RELEASE PRINTS
Release prints are made at the same printer settings as your approved answer print.
You might order two release prints initially. Let's say, you want to send the film to a festival, a market, or you wish to test market it. The lab will then make a second print for you from your negative.
Now, you come back and want to do a regional, theatrical release, for example, you'll be needing two hundred prints. The lab will not use your negative for the printing. No one risks their negative that way! So they make you an "IP/Dupe Neg" and print from that.
What's an "IP/Dupe-Neg"? They take your negative and print it on Color Interpositive stock (currently Eastman 5244,) resulting into a positive print (with an orange cast -- "dye masking.") Then they take that and print it again (on the same stock) and the result is a Dupe Neg (Duplicate Negative.) This negative becomes the printing master for the next fifty prints. Each subsequent fifty prints are made from a new Dupe Neg, which is taken from the IP You only need one IP, since you won't be printing more than two thousand prints, most likely.
You need from 1,500 to 2,500 prints for most national releases, 200 prints are adequate for regional distribution and 8 prints are plenty for an art house movie, that'll play in a few theaters at a time, (for a long run you hope, like the Swedish movie MY LIFE AS A DOG.)
There is one other type of print you can make, called the Low Con (nothing to do with con artists!) A low contrast print made on special Eastman stock produces the best results for video releasing! However, some producers prefer the look of video copies made from regular print stock, because the film look is more distinctive. It's a matter of taste. Film print transferred directly to video looks a bit more contrasty, negative transferred to video looks more "like television" (lowest contrast,) and low con prints transferred to video have the best characteristics suitable for good color and contrast reproduction on TV sets.
There's a new trend toward the use of the IP as the best video generating master. Some video mastering labs prefer this. (There are always going to be developments in this area because video technologies become obsolete every six months, and there seems to be no end in sight! Stick with film and you'll be all right! Take my word. I only want the best.