Print availability – In almost all cases we cannot obtain films on their first release date.  Films are produced on 35mm celluloid; the average 2 hour movie will have almost 4000m of film (that’s about 3 times the height of Ben Nevis).  They are also very expensive to manufacture, which limits the number of prints produced.  A big blockbuster movie like Harry Potter may have 1000 prints in circulation.  As there are about 1000 large multiplex cinemas in the UK, all the available prints are in use at large city based cinemas.  In the cinema industry, like the natural world – the big guys eat first and the small guys have to hang around and wait until the big guys have finished.  In cinema terms the Screen Machine is one of the small guys!