say you are buying a movie, you are not purchasing the movie itself. By paying a consideration to the movie's seller (referred to in the industry as the 'rights holder'), it is a business of being 'licensed' to 'use that movie to earn a profit' for a certain period of time.

In technical terms, it means 'concluding a contract with the movie's rights holder and paying a consideration to receive an exclusive license for rights within Japan for a certain period.'

For example, suppose a movie is put up for sale by a rights holder. What the rights holder treats as merchandise is not the movie itself, but the rights to that movie (the right to screen it in theaters, the right to broadcast it on television, the right to release it on Blu-ray, the right to distribute it, etc.).

A buyer from Japan negotiates with the rights holder regarding the necessary rights, the consideration, and the duration. Once the negotiation is successful and a contract is signed, the buyer is finally able to exercise the rights to that movie in Japan—in other words, they can screen it in theaters, release it on Blu-ray, or sell the broadcast rights to television stations.

Note that there are various forms of rights licensing, such as all-rights licensing (all rights related to that movie) or licensing by specific right (only theatrical screening rights, only rights for DVD or Blu-ray release).

A period is set for the licensing of rights. Although it depends on negotiations with the rights holder, it is generally five to ten years. At the end of the license period, the screening of the movie and the sale of Blu-rays must also end. If you negotiate with the rights holder and extend the rights, you can continue to develop the business, and there are also cases where the rights expire and another company receives the license to develop that movie.

Although the reality is 'licensing of rights,' the term 'buying and selling' is customarily used in the industry, so for convenience, I will also use the terms 'buying and selling movies' and 'buying and selling rights' in the manga and text of this note.

The main film markets I participated in

Film markets are held all year round in various parts of the world. I will briefly explain the markets I have participated in.

★ Cannes Film Market (Marché du Film Festival De Cannes)
Location: Cannes, France
Timing: Mid-May every year, duration is 8-9 days. Basically held concurrently with the Cannes Film Festival.
Venue: Centered around the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, commonly known as the 'Palais,' with rights holder booths also set up in surrounding hotels and apartments.
Recent participating companies: Sellers (rights holders): approx. 600 companies, Buyers: approx. 15,000 people
* As mentioned in the manga, behind the glamorous film festival, fierce buying and selling of movie rights takes place.

Because there are so many participating companies, the Palais alone cannot accommodate all the corporate booths, so rooms in the Majestic Hotel and Carlton Hotel, as well as individual apartment rooms, also become rights holder booths.

★ AFM (American Film Market)
Location: Santa Monica, USA (~2023) / Las Vegas (2024~)
Timing: Around November every year, duration is 6 days
Venue: Hotels in Santa Monica (in 1993 and 2005 when I went, it was the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel) / Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas (2024~)
Recent participating companies: Sellers (rights holders): approx. 370 companies, Buyers: approx. 6,000 people
* This is a market centered on new movies, and every rights holder pushes their latest films. Since the venue is a hotel, screenings were basically held by renting nearby movie theaters. I went from one to another to catch the screenings, and I was surprised that every theater was far larger than those in Japan.

★ MIFED (Mercato Internazionale del Film E del Documentario)
Location: Milan, Italy (Ended in 2004 at the 71st edition)
Timing: Around October every year, duration is 5 days
Venue: Fiera di Milano (a trade fair venue like Makuhari Messe in Japan)
* Because AFM changed its annual schedule from February to November, MIFED, which was held around the same time, was hit hard. Sellers and buyers concentrated on AFM, and this market ended in 2004. The restaurants near the venue were all incredibly delicious (and cheap).
I am personally very disappointed that I can no longer use business trips as an excuse to enjoy gourmet food locally (laughs).

★ MIPTV (Marché International des Programmes de Télévision)
Location: Cannes, France
Timing: Every April, duration is 3 days. (Closed its 61-year history in 2024)
Venue: Palais des Festivals et des Congrès
* While it focuses on new TV dramas and documentaries, old movies are also actively put up for sale. Since the company I belonged to mainly dealt in old movies, I participated in this MIP and MIPCOM every year. When I went on a business trip in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were so few people that I thought it might end soon, and as expected, it ended in 2024. From February 2025, a successor film market (MIP LONDON) is being held in London.

★ MIPCOM (Marché International des Programmes de Communication)
Location: Cannes, France
Timing: Every October, duration is 4 days.
Venue: Palais des Festivals et des Congrès
* Like MIPTV, this is a market centered on TV dramas, documentaries, and old movies. This one seems to be continuing.

★ NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives)
Location: Miami, USA
Timing: Every January to February, duration is 3 days.
* In 2007, when I participated, the location was Las Vegas. Mainly US rights holders had booths, but at the time, the number of participating companies was small, and I was able to visit the necessary rights holder booths in one day.

Film markets are, as you would expect from trade fairs for entertainment companies, all quite glamorous. Many of the booths set up by major rights holders have luxurious interiors, and booths like those of MGM, familiar for its roaring lion logo, or Universal, are overwhelmingly larger than those of other rights holders, with entrances that look like hotel lobbies.Wow, as expected of a major studio, they're really raking it in! I remember being wide-eyed at the sight.