SCHEDULING OF MOVIES

MOVIE THEATRES
Shelf Space management most important to

retailers

Exhibitors - the retailers in the motion picture

supply chain

Face dynamic challenges

Short life cycles of movies Changing level of demand overtime Scarcity of shelf space, and Complex revenue sharing contract between the exhibitor and the distributor.

Decisions needs to be made on a continuous basis

rather than on a single transaction basis.

Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing

WHY
Supply-Demand Mismatch:
Rise in mass market movies by major studios, especially during

summer peak

No of theatres owned has remained relatively contantly.

Limited Resources:
Distributor Side: Face limited screen availability for their films Exhibitor Side: Manage their bookings and screens very effectively to

maintain and improve profitability.

New products introduced every week

The attractiveness of existing products decays

systematically and usually rapidly over time

Minimum obligation period

Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing 3

SOLUTION: SILVERSCREENER
Main Objective: Maximise exhibitors cumulative profit. Help select and schedule movies for a multiple-screens

theatre over a fixed planning horizon

Multiple screens as parallel machines Movies as jobs

Analogy to parallel machine scheduling problem

Seen as a integer program - time-indexed formulation -

idea of dividing the planning horizon [0, . . . ,W] into W discrete intervals of unit length

Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing

ASSUMPTIONS
The availability of the movies to be released during

the planning horizon is known in advance.

The weekly revenues to be generated by the movies

considered during the planning horizon can be estimated in advance.

basis.

The replacement decisions are made on a weekly All the screens in the multiplex are of equal capacity. There is no time lag between placing an order for a

new movie and its arrival.

Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing

VARIABLES
Variable
Xjiw

Explanation
binary (decision) 01 variable which takes value 1 if movie j is scheduled for i weeks beyond its obligation period starting in week w, profit received by the exhibitor if xjiw is equal to 1

Pjiw

SCRji =OPDj +i

total screening period for movie j if it is shown for i weeks beyond its obligation period, where i 0, . . . ,kj.

Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing

TWO-TIER APPLICATION
Tier 1: Movie SelectionWhich Movies to Play? Exhibitor can then come up with a tentative preseason schedule for a multiplex using the model. The exhibitor would have flexibility to override some of the models recommendations and reschedule the season. Tier 2: Adaptive SchedulingHow Long

Should Movies Play?

makes weekly decisions rolling from one time

window to another. Dynamic Updation of revenues variable possible based on the revenue received during present week.
Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing 8

RELATIONSHIP DILEMMAS
Motivation: Replace weakest of the existing movies that are not in their obligation periods with the new movie. If more than one new movie become available in a week, then I will consider the next to the weakest existing movie applying the same criterion as before, and so on. Accommodate movies if space exists to show them. Lose money if she tries to please all the distributors in the market.

Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing

CONCLUSION
SilverScreener appears to lead to a 37.7%

improvement in profit when the exhibitor is restricted to the movies actually scheduled. impact of different contract terms for the same movie. obtained from different distributors/movies. cost of honouring relationships with the distributors.

Scenario analysis: the manager can examine the

Provides summary of potential profits to be

Provide a more concrete way of estimating the

Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing

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Any questions?.
Group 1 | August 2013 | OR in Marketing 11

APPENDIX
Link to the Original Paper

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SILVERSCREENER
Profit Function

Demand Function

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