Physical or digital copy sent to cinemas — one of potentially hundreds identical prints. Minor variations in color timing and contrast between each copy are standard.
Once the film is finished, the color grading approved, and the DCP or 35mm master delivered, the production of the distribution prints begins. These are the physical or digital copies that actually go to the cinemas. A large production can generate a hundred, two hundred such prints, depending on how wide the release is. Each individual print is technically identical to the master, but—and this is the point—no two are absolutely identical.
With 35mm prints, the differences arise from the manufacturing process itself: colors drift slightly depending on the batch lot and storage conditions, contrast can vary by one or two percentage points. An experienced lab technician knows this and tries to compensate with calibration—but it never becomes perfect. With DCP distribution prints, it's more subtle: the files are bit-perfectly identical, but the projection depends on how the cinema server is calibrated, which lamp is currently burning in the projector, how old the lens is. The distributor must therefore provide separate mastering specifications for each cinema—and the cinema technician must make adjustments themselves.
For the DoP and the colorist, this can sometimes be frustrating: they've spent weeks in the grading suite to achieve the perfect balance, only to have a hundred slightly different versions in the movie theaters. This is why the final acceptance of distribution prints is a critical appointment—the colorist sits with the distributor, evaluates three or four physical test prints or digital references, and determines: this is the standard. Everything else will be trimmed accordingly.
In practice, "distribution print" also implies a very practical point: deadlines. Production takes two to four weeks, depending on the number of prints and the format. The release date cannot simply be postponed arbitrarily—the prints must be in the cinemas by the advertised date. This is a hard constraint that every producer and director feels at some point. Those who linger too long on editing or color will have to bear the consequences.