Most filmmakers go to festivals and markets hoping a distributor will buy their film. Some studio pays the filmmaker money, and the film becomes their property. That's called a purchase.
If a distributor doesn't want to invest as much money, they can make arrangements with the filmmaker to own the rights to a film for a specific purpose, like showing the movie in theaters in the UK over a certain timeframe, for example. Either the distributor pays the filmmaker for these rights upfront, or they can give the filmmaker a percentage of what they make - or both.
If a distributor doesn't want to invest as much money, they can make arrangements with the filmmaker to own the rights to a film for a specific purpose, like showing the movie in theaters in the UK over a certain timeframe, for example. Either the distributor pays the filmmaker for these rights upfront, or they can give the filmmaker a percentage of what they make - or both.
That's a license. You have a license from the filmmaker to show the movie in the UK.
Licenses can be for anything. Maybe you license the rights to show a movie on cable television to a cable channel, for a certain amount of time. Maybe you license the right to sell DVD's to a DVD company for a year or two. Maybe you license the video game rights. No matter the kind of license, one of the key elements is the expiration date. Licenses always expire. If a cable network pays you for the right to show a film on cable, and they owned that right forever, you'd never get to make more money from cable down the road.
Also consider that licenses need to have a start date. If you let TNT show Batman while it's still in theaters, they'll do it. Their ratings would skyrocket, to the detriment of the box office.
Then, when the terms of the license are complete, you still own your movie.
Does that make sense?
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