Past Investing Experience: Profit or Loss

N

nununu

Hello all
Firs let me say that this forum is really good, i saw lots of good threads here, and lots of competent people in this industry.

I would like All of you that have already invested in a movie (whether solely as an investor, or as a producer on your own movie) to share how did this turn out for you, in terms of ROI.
Did you manage to break even, made a profit maybe, or maybe lost some of your money ... ?

Maybe it would be best to put it in this form:
example
10.000$ in a movie with 100.000$ budget. Results: Made 1000$ profit, or lost 5000$, or you returned your money and you are at 0$ so far.

I think it could be interesting to know how all of us did. You don't need to share the name of the movie (or anything else except figures), but if you like to it's OK, it might be even better.

I recently invested 5.500$ in a movie, which is now in pre-production phase so i don't have results yet. But maybe there are other people like me that would like to see some examples of other people investments.

So let me start first.

5.500$ in a movie with a budget of 300.000$. Result: too early to say but i hope for the best :) The movie i have invested in is a Horror.


PS: This is the first time i am investing in a movie. I realize there are other Pro's from investing in a movie rather pure financial profit, and i am all for that too, but here i would like to see more the financial side of the business.
 
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Long time ago i bought a couple in the mymilliondollarmovie thing, its in production right now so we'll c.

But the return wouldnt be anything significant. It was just to support the idea and venture.
 
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Savvy investors don't invest in films. Rich people don't invest in films. Why? Films are not investments.

Your $5,500 is gone. But you ARE in the MOVIE BUSINESS. This is the only reason a sane person would "invest" in a film.

Good luck and hope I'm wrong about the film you invested in.
 
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Ernest Worthing said:
Long time ago i bought a couple in the mymilliondollarmovie thing, its in production right now so we'll c.

But the return wouldnt be anything significant. It was just to support the idea and venture.
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Hey Ernest, i went to the website and found a movie called A Little Bit Zombie. From what i saw in the trailer it looks quite funny :) I will watch it when it's out.
I hope you return what you have put in it.

GuerrillaAngel said:
Savvy investors don't invest in films. Rich people don't invest in films. Why? Films are not investments.

Your $5,500 is gone. But you ARE in the MOVIE BUSINESS. This is the only reason a sane person would "invest" in a film.

Good luck and hope I'm wrong about the film you invested in.
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It's a huge risk but i still consider it as an investment. A very small percentage of the low-budget movies that are made, make some profit. It's not a big one, but still something is made out of it.
I consider myself to be a bit insane, but that has proved to be rewarding at times, so i decided to give it a try :)
Anyways, i will let everyone know how this one turns out for me, once the movie is out there.
 
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GuerrillaAngel said:
Savvy investors don't invest in films. Rich people don't invest in films. Why? Films are not investments.

Your $5,500 is gone. But you ARE in the MOVIE BUSINESS. This is the only reason a sane person would "invest" in a film.

Good luck and hope I'm wrong about the film you invested in.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, what happened to the 80s production houses churning out movies and shows? My father had a relatively junior job in one of those (admin and accounts).
 
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Probably about a 95% chance your money is gone, a 4.9999999999% chance you'll make a small (a few hundred dollars) profit, and a .00000000001% chance you'll make in the thousands.

I actually look forward to making that .00000000001% chance. I've spent about 10K making three shorts without even an effort to make my money back.

EDIT:
Just to add, the film is also in the no man's land a lot of people recommend avoiding. The axiom goes (and I am not 100% sure I buy this, but it is out there) that you either need to spend less than 100K or you need to spend 2 million. That budgets in between there have a hard time making money.
 
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Gonzo thanks for the contribution to the thread :)
Gonzo_Entertainment said:
4.9999999999%
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I am kind of hoping to be part of this percentage
Gonzo_Entertainment said:
00000000001%
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Would be great but i am pretty sure it will not turn out to be such a big deal

Gonzo_Entertainment said:
Just to add, the film is also in the no man's land a lot of people recommend avoiding. The axiom goes (and I am not 100% sure I buy this, but it is out there) that you either need to spend less than 100K or you need to spend 2 million. That budgets in between there have a hard time making money.
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I think i read something like this in this forum. It's an interesting axiom
I hope more people will share their investment experiences, so that we can compare the results with this axiom :)
 
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"$300,000 is a very bloated budget in this day and age."

No, it's just a hard budget level to make a profit on. A 300K film isn't going to have the stars or the production values or the promotional budget to get a serious theatrical run (unless it's a fluke), and without a theatrical run it's hard to do enough DVD/VOD sales to make your money back. A "no budget" say 50K feature has so little money invested that if you can get distributed at all you have a chance of making money and once you get up into the couple million dollar range you have name actors and production values that can potentially let you play with the big boys (limited theatrical run, major distributor, etc...) . It's the space in between those two that is a tough road.

Typically a 300K movie is a straight to DVD horror film, shot on a Red, with a B list actor, maybe two, and a small professional crew. They come through the distributor I work for by the dozens. Most lose money.
 
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While that article was a little shocking I hope it's not going to be a discouraging factor. If are going know it's a gamble but still if they believe in your project then at least they can claim a tax-write off or some other expense. There was a Micro budget film that WON an Oscar that had no NAME stars or sorts I think it was called ONCE or something like that. It's hard finding investors as it is and if someone wants to take a chance on you why let that be a hindrance. Most investors (non-film or sorts) won't invest a huge budget on a first time filmmaker at first. They want to see what they are capable of doing with a micro-low budget then working their way up from there.
 
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gorillaonabike said:
Out of curiosity, what happened to the 80s production houses churning out movies and shows? My father had a relatively junior job in one of those (admin and accounts).
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Back in those days it took some $$ to make films so there was less competition in the marketplace and most distributors were able to get prices at a level they could make a few bucks profits from.

The digital age dawned newer filmmakers who could make/distribute films at the fraction of the cost and undercut existing distributors. The end of the home video market mentioned by sineater was the final nail in the coffin.
 
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I agree. I went to a "Film Finance/Distribution" seminar in LA recently and the top advice was LITERALLY: "Find stupid people to give you money for your movie." I felt like the stupid person for paying for the seminar. :lol:

GuerrillaAngel said:
Savvy investors don't invest in films. Rich people don't invest in films. Why? Films are not investments.

Your $5,500 is gone. But you ARE in the MOVIE BUSINESS. This is the only reason a sane person would "invest" in a film.

Good luck and hope I'm wrong about the film you invested in.
Click to expand...
 
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I felt like the stupid person for paying for the seminar.
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I feel as though ALL of these paid "film seminars" (as well as paid film websites) that promise to enlighten you on sales and distribution are nonsense. They make it sound like they're going to give away all of these "insider secrets" on how to promote and distribute a movie and you can't succeed unless you pay for their service. Internet distribution is not rocket science. Amazon's advantage program, Tunecore, a home site with a ccnow shopping cart for distribution is really all you need to know. For promotion you've got your website, YouTube and maybe a Facebook page. OK. That'll be $120.00 please.
 
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Once won for music http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907657/awards
And a bunch of other awards. Only movie filmed on HDV that I ever heard of winning an Oscar.
I'm sure there will be more.
Amazing film. :)

NIGHTFLYER said:
While that article was a little shocking I hope it's not going to be a discouraging factor. If are going know it's a gamble but still if they believe in your project then at least they can claim a tax-write off or some other expense. There was a Micro budget film that WON an Oscar that had no NAME stars or sorts I think it was called ONCE or something like that. It's hard finding investors as it is and if someone wants to take a chance on you why let that be a hindrance. Most investors (non-film or sorts) won't invest a huge budget on a first time filmmaker at first. They want to see what they are capable of doing with a micro-low budget then working their way up from there.
Click to expand...
 
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It’s always good to keep things in perspective.

$300,000 is not “very bloated” even in this day and age. Of course
a movie can be made for much less, but if one were to look at the
line item budget of a $300,000 show one would see that the money
is needed - not expanded for no reason. A production period of 14 to
18 weeks while paying people a “living wage” will push $300,000 to
its limits. Of course in this day and age a filmmaker can pay people
less then current minimum wage or nothing to keep costs much lower
than $300,000.

The “tax write off” aspect of movie financing has been severely restricted
by the US government so it is not an attractive possibility to investors
anymore.
 
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