Indie Filmmakers Make No Money from Distribs

[Marc Wielage]

Here's a very sobering article about the indie film business in Deadline:Hollywood. A pertinent quote:

 

A new survey by the WGA East of 100 active indie filmmakers found that more than 60% of them reported they’ve had problems receiving initial compensation and/or backend payments for their movies. This is especially true of indie films released digitally. In its 2015 Independent Film Survey, the guild found that “Half of respondents reported having entered into a ‘bad’ distribution deal, while two thirds of those surveyed have had a project released on a digital platform. The growth of experimental digital distribution deals based on complicated formulas for backend resulted in writers recouping very little — if any — income once the project is released across multiple platforms and into numerous territories.

 

Many filmmakers noted that they signed a 50/50 distribution deal, minus expenses, but the “expenses” never seem to end and distributors would not provide reports explaining those costs.

 

http://deadline.com/2015/01/indie-filmmakers-stiffed-distributors-wga-east-study-1201360898/

 

 

Gee, kinda like the record industry days where the label would give a group a big chunk of money as an advance, but there would never be any subsequent money because the label would charge so much interest and other usurious details to the band, they'd never break even. 1960s rock star (and eventual Country artist) Kenny Rogers has told a story where his band The First Edition had seven Top 40 hits but never got any residuals because their contract was so lousy. The film business is no different, at least sometimes.

[Mirror]

I was thinking of the same corrilation between your article and the record business. A lot of HUGE bands were screwed over - Grand Funk Railroad comes to mind. One of the members of Badfinger hung himself because he felt so used by his crappy deal.

[hobbiesodd]

This is spot on. When my last feature was distributed (DVD + VOD), my "deal" was great on paper, but ultimately these distro companies bury profits in BS overhead and sinister "packaging" deals overseas. Even the algorithm for payments from Netflix streaming is so insane that Indie filmmakers will never see a penny from it. Compound that with online piracy (mine was illegally downloaded 10,000 times in the first week of its release) and the outlook for any monetary gain is grim. Which is especially bad for indie folks who put any meager profits directly into making another film.

Cheers,

Evan

[VASI]

Nothing new. I will give it with plain words.

 

You make a movie (lets say in my country). After the applications for festivals. The trip on festival circus will be around 1 to 2 years. Lets say your film has find a local distributor (congratulations). What means "local"; better word, "region" (like France, Germany etc). You find your road for France theaters via German distributor (you can't have two "distributors"). Lets say the ticket has 10€.

 

The half money (5€) goes to theater. De facto. 2.5€ goes to France distributor. 2.5€ goes to German distributor. This "2.5€" the German distributor must share it with the producer. Lets say the deal was 50/50 (you are the master of diplomacy if you get 50/50). Total: 5€ for theater. 2.5€ for France distributor. 2.5€ for German distributor. After the share with producer: 1.25€ for German distributor, 1.25€ for producer.

 

This happened. If you are the next Alfred Hitchcock you can find the global distributor. That means: 5€ for theater, 5€ for the global distributor. You end up with 2.5€ (in the ideal, super, brilliant scenario) after sharing with your global distributor.

 

HUGE role: Population in one country. Lets say Greece. 11milion. Total tickets 200.000 - 300.000 per year (for a great Greek movie). That's means half money 100.000€ / 150.000€ up down. Lets say Turkey with 80milion population. 1milion tickets for your movie. So, it's better to make a movie in Turkey rather than Greece.

 

The good profits coming from television; if the broadcaster buy your movie.