Director's Cut, Editor's Cut, Theatrical Cut. What do these mean?

Question

What do the following terms mean in movie business?

• Director's Cut
• Editor's Cut
• Theatrical Cut

What are the differences between them? Are there any other cut s?

Answer 1

Wikipedia's Film Editing page defines many of these cuts. I will try to summarize the questioned ones here.

Editor's Cut:

An editor's cut (sometimes referred to as the "Assembly edit" or "Rough cut") is normally the first pass of what the final film will be when it reaches picture lock.

Additional: The article says that editing starts right after photography starts, utilizing the dailies, so the edited product grows with the director's submissions.

Director's Cut:

When shooting is finished, the director can then turn his full attention to collaborating with the editor and further refining the cut of the film...where the film editor's first cut is molded to fit the director's vision.

Additional: The Director and Editor mold the editor's cut by shifting scene order, reshooting, associating music, etc. until the Director is satisfied with his movie.

Final Cut: (BTW - no glossary I looked into had a 'Theatrical Cut')

Often after the director has had his chance to oversee a cut, the subsequent cuts are supervised by one or more producers, who represent the production company and/or movie studio.

Additional: The article says sometimes disputes with producers arise forcing a tempermental director to sever ties with the final cut of the movie. IMDB lists these types as 'Alan Smithee' films, though other pseudonyms are currently allowed.

This is just one article defining these--there are a number of movie glossaries listed on Google to define these terms from (supposedly) film classes at .edu sites.