Distribution deal

That is a typical deal for a movie. If you don't like their
terms you can ask them to negotiate. If they feel your
movie will make enough money for them under your
terms, they will work with you.

Thank you directorik. They actually agreed to my terms of home video/US rights only. But then, I didn't hear from them.

I asked what was going on and they said that they had to have have full control over cover art/title/etc. Then if I didn't like the way they presented my film it would be a hollow success even if sales were successful.

So, I have asked to see what they come up with and that maybe I'd like it. But heck, regardless...what do I care if it sells and makes money. Right?

aceofspades70 said:

But heck, regardless...what do I care if it sells and makes money. Right?

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That's the way I look at it. I make the movie, the
distributor markets and distributes it.

I prefer to give the distributor everything they want.
It's their business and they know distribution better
than I do. Plus I always feel if they make a lot of money
from one of my films they will be interested in my next
one. I also feel if they get what they want in the deal
they will be more agresive in marketing. It's human
nature. People work harder when they have a bigger stake.
They want five years and all distribution rights then they
know they won't be competing with the same movie in
different markets. They can use their leverage in all the
markets. To me, that's a good thing.

But if you want another distributor to have some of the
rights and thus some of the money your film will make,
that's fine. But don't be too surprised when a distributor
doesn't like that idea and then doesn't push your film as
hard as they could.

What kind of distribution are they going to do for you? Just Internet distribution? Keep in mind that ANY FILMMAKER can get distributed on the Internet on their own without the help of a middleman. Giving up 25% of your profits for just "internet distribution" would suck, especially if you're stuck for 5 years with them. Do they actually have a subdistributor who supplies Best Buy? Or do they merely get you into a 1-Stop distributor's system. 1-stops don't do sh*T. What have they done with all of their other titles that are comparable to yours recently? Can you walk into a Best Buy, Wal-Mart or other store and find those titles?

Beware of "dummy contracts" which are very common. Don't sign anything without an entertainment lawyer reviewing it. Find a lawyer who bills one flat fee (based on how many pages the contract is) to review it and make suggestions. You can do the rest. Otherwise lawyers will do their hourly "billing gone wild" thing and wind up billing you $3,000 for phone conversations, etc. How many pages is it?

The most important thing is that they must provide a full accounting and if they don't there are swift remedies. Only an entertainment lawyer knows the legal language to protect you.

Very good advice and thank you. I am thinking about what you say directorik, and you're right, just let them have the whole schlemiel.

As far as what you say Blade, you're also right. What they are offering is worldwide dist. for 5 years, but not supplying Wal Mart or similar places because of the language content. (my fault there)

Anyway, they actually take care of all expenses, immediately start paying me royalty every quarter of .50 per copy. They go through a.c.e. who distributes everywhere.

So, in review, it's dist. thru all media types: home video, downloads, tv rights, everything; foreign and domestic. I read the contract carefully of several pages. However, I agree with an attorney looking at it.

What they are offering is worldwide dist. for 5 years, but not supplying Wal Mart or similar places because of the language content. (my fault there)

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50 cents per copy sold at $15 or more on sites like Amazon? That's a great deal... for THEM!
You need to find out if they are really likely to put your title in physical stores (what little is left of them) or just sell it on "virtual shelves" (on the Internet). No distributor can guarantee you that their subdistributor will distribute your title. Often a subdistributor just passes or doesn't do much of anything. Or maybe they handle your title, but Best Buy and other stores don't order ANY copies. Then you come to the realization that you gave up all this $$ for essentially "Internet distribution", which anyone can do on their own.
Are they going to advertise?
(All of this leads me to creating a new thread to survey what people got out of their distributor)
Attorneys know how to protect you with contracts, but to be honest with you most entertainment attorneys (even in Los Angeles) don't know about and will never give you this kind of "business advice". I've found that they don't know much of anything about the REAL world of what distributors can and can't do for you, what to look out for, etc. Attorneys just want to get paid for reviewing the contract, so it's a conflict of interest even though it's shouldn't be. No attorney will tell you that it's better to distribute yourself.

Good point Blade, and here's the thing; they're supposed to be one of those that distributes to the "5 dollar bin" or similar places.

I asked if they could tell me what stores they would send copies to and how many went to each. It was then that they said, "Oh, well we actually distribute through a.c.e. so we don't know how many copies go where". (I admit that it raised a red flag when they told me that)

I got the typical "I've never screwed anybody" sales pitch from the guy I spoke to on the phone, and yadda yadda.

I have to ask myself, if they tell me that Wal Mart and BB won't pick it up since there is language, then who the hell would?

I glanced over the contract again. It is 5 pages of plain cut and dry verbiage, but there are things that I didn't like. Such as...the old "No Performance Guarantee" paragraph.

And the fact that it's only 25% on net receipts on anything other than domestic sales less returns, adjustments, rebates, credit if any, and 50% of all reasonable third party expenses incurred by them. blah blah blah.

I don't know, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of doing it on my own.

ain't distribution a bitch?

Where is ACE based out of?

they said, "Oh, well we actually distribute through a.c.e. so we don't know how many copies go where". (I admit that it raised a red flag when they told me that)

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They know how many copies they ship to each distributor. From my experience, 1-stop distributors don't always tell you WHO they are shipping to. Do they ship EVERYTHING that they manufacture to this company ACE? Do they supply Amazon and NetFlix directly? I would ask them about their worst performing titles. About how are those sales distributed? See if you can find any of their titles in Best Buy physical stores. Do you know anyone who has access to SoundScan? Look up some of this company's titles and see how many sales were in non-traditional stores and how many were in real stores.

I have to ask myself, if they tell me that Wal Mart and BB won't pick it up since there is language, then who the hell would?

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Best Buy sells DVD's with foul language. Wal Mart is the only store that censors what they stock.

and 50% of all reasonable third party expenses incurred by them. blah blah blah.

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I HATE this clause if they don't explain in intricate detail WHAT exactly they can bill for and don't require that an itemized, detailed accounting be provided quarterly to the filmmaker. I don't know anything about this distributor, but the nasty distributors will take FULL advantage of "third party" expenses if the contract doesn't fully protect you. What exactly is a "third party"? It could be the owner's wife doing secretary work. ONLY a lawyer knows about how to word a contract to protect you in this regard. There's so many dirty tricks that can be used. I've been down this road of hard knocks.

Here's a couple of articles for you...
http://www.yourinvestmentadvise.com/filmmaking.htm
http://www.microfilmmaker.com/tipstrick/Issue18/selfdist.html

In a perfect world distributors would be as passionate about our
films as we are and would be willing to take a financial risk
along with us.

Now we have options we didn’t have a decade ago. In many ways this
has made distribution harder. Distributors have fewer avenues and
a much harder time making their money back.

The harsh reality is most people just do not pay to buy, rent or
watch independent films. You don’t. I don’t. At least not very
often and not on an equal level to studio/general release movies.

Since we independent filmmakers don’t pay to see independent films
we rely on others to pay to watch our films. That creates a unique
challenge for distributors. Which is why they make deals that are
greatly in their favor. Which, in turn, is why more and more
filmmakers are turning away from smaller distributors and doing it
on their own.

So we need to ask ourselves the hard question: is our movie really
something that will make a LOT of money? Is our movie really one
that will sell 30,000 units at $19.95? Because that’s what a
distributor is wondering.

And then we need to decide if we are going to distributors, too.
Is that really what we want to do? It takes a lot of time, talent,
energy and money to self distribute. Do we have a movie that will
sell 3,000 units at $9.99? And is it worth the time, energy and
money to make that goal?

I don’t have any answers - I’m just asking the question.

Which is why I tend to take the distribution deal I’m offered. I’d
rather have my movie out there then not. Of course I’d rather have
it in the hands of a top distributor with a deal in MY favor.

Thank you all very much for taking the time to give your thoughts and advice.

I will read the articles Blade.