Sundance InfoGraphic - Indie Films in Trouble?

Entertainment Media Partners and Cultural Weekly have produced an interesting infographic that reveals much about the independent filmmaking business, and does so by analyzing the data associated to The Sundance Film Festival.

VIEW INFOGRAPHIC HERE

Interesting facts:

• Over 4000 feature films are submitted to Sundance
• Over 400K people work on those films
• Over $3 billion is invested in those films
• Only 2% of the money invested will ever be recouped

Conclusion ... indie films as a block are powerful, but changes are certainly needed. Fewer films and increased quality are needed. Would love to hear how others interpret the data.

Thanks!

The most promising part for me was the rise in the amount of films at Sundance getting a distribution deal over the last few years:

2010: 12 films
2011: 45 films
2012: 73 films
2013: 75 films

Even though the numbers are small compared to the amount of feature films that were submitted, it shows that now is the best time for good filmmakers to make a sale. And if you assume VOD is the reason the numbers are high, then now is also the time for many filmmakers to profit by self distributing!