Recommended Books on Film Distribution for Filmmakers

When learning about film distribution, these books below are recommended reading to learn more about the film distribution business. I quote these books quite frequently on my blog posts. Check them out!

	The Insider’s Guide to Independent Film Distribution
	Independent Film Distribution: How to Make a Successful End Run Around the Big Guys
	Film Finance & Distribution: A Dictionary of Terms
	The Feature Film Distribution Deal: A Critical Analysis of the Single Most Important Film Industry Agreement
	Independent Feature Film Production: A Complete Guide from Concept Through Distribution
	Selling Your Film: A Guide to the Contemporary Marketplace
	The Independent Filmmaker’s Law and Business Guide: Financing, Shooting, and Distributing Independent and Digital Films

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Using the All Time 50 Top Box Office Movies to Market Your Film

If you wanted to create a film, but wanted to know what genres are the most popular movie genres, you could start by analyzing the top box office movies of all time.

Similarly, if you completed your film and want to successfully promote it, you might see from the list of the top 50 box office movies below that your film might not fit into the most popular movie genres using this research below. For example, since comedy is one of the most popular genres, you could decide to add a cutscene(s) of a humorous conversation between two people if the movie can accommodate it in terms of plot. That way, when you go to a distributor, you could find “yet” another way to market your film!

There are many variations you could come up with, you just have to be creative and find new ways to market your film! A chart is below of the top 50 Top Box Office Movies, their top grosses, what genre(s) they are and out of the top 50 films, how popular is their genre(s).
Please let me know if you had any creative thoughts and still want to explore them by posting a comment and/or emailing me, Jonathan at moviedistributionfacts@gmail.com.

The results from the graph below show the top 50 box office gross hit movies of all time. They are separated into multi genre movies with information from IMDB.com categorizing them into genres. The top movie genres are Drama, Romance, Action, Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Comedy, Crime, Family & Thriller. Other genres did not make the list. The results are not out of 100%, rather 50 x the number of genres.)The movies are with their respective genres the highest in obviously Action- 52% (26 out of the top 50 movies had the action genre in the film) of the 50 movies and even higher in Adventure- at 66% (33 out of the top 50 movies had adventure.) This is of course obvious that people go to see action and adventure the most.

Lets concentrate on the other most popular genres below :

Sci Fi, Comedy, Fantasy and Romance are the most popular. 16 Sci Fi movies have made over 200 million box office receipts, the same as comedy. Following this Fantasy and Romance share the same split, 20% each of the top 50 movies.

What to learn from this research?
To add as many genres to your film as possible to market it!

Top Box Office Movies	Total Box Office Film Gross (In Millions)	Genre(s)	Total Movies % out of 50 movies – genre popularity
#1 Titanic	$600,788	Drama, Romance	Drama-8/50=16% Romance-10/50 =20%
#2 Star Wars : Episode III Revenge of the Sith	$460,998	Action, Adventure, Sci Fi	Action-26/50= 52%, Adventure-33/50=66% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#3 Shrek 2	$437,212	Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Romance	Animation-7/50=16% Adventure-33/50=66% Comedy-16/50=32%
#4 E.T: the Extra Terrestrial	$434,974	Adventure, Drama, Sci Fi	Adventure-33/50=66% Drama-8/50=16% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#5 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace	$431,088	Action, Adventure, Sci Fi	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#6 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest	$423,416	Action, Adventure, Comedy	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Comedy-16/50=32%
#7 Spider Man	$407,681	Action, Crime. Romance, Sci-Fi	Action-26/50= 52% Crime-4/50=8% Drama-8/50=16% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#8 Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith	$380,270	Action, Adventure, Sci Fi	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#9 Lord of the Rings : Return of the King	$377,192	Action, Adventure, Fantasy	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Fantasy-10/50=20%
#10 Spider-Man 2	$373,377	Action, Crime, Romance, Sci-Fi	Action-26/50= 52% Crime-4/50=8% Romance-10/50=20% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#11 The Passion Of Christ	$370,773	Drama	Drama-8/50=16%
#12 Jurassic Park	$357,067	Action, Adventure, SciFi	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#13 The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers	$341,748	Action, Adventure, Fantasy	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Fantasy-10/50=20%
#14 Finding Nemo	$339,714	Action, Adventure, Comedy	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Comedy-16/50=32%
#15 Spider Man 3	$336,530	Action, Crime, Romance, Sci-Fi	Action-26/50= 52% Crime-4/50=8% Romance-10/50=20% Sci-Fi-16/50=32%
#16 Forrest Gump	$329,693	Comedy, Drama, Romance	Comedy-16/50=32% Drama-8/50=16% Romance-10/50=20%
#17 The Lion King	$328,538	Animation, Adventure, Drama	Animation-7/60=14% Adventure-33/50=66% Drama-8/50=16%
#18 Shrek the Third	$320,706	Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Romance	Animation-7/60=14% Adventure-33/50=66% Comedy-16/50=32% Romance-10/50=20%
#19 Transformers	$319,222	Action, Adventure, SciFi	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#20 Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone	$317,575	Family, Adventure, Fanatsy	Family-8/50=165 Adventure-33/50=66% Fantasy-10/50=20%
#21 The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring	$314,163	Action, Adventure, Fantasy	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Fantasy-10/50=20%
#22 Star Wars: Episode II – Attack Of The Clones	$310,676	Action, Adventure, Sci Fi	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#23 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End	$309,302	Action, Adventure, Comedy	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Comedy-16/50=32%
#24 Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi	$309,206	Action, Adventure, Sci Fi	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#25 Independence Day	$306,169	Action, Sci Fi	Action-26/50= 52%  Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#26 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	$305,411	Action, Adventure, Comedy	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Comedy-16/50=32%
#27 The Sixth Sense	$293,506	Drama,  Thriller	Drama-8/50=16% Thriller-3/50=6%
#28 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	$292,000	Family, Adventure, Fantasy	Family-8/50=16% Adventure-33/50=66% Fantasy-10/50=20%
#29 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe	$291,709	Action, Adventure, Fanatsy	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Fantasy-10/50=20%
#30 Iron Man	$290,601	Action, Adventure. Drama	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Drama-8/50=16%
#31 Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back	$209,272	Action, Adventure, Sci Fi	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#32 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	$290,013	Family, Adventure, Fantasy	Family-8/50=165 Adventure-33/50=66% Fantasy-10/50=20%
#33 Home Alone	$285,761	Family, Comedy, Crime	Family-8/50=16% Comedy-16/50=32% Crime-4/50=8%
#34 The Matrix Reloaded	$281,538	Action, Adventure, Sci Fi	Action-26/50= 52% Adventure-33/50=66% Sci Fi-16/50=32%
#35 Meet the Fouckers	$279,167	Comedy, Romance	Comedy-8/50=16% Romance-10/50=20%
#36 Shrek	$267,665	Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Romance	Animation-7/50=14% Adventure-33/50=66% Comedy-8/50=16% Romance-10/50=20%
#37 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	$261,979	Family, Adventure, Fantasy	Family-8/50=16% Adventure-33/50=66% Fantasy-10/50=20%
#38 The Incredibles	$261,435	Animation, Adventure, Action	Animation-7/50=14% Adventure-33/50=66% Action-26/50= 52%
#39 Dr. Suess, How the Grinch Stole Christmas	$260,031	Comedy, Family	Comedy-8/50=16% Family-8/50=32%
#40 Jaws	$260,000	Adventure,  Thriller	Adventure-33/50=66% Thriller-3/50=6%
#41 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Scull	$257,620	Adventure/Action	Adventure-33/50=66% Action-26/50= 52%
#42 I Am Legend	$256,386	Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller	Drama-8/50=16% Sci-Fi-16/50=32% Thriller-3/50=6%
#43 Monsters  Inc.	$255,870	Animation, Comedy, Family,	Animation-7/50=14% Adventure-33/50=66% Thriller-3/50=6%
#44 Batman (Original, 1989)	$251,190	Action, Crime, Sci-Fi	Action-26/50=32% Crime-4/50=8% Sci-Fi-16/50=32%
#45 Night At the Museum	$250,863	Adventure, Family, Comedy	Adventure-33/50=66% Comedy-8/50=16% Family-8/50=16%
#46 Men In Black	$250,156	Action, Comedy, Sci-fi	Action-26/50= 52% Comedy-8/50=16% Sci-Fi-16/50=32%
#47 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	$249,538	Family, Adventure, Fantasy	Family-8/50=16% Adventure-33/50=66% Fantasy-8/50=16%
#48 Toy Story 2	$245,852	Animation, Adventure, Family	Animation-7/50=14% Adventure-33/50=66% Family-8/50=16%
#49 Cars	$244,082	Family, Animation, Comedy	Family-8/50=16% Animation-7/50=14% Comedy-8/50=16%
#50 Bruce Almighty	$242,704	Comedy, Fantasy, Romance	Comedy-8/50=16% Fantasy-8/50=16% Romance-10/50=20%

For any questions, please reply to the post or to moviedistributionfacts@gmail.com.

International Co-Distributions – Sell Your Film to the World Before Production!

International investing has always been a fruitful idea for the filmmaker, you can make more money on your film than in the US, by having an international distribution company invest for you.

While film distribution houses were making deals, watching screeners, attending to clients and reading investment memorandums, a new form of free funding was born out of presales. More often than not, while presales are still common, others were getting badly burned from investments. International Co-Productions grew out of pre-sales,(see blog post on presales for more info) what exactly they were was the distribution companies taking a large amount of stake in the film’s success by acting as insurance that the film was correctly made for maximum profit.

Currently, there is a demand for documentaries and special interests films abroad, says Parks. Using common sense anybody could figure that documentaries will always be of interest. If you traveled to Saskatchewan and filmed their landscape and put some narrative to the A &B roll, you bet some international or U.S. Distribution Company would buy it. Even if they didn’t, you probably could get enough funds from the Saskatchewan government to create a documentary focused on tourism to that country. No government that doesn’t have enough tourism in their economy would turn a filmmaker down.

When it comes to financing for your film, you have to be creative in the best way you can. Although financing from a distribution company would be a better step in the right direction because only they can guarantee success and not individual investors or private people not in the distribution industry.
When selling your film abroad, it’s important to know ask and take prices by territory. Territory means country, an “ask” price means what’s market value for you to ask in terms of money for what your movie is worth and a “take” price is what is the least amount you can get.

A sales agent agreement usually has the numbers for different countries. This by far sets forth an agreement that a producer/filmmaker of an independent film has the same control as the U.S. distributor in a different country to enter in a contract with an international distributor. (Stroock, Stroock &Lavan LLP, 2000)
In Stacey Parks book, “The Insider’s Guide to Independent Film Distribution” a chart on page 36 is shown that depicts what countries ask and take prices are. At the top is the U.S. that asks for 100K, followed by the UK with 50K, and trailing along behind from 20K-25k is Germany, France, Italy and Japan. The rest of the countries’ ask price is between 10-15K.

For any other questions, please reply to this post or send an email to me, at filmdistributionfacts@gmail.com.

Film History Before 1920 : Louis Lumiere, Thomas Edison & Carl Laemmle.

I have heard that my film distribution history is a little long to be a blog, so I am shortening it for my readers. Enjoy!

Film distribution business’ earliest history can be traced back to the first Kinetescope parlor that was opened at 1155 Broadway, New York City, April 14, 1894. “It was owned by the Holland brothers, who were licensed by the Kinetescope Company to distribute Kinetescopes and Kinetescope films in New York.” (Robinson, p.45) Edison had made an invention and set out to distribute it to this company and others. He had serious competition – (independent from his own creation of the kinetescope) from other companies that sold their own kinetescope and kinethescope movies among the most prominent were the American Mutoscope Company (i.e., Biograph) and the International Film Company in New York; Edward Amet in Waukegan, Illinois; and Sigmund Lubin in Philadelphia. (Muser, 103)

The competition was fierce and this was what independent distribution was created out of – competition. In 1901, Edison gains an ultimate monopoly over distribution over motion pictures. In the history of motion pictures, every time the government steps in to regulate it, the movie business is severely altered.
“Many people were aware of the accomplishments of Edison, the technological advancements he created, but overlooked is his crucial work as a producer and distributor” (Hall, 2007) Edison, from 1900-1910, single-handedly tried to grab hold of the film business for himself, by suing a competitor every time they made a movie and tried to distribute a movie.

This didn’t work out for him, so he formed the Motion Pictures Patents Company (MPCC) in 1909. He involved 9 of the top distribution houses at the time and it was legally ruled that they could only make and distribute films. . Independent Film Distribution was started to break free of control of the MPPC. It is an independent work that does not have to conform to Edison’s standards and is shown without a major studios money or help. In 1909, Laemmle, a wholesale distributor of films to theatres, was infuriated at the MPCC, and he continually challenged them in court over their monopoly until the MPCC stopped distributing films to his company. Angrier than ever, Laemmle created the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP) and gave life to a new filmmaking force. He started making films and buying films from others and selling them. He creates in 1911, with Pat Powers and Mark Dintenfass, is known as Universal Studios.

A man named Zukor also charged in after the MPCC and started making films and distributing them. They also gave the actors credits on the film and listed their name at the beginning of the movies, the first step in democratizing films. Lamella and the MPCC wouldn’t do this because they were afraid of paying the actors too much. Independent Distribution was simplified for the first time and let a lot of new films in from other filmmakers, such as Howard Hughes. “Laemmmle and Zukor succeeded Edison and Laemmle founded Universal Studios and Zukor founded Paramount Studios. (Hall, 2007) Several new independents (at the time) in 1915, William Fox founds Fox Film Corporation, and combines production, distribution and theatres together and between 1915 and 1924, United Artists, Warner Brothers, MGM and Columbia formed as studios.

To see the full History of Film from 1890 to Present, click here

Market Publicity for Your Film Using Character Toys (The Auxillary Market)

In 1975, George Lucas started his epic Star Wars, however, people were at odds about the movie’s popularity and instant saleability. He went to Twientieth Century Fox, with his concept and they approved it. He also told them he would take a paycut in exchange for a full rights to his toys he created to sell on the market. Fox said to him, sure, keep your shitty toys (in other words, of course..). What they didn’t know, is that his toys went on to gross more than 10 times the movie made and with having exclusive rights from now till eternity, he would make 100 times more than any of his movies with the toys. Eventually, distributors smartened up and began to take advantage of the auxillary market ( toys, games, t-shirts, etc…)

There is a doubt that you can do this and outsmart a distributor, but you may know now, the market value of toys.Why not make your own toy of a character in your film?

You may be able to convince a distributor to distribute your film with a little buzz marketing on your part.

Sure it may seem outrageous at first, but simply do this. Picture in your head marketing your characters, and pick a character from your film, a main character perhaps. Then draw a schematic drawing of a bite size variety. Then, look up toy manufacturers in the US, and contact with a few to get pricing of your character for 500 of them. Then, when you receive the toys, hire a crew on craigslist.com to hand out advertising of your film to come hand out your toys to little children. The media will eat this up!
Have your crew go to Grand Central in Manhattan for example, (or any big city will do) to have them distribute your character toy and advertorials about your movie. At a minimal price, about one thousand, you have created an audience. Bring this to the distributor table as your marketing efforts.

Examples of action figures now on the market : Spiderman, Batman, Harry Potter, Transformers.. You do know that these are popular..but why not yours? What you might think never would happen, George Lucas made it happen..and what is best is that it doesn’t even have to be a “action figure” just a person, as a collectible. It will sell.

Please reply to me, Jonathan with any questions atmoviedistributionfacts@gmail.com or add a comment.

What’s included in Film Budgets? How to Make a Film Budget?

In this post, I will show a film budget for a typical independent film that has a 500 thousand budget. Most Independent films or small budget films have a budget between 500,000 and 7 million. If you are just starting out, you can study this table below to find out what are typical above the line costs and below the line costs. Usually, the director makes the most amount of money, but most A-list Actors would make more than a B-List Director, because he is hungry to get their name on the screen to market the film around that actor.
For the most part, above the line makes less than below the line when you combine it together, only because of the very few above the line and the many below the line technical staff. In a film budget, everything is guestimated and cannot go more than the guestimated amount. Then, the budget is re-written to show on a film distribution memorandum to show actual costs. I cannot stress this enough: The budget is your most important investment and marketing tool to show to a distributor. Here is the budget below :

BUDGET TOP SHEET

Story, Copyrights & Other Rights	0
Direction and Supervision	$84,250
Cast, Day Players & Stunts	$24,576
Travel & Living	$2,000
Legal	$1,000
Office Expenses	$6,722
TOTAL ABOVE-THE-LINE	$118,348
Production Staff	$33,889
Extra Talent	$750
Art Direction	$13,036
Set Operations	$15,750
Wardrobe	$11,018
Set Dress Operations	$11,940
Makeup & Hairdressing	$5,638
Electrical Riggers	$39,301
Camera Operations	$27,000
Production Sound Operations	$10,364
Transportation	$3,398
Locations	$7,100
Production/ Lab & Film	$30,556
Tests	$1,000
Office Expenses	$5,238
TOTAL PRODUCTION PER.	$216,106
Editing	$34,130
Music	$5,000
Post Production Sound	$11,200
Post Production/ Lab & Film	$50,126
Main & End Titles	$3,000
Office Expenses	$5,238
TOTAL EDITING PERIOD	$107,000
Publicity	$32,000
Festival Expenses	$6,400
Insurance	$30,000
TOTAL OTHER CHARGES	$39,600
TOTAL ABOVE-THE-LINE	$118,348
TOTAL BELOW-THE-LINE	$363,404
TOTAL OF ABOVE & BELOW-THE-LINE	$481,772
GRAND TOTAL	$499,922

Please reply to the post for any questions or comments or at moviedistributionfacts@gmail.com

Answer to: How Do I Start My Own Film Distribution Company?

Thanks for sending in your questions.. I will cover all of them, this questions was asked by Samuel Charcon:

QUESTION :

Hello Jon, How do I start my own film distribution company?

Thanks,
Samuel Charcon

ANSWER :

I think that question is two fold. Part 1 is assuming you know how to start a business and and get relevant funding. You can find out how to start a small business online at http://www.sba.gov

The second part is market research. I strongly recommend you study a film investment memorandum. It will cover all aspects of what the distribution company does and wants from you. You can think of your self as the boss of this company and turn the facts around pretending. I will cover the basic aspects of a film distribution memorandum and please have a look around my blog for miore information.

Risk Statement- Project Summary -Creative Team-Timeline -the budget-market research-(film industry, the economy and film, future trends-history of independent distribution-what distributors do-we do everything to make the deal work-compare movies to others- by criteria and by objective financial analysis- using quantitative and qualitative reasoning.

Table of Contents-

Risk Statement- a legal letter that covers all aspects of partnership and/ or investments.

Project Summary – A brief synopsis of the movie regarding the plot and characters.

Creative Team- All involved in the creation. List he director or producer, the cast, production staff, art direction, camera operators, sound operators and editor(s).

Timeline – from your FILMS’ Pre-production to Post-production by week

Preproduction- polish of screenplay, casting crew, location searching, allocate props- 3 weeks
4th week- most casting completed, commence rehearsals
6th week-financing complete, casting complete
8th week – have all crew, locations and props
Production
9th -10th week – begin editing and production
15 week- production complete
Post Production- 16th-25th weeks – editing
25th-30th weeks- sound cutting, music composing, score music
30-40 weeks – all editing completed

2 months after – pursuing a distributor, film festivals, foreign sales agent
Profits will be distributed after 6 months and continue to be distributed every half year

The budget includes monetary figures of – the story, copyrights, the direction, the cast, legal, production staff, art direction, the Set, makeup, camera operators, sound operators, transportation, locations, total production expenses, total editing, publicity, festival expenses, insurance.

Trend Indicators and Market research

• The Film Industry= it’s history- it is what sells itself
• U.S Admissions Growth from the MPAA – talk about where the film industry is now and how it has been in profit up until now.
• Talk about Film and the Economy
• Talk about how Film has been unaffected by the economical swings for the most part

Then a description of what the filmmaker thinks a distributor does to prove that the filmmaker is well informed about the industry.
Let the distributor know what acquisition executives do at a distribution company to get your film made and have a support staff to monitor and track the production, the end of the production and ticket sales from there.

Then what are we going to do everything to ensure a deal and we might even proceed without a distributor because of our success so far with audience attention (we don’t need you really) then if our movie sells big then we’ll know that the theater owner will move ours to a bigger theatre even if there is competition for a new movie. Independent movies like ours (Your film here) offer a big return on investment because they cost less to make.

Then income – actual and projected by comparing other movies to what it might cost.

Compare your movie to other successful movies in the genre, movies that do good on platform while doing bad on DVD or flip flop or failed in both respects.

Specific Criteria for successful Income Earning Films in their Genre:

• Made use of a successful platform release
• Marketed to niche and female audiences
• No star actors in lead roles
• Low budget
• Independently Financed
• Received Strong support
• Directed by a first time director
• Based of successful short films- Bottle Rocket, Sling Blade, Raising Victor Vargas.
• Acquired at a film festival with an advance of funds
• It was a comedy

If you then compare analysis of movies from a website called BASELINE.com or IMDB.com on these factors :

• Maximum screens an average of each theatre (between 58-1020 screens).
• Opening gross in millions
• Budget
• Print Ad Cost
• Domestic Box Office Gross
• DVD Rental
• DVD Revenue
• Ancillaries
• Foreign Income Cost

A Film Distribution Memorandum is a more detailed Press Release. If you can understand a film distribution memorandum, you can understand what films you might want to license and/or distribute your own film by your own distribution company.

Please reply with any other questions to Jonathan at jonathan@privateislandparty.com – thanks. while you are there check out our customized suspenders.

Answer to : What is a Film Distribution Company?

Thanks for sending in your questions.. I will cover all of them, the first one is very basic as it is important, It was asked by Srikanth Dasari :

QUESTION :

What is a distribution company? I mean once the movie is
produced by the
producer, does he sell them to distribution companies,

And if so then to what price do these distribution
companies sell these
movies to the theatres. How is the cost determined?

Hope you will get back to me. Eagerly waiting for your
reply.

Thanks,
Srikanth Dasari

ANSWER :

A distribution company is a middleman between the theatre and producer/director/filmmamker. At least that is how it should be. Sometimes a distribution company has their own theatre and completley does not do business with an unknown producer/director. This is called a restraint of trade. As you may know, it was illegal in the 1950’s and completely weakened hollywood. Now it is not so and not so illegal anymore. A distribution company acts as a middleman between the theatre and the producer/director. You do not need a distribution company for your film and can choose to “self distribute” it to the theatre. This is all you need, a “theatre”. However, it is not so easy to distribute all over the world, so you most likely will have to use a distribution comany. Check out my post :

https://moviedistributionfacts.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/film-history-from-1890-present/

for more information.

What prices do the distributors sell to the theatres? it usually is 75% for the distributor and producer/director and 25% for the theatre. That my friend, also depends on the budget of a film, if it is a high concept 100 million dollar film or a $500 thousand to 5 million low budget or independent film.

Please reply with any other questions to Jonathan at nyctrader_07@yahoo.com. thanks.

Pre-Production for Film Distribution – Sell Your Film Before You Produce it!

Everyone could use funds to fund their film. How about if you could sell it to an International Distributor for an advance before you make it?

Filmmakers that made a film, went to film school and learned all they needed to know about plot, structure, character and all necessary elements to a film must have a great film and in fact they do. Most, if not all filmmakers need to promote it. So they look up many distributors as they can and send them DVD screeners of their material after researching them. They now wait a month and they get discouraged, but the next day after they receive three letters in the mail, they all say in so many words or less, their production doesn’t have any A-list ort B-list actors, it is not the quality they would like and they should invest in a new prosumer camera and they want to know why you think you movie will sell in a 45 page Film Investment Memorandum?

This is what countless filmmakers have happen to them, but if they plan for this type of engagement with the distributor before they spend their inheritance, a filmmaker must know that distributors will fund you. Yes, for the entire movie and only adding a small amount of your money to the budget. If this sounds too good, it must be hard to do. This is true; filmmakers that want investment money probably have to do an enormous amount of research.

There are a lot of possibilities of funding your production by use of a presale, Stacey Parks, the author of “Insider’s Guide to Film Distribution defines it as “literally a sale of your film to a particular category before the film is made” (pp.2). If anyone should get a pre-sale they are to be considered lucky. Back in the earlier 1980-90’s it was easier to secure this because of less movies that were on radar at a certain time. However, Parks says that many filmmakers could finance their movies through just 2 or 3 presales and most presales happen internationally more than in the U.S, and they do happen all the time in certain genres such as horror and animation. Edward Jay Epstein of Slate Magazine summarizes that it is a little harder than it seems. He says most indie producers unlike studio producers cannot get a distribution deal until they finish the movie. He also says that once a filmmaker gets a presale keep in mind that “ presales are nothing but promissory notes and the indie producer must borrow against them from banks to pay for the movie.”

Before a filmmaker can do that, he must first convince the banks that the films will be delivered to foreign distributors. He also says that since many huge insurers back these presale funds, there is not a big risk to the bank to lend the money. This is a sigh of relief for many young independent producers out there.

Parks says that at the worst of free film funding now is that “ it is hard now for distributors to agree to paying you the full license fee up front and you should be prepared for payment plans over time.” (Parks, 3) This is a shocking aspect, because if you want to really fund your film, it is not becoming easier. Assuming this also too is a generalization, we’ll now refer to objective numbers to calculate royalty or box office share to the independent distributor. Malcolm Ritchie, Co- Managing Director of Qwerty Films and Skillset.org reports that the share of revenue for independent filmmakers is 45-55%. Warren Buckland, author of Directed by Steven Spielberg, says ‘you have to make 5 times your negative costs to make a profit on a movie. ”Buckland, 98”

So let’s do the math, say a filmmaker does $300,000 gross hypothetically speaking, that means that costs to produce it may be $60,000. If these distribution companies are letting out payments over time and your cut is about half what they get- $150,000, how long could you survive after such a tremendous effort of making a movie?

Parks, further says that you can expect a royalty check 9 months after you sign the distribution deal. She says this is because DVD companies must recoup their marketing and manufacturing costs before they pay you. She chides at this saying that this might because “ you can walk into a Wal-Mart and buy a big studio blockbuster for $7.99, which leaves you with your $1.99 independent rack.”(pp.34) It’s best to avoid royalty only deals, or have your accountant with you.

Distribution companies seek out new ideas all the time, they watch screeners of your film, go to private screenings independent filmmaker’s throw and attend all film festivals they can. Many distributors go out of business because they lose too much money on an investment or a few investments and also on advances to filmmakers. If a production has an A-list or sometimes B-list actor attached to the project, the producer brings new funding to the table and the producer has a track record of delivering the product as promised, distribution advances should be available according to Parks.

If you can sell yourself, you can sell your film. Check out my blog post on Film Distribution Research and get started on a film distribution memorandum.

Reply to the post for any questions or at jonathan@privateislandparty.com and I will get back to you right away, while you are there, checkout our Homecoming Court Sashes.

Using A Study of Popular Movie Audiences to Promote your Film.

The idea behind this study below is to see what the audience of America in 2007 watches the most of in movies. If a filmmakers movie falls into a medium to high percentage in one of these variables presented below, their movie will have a better chance of selling this year to a distribution company.
The results of a conducted objective study are from a total of 60 movies, Netflix.com, Blockbusters’ Top 20 rented movies and Amazon’s Top 20 bestselling movies. They were categorized into specific genres (gathered from IMDB.com), if they have 0-2 A-List actors and if they are Independent movies or Hollywood blockbuster movies.
If a filmmaker has an “A”- list charcter attached to the movie (for example, Jack Nicholson) they have a better chance of getting their film made because the actor sells the movie to the distribution company who makes a decision if audiences will buy it or not. A “B”- list actor will help the movie get made but is usually not as well known.
The results were calculated in percentages and you can take the highest to middle ranges as the most popular in the market. If you take three successful corporations and match their movie sales you can have qualitative research if your movie is to be a great buy in this market today.
The results out of 60 movies are below:

The Study	Amount and/or Amount in Genre	Percentage Share out of 60 movies
Independent Movies	7	12%
Hollywood Movies	53	88%
0 A-List Actors	12	35%
1 A-List Actor	21	20%
2 A-List Actors	31	52%
Biography	6	10%
Drama	47	78%
Mystery	7	12%
Action	9	15%
Comedy	21	35%
Crime	13	22%
Thriller	19	32%
Romance	19	32%
Adventure	7	12%

The results show Hollywood movies are still produced more because of the successes and large money invested into distribution efforts. The 12% of independent movies that sell in the top 20 is likely to increase over time, with the advent of Internet legal movies being downloaded, DVD’s and pay-per-view. As far as attaching a list actor/actress to your project, you can see that 2 A – list actors appearing in a movie is about half of the most popular movies being seen.
1 A – list actor is enough to get your movie distribution with 21% total share and shockingly a 35 % total share of 0 A-list actors, so this is good news for low budget filmmakers without money for A-list actors.
With respect to the genres, most movies were combined two or more genres in the study. 78% of movies had drama that involves seriousness with narrative, which is the common movie genre with the comedy genre at second highest. As a filmmaker can see not much has changed since the Greek storytellers. It’s safe to say that if one genre takes up a third of the market share, you should have either drama, comedy, a thriller or romance theme added to the screenplay before you decide to distribute your own film.
Movies and films are promoted nowadays through such distribution channels such as movie theatres, platform releases, DVD’s and video on demand. These distribution channels are also audiences as they have influenced them democratically. The Independents and Hollywood have been distributing their films in a monetary number like fashion. By theatres or to DVD or to video on demand one after the other, in a structure with a few weeks to months between each medium release of the same concept. Henrig, Henrig-Thrau, Sattler, Eggers and Houston, writers of the “The Last Picture Show? Timing and Order of Movie Distribution Channels.” Say their “ empirical research results suggest that – studios that produce motion pictures can increase their revenues by up to 16.2% through sequential distribution timing and order changes”
Basically, they say that a filmmaker or distribution house should plan to distribute their movie through any and all possible channels all at once to achieve the most profit. A lump sum of all audiences and distribution channels might be the most appealing solution to recoup losses and make great profit as a filmmaker/indie producer.
If these authors of this journal have provided objective research of over 1770 consumers and have provided results, we should encourage these figures as represented below.
Movie theatres generate 23.7% of all studio revenues, 17.2% of all revenue is generated by DVD rentals and a whopping 57.1% is generated by DVD sales. We can infer from this information that we can make full profit by adding these figures together, instead of receiving additional funds over time. Note that you will always have additional funds over time and also the auxiliary market funds as well.
These authors say that simultaneous releases will hurt one channel over the other, should this be a careful decision on your part? Of course not, a filmmaker should be out for themselves as much as Hollywood is.