> 2011 Sundance Feature Film Distribution & Revenue Analysis

rayw

rayw

2010 http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=34549
2013 WIP http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=45836
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Any of ya'll recall last fall's 2010 Independent Film Distribution & Revenue Analysis spreadsheet I ran, well...

I made another one examining the distribution fate of last year's Sundance feature films that picked up distribution.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsBznn8D13zOdGlCeDRmWTFCYXJRWjJ3SUphZDNzMGc

Note that three of them haven't even been released yet or are just about to.


Also, don't forget to take a look at the second sheet "Previous Works", (tab's at the bottom left).

Lemme know what sort of takeaways you put together.
I'm always interested in seeing what others see.


Ray
 
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A lot of first time directors. Just goes to show that just because it may be your first time directing it doesn't mean the movie is going to suck. Experience, networking, preparation, and surrounding yourself with a great group of professionals are all important factors that play into a movie's success.
 
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Thanks, guys.

DeJager -
Yeah, I was frankly shocked at how little to no practical experience the great majority of distributed exhibitors had. :eek:
It wasn't a majority of industry vets which had made a dozen features before and finally hit all the right buttons along the way on this last attempt.

Of course, the flip side to this is that if this pattern exists every year then the industry is a voracious consumer of new talent and most of these are one hit wonders almost doomed to never repeat this achievement again.
Yikes!

In other words - you'd better maximize your relationship development during your first meet & greet on the circuit and likely have a portfolio of projects already underway if not at least pretty well mapped out ("shovel ready", to steal popular government lingo) because there's not likely to be a lasting "favored child" achievement with larger studios or distributors.
Very "what have you done for me this quarter?" and probably a lot of "do it again by yourself" perspective.
Hustle yourself.
 
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rayw said:
T

Of course, the flip side to this is that if this pattern exists every year then the industry is a voracious consumer of new talent and most of these are one hit wonders almost doomed to never repeat this achievement again.
Yikes!
Click to expand...

This is seriously about getting as much cash up front for your film as possible. Life in the business beyond that film isn't likely to happen unless you're holding that cash.
 
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I can see the (almost horrifying) truth to that, GA.

It's not like Spielberg shooting JAWS and then a whole bunch of other projects magically fall in his or your lap with financing.
No.
Not at all.
It's almost like every studio and distributor considers any achievement as a "one off".
"Yeah. That was... great. So what." :coffee:
 
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I'm not interested in beginning another thread, so I hope no one minds if I go off on a brief tangent on my own thread:


Considering the nearly ten thousand feature films that are likely made annually in the US alone...
And that each year the larger film festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, TriBeca, Telluride, etc. receive upwards of four to five thousand entries...
And of those only a hundred and change are chosen...
And of those only a small fraction (less than a third, maybe only single digit percentages) receive traditional cinematic distribution...
And those only get about 150 theaters for maybe 8 to 11 weeks...
That video-on-demand (VOD) is probably a fairly sensible revenue avenue to go investigating next.

Anyone have and sage bits of experience to share?

I'm JUST begining research into this and don't know jack-nothing about anything other than I strongly suspect there are smarter and dumber ways to go about this process.

This evening I ran across this:
http://www.filmmakingstuff.com/independent-movie-distribution-made-simple-with-video-on-demand/
Which lead to this:
http://www.moviedistributioncompany.com/
Which lead to this:
http://www.howtosellyourmovie.com/

Now, obviously this is just a circular self promoting chain to market this guy's own stuff, which is a-okay fine by me, and it's fairly decent looking and organized to a nube like me.
But I was interested in seeing if any of you guys had run across this guy's work product or a variant (among dozens, I'm sure) of it.

Are these legit or just vomit-boxes of outdated and generalized intel?

Thanks. :)





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Gathered stats for the above proclomations:


700 to 800 MPAA rated films annually
+ 500 to 600 non-MPAA rated films annually
Page 13 - http://www.mpaa.org/Resources/93bbeb16-0e4d-4b7e-b085-3f41c459f9ac.pdf

"There are an estimated 4,000 - 5,000 independent films made every single year. Here's the unfortunate truth: Less than 5% of all these movies end up with distribution."
http://www.distribution.la/
Probably not the most reliable source of intel, but it doesn't sound like complete BS.

Maybe this'll be better...
"Only about 40 of the 3,812 finished films that were submitted to Sundance this year will get any kind of distribution at all. That’s slightly over one percent. The other 98% you will never get to see – not even on Netflix."
http://www.culturalweekly.com/indie-films-state-of-the-union.html
Looks somewhat more credible.
And considering that not every indie film gets submitted to Sundance (on a lark) their 3,812 number suggests the previous distribution.la numbers were low balling the total number.
I bet it's closer to 8,000, give or take a thousand. Or two.

Lettuce move onto spec screenplays...

"I often see the figure that 40,000 (or more) scripts are written each year... " (2004 figure)
http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-7081.html

"According to the Writer's Guild of America, 55,000 pieces of literary material are registered annually, 30,00 of which are screenplays."
http://www.screenwritingtostandard.com/

"An old adage in Hollywood is that in spite of the hundreds of thousands of rejected scripts every year, a good script will find an audience. Format properly, be professional, and write a killer script, and your chances are maximized for success."
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-spec-script.htm
Perhaps a little melodramatic, but point made - it's more than a few thousand.
Certainly more than the number of never-to-be-seen feature films made.
A LOT more.
 
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Wow, this is a lot of food for one sitting . . . maybe you should have started new threads with bite-sized servings. :)

I would suggest that this is more of a marketing scheme than anything else. And very clever too. I say this works because too many filmmakers rely these days entirely on the net for their filmmaking education. The weakness with this is one rarely has the discipline to sift through all aspects of the filmmaking process on the net, as one would if they read books or took classes. This is why you see so many question in this forum that would be EASILY answered if they've read a few books.

So, a package like the one in your link would be useful to people on the net that won't pick up a book. For many of us though, it'll be a waste of money.

But I don't think he's getting rich though.
 
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rayw, avoid it

I am currently making my first videos on all the steps I did to get distribution and I am currently in the process of using distribber and documenting that. So if you can just hold off, my info will be free unlike his.
 
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NickSoares said:
rayw, avoid it

I am currently making my first videos on all the steps I did to get distribution and I am currently in the process of using distribber and documenting that. So if you can just hold off, my info will be free unlike his.
Click to expand...

My question is this: If you got distribution for your film, why are you not working on your next film project? Why spend time on a side project and give it away? I ask these questions because giving something away doesn't always make it a better product than something you have to pay for.

:huh:
 
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GuerrillaAngel said:
Wow, this is a lot of food for one sitting . . . maybe you should have started new threads with bite-sized servings. :)
Click to expand...
Yeah, but you're smarter than the average bear, so I wasn't concerned about poppin' yerr noggie with pulling together this much on one post-plate. ;)


GuerrillaAngel said:
I would suggest that this is more of a marketing scheme than anything else. And very clever too. I say this works because too many filmmakers rely these days entirely on the net for their filmmaking education. The weakness with this is one rarely has the discipline to sift through all aspects of the filmmaking process on the net, as one would if they read books or took classes. This is why you see so many question in this forum that would be EASILY answered if they've read a few books.

So, a package like the one in your link would be useful to people on the net that won't pick up a book. For many of us though, it'll be a waste of money.

But I don't think he's getting rich though.
Click to expand...
"Scheme" may be a bit strong, but I generally agree it's a worm-of-info baited hook.
Yeah, that's what I was wondering; if these info packets that consumers do pay for contain substantive content - or is it just more vagueries?

Nah, I certainly wasn't interested in buying it.
I was interested in the experiences of others after they HAD "invested" in something akin to this.

Pulp or poop?


NickSoares said:
rayw, avoid it

I am currently making my first videos on all the steps I did to get distribution and I am currently in the process of using distribber and documenting that. So if you can just hold off, my info will be free unlike his.
Click to expand...

Thank you, Nick.
I look forward to seeing the nuts and bolts of your experiences.

Ray



GuerrillaAngel said:
My question is this: If you got distribution for your film, why are you not working on your next film project? Why spend time on a side project and give it away? I ask these questions because giving something away doesn't always make it a better product than something you have to pay for.
Click to expand...
He'll likely answer this himself, but I'm guessing his documentation of his marketing and distribution experience either IS the product - or - is accessory to the primary project and serves as a the "next film project" you're asking about.
And Nick'll likely argue selling a product doesn't validate it any more than giving something away invalidates something.

Celtx has been free for years.
I was using VideoPad NLE free for a few years.
FreeAudioEditor is... free, and a fine utility.
Leawoo video converter works fine.
There are tons of free tutorial resources everywhere on quite a bit, so...
Jusssayin'. :yes:
It's all funNgames till someone loses an eye. :)
 
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Another interesting VOD article:
Dated - Fall 2009 http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/issues/fall2009/industry-beat.php

By all accounts, the most successful VOD films fall into one of a few categories, horror-thrillers (Dark Mirror, Magnolia's Surveillance or The Mutant Chronicles), sexy stuff (like some of IFC's racy French fare) or star-studded comedies (IFC's I Hate Valentine's Day, starring the leads from My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

"The films working on cable VOD are going to be the films that people want to watch with other people, things that are provocative, either from a violence or stylish sense, or a titillating standpoint,"

It appears that if you can skip the dubious expense of a questionable theatrical release, the title and description are intriguing enough, that VOD only distribution may be fairly viable.

Surprisingly some filmmakers are ending up in better fiscal shape by bypassing the theatrical route. Joe Swanberg says the VOD performance for his latest film, Alexander the Last, was similar to his previous Hannah Takes the Stairs. Both were released on IFC with grosses around $250,000. But Alexander may turn out to be significantly more profitable because the higher expenses associated with Hannah's theatrical release ate up all of its VOD proceeds.



And another "more" current article:
Dated - Jun 29, 2010 http://www.filmthreat.com/features/22975/

Finding a way to get your film noticed can be as hard, or harder, than finding the money to make your film in the first place. Of course having certain elements like a notable cast and a “bionic” genre (i.e. action, sci-fi and thriller) will certainly help. But, you should have a clear idea about who your audience is and how you can exploit your product to them through the correct V.O.D. platform.

2) People under the age of 25 buy most of the content sold to cell phones.

Since most contracts with V.O.D. suppliers are non-exclusive, your distributor should exploit your film to multiple suppliers. Let me just clarify that point: Your contract with your distributor is always exclusive, but their contract with V.O.D. suppliers is usually non-exclusive. This means you can have your film available to multiple V.O.D. suppliers if it makes sense to do so.

Cool. There's a series: http://www.filmthreat.com/page/7/?s="going+bionic"



Another informative "definitions of VOD" article:
Dated - Aug 25, 2011 http://www.sellingyourfilm.com/blog/tag/film-distribution-contracts/


Good Lord.
The amount of data to learn on this subject is... deep enough to drown in.
Looks like a chock-load of undated FREE RESOURCES in that first left column block: http://www.filmspecific.com/public/main.cfm


I think this is enough to keep me busy for a week.
(BTW, did I ever tell you guys that the reason I got interested in filmmaking is because I DON'T like reading anymore, especially when a book takes six or more hours to convey what a film can do in under two hours? And what am I doing a sh!t load of now? Yuk yuk yuk. Life is funny).
 
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We're talking VOD feature films here right?

Clearly genre makes a difference, and I agree with the article, if you've a low-cost product aimed at a viable target audience, one can still turn a profit on VOD and other alternative distribution options.

The key here is low cost. I'm in this business to make a profit -- odds are it won't happen, but every decision I'm making along the way is usually focused on that point -- not normal film making convention. In indie filmmaking, top notch equipment and a large crew does not lead to profit. That kind of money is better spent on marketing as the article suggested.

All this business stuff is mostly a buzzkill for starry-eyed filmmakers with RED cameras and cranes, is it not? :rolleyes:
 
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GuerrillaAngel said:
My question is this: If you got distribution for your film, why are you not working on your next film project? Why spend time on a side project and give it away? I ask these questions because giving something away doesn't always make it a better product than something you have to pay for.

:huh:
Click to expand...

If I got distribution to my film? Don't understand the question, do you mean film(s)?

Of course giving something away doesn't make it more valuable, never said that once.

I am currently investigating Distribber, a company that can be a big role in the indie film community,
If you want to know more, feel free to ask.

Nick
 
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