"Sender" is to "receiver" as "distributor" is to what?

Solution 1:

The OED defines distributee as “A person to whom a share falls in the distribution of the estate of an intestate.” That may not be what you are looking for.

Typically distributors are wholesalers who distribute to retailers. Looking up synonyms for those might be more profitable in this instance.

Solution 2:

If you're speaking of a person who receives goods from either a sender or a distributor—or a seller, a manufacturer, or anybody else—the normal term is recipient.

Since the advent of electronic communications, receiver has tended to be confined to the apparatus receiving an electronic signal; from this use evolved the very odd construction She spoke into the receiver. For much of the 20th century a "receiver" with no qualifying context would have been understood as a radio set. It will be interesting to see whether the trend is reversed now that most consumers receive signals through computers and mobile phones, neither of which I've ever seen called a "receiver".

Solution 3:

In the film industry, at least in some geographies, the end-user, after the distributor, is the 'exhibitor'.

This agrees with the class of businesses you call 'cinemas', along with private screening entities such as educational/ religious/ cultural, etc.

I am not very sure how far 'exhibitor' as a trade term is current in different geographies/ markets.

Solution 4:

As well as synonyms for retailers you could also research synonyms for cinemas, since you are looking for the "end-users" of the film.

Playhouses might be suitable, for example, although you may need to contextualise it by introducing the term with "cinemas and other playhouses". I'm a bit surprised the industry doesn't have a generic term.