can you make a living in indie movie theatres?

Sure... You can sell popcorn and other concession items, you can be a projectionist or a ticket seller/taker, or you can be a porter and spend all your time cleaning.

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alright so what if you travelled around and actually got your film showing and people watching?

I remember seeing some case studies with people doing this. Everything gives me the impression that it's a hard slog, but if you're up for that, go for it.
 
That process is called four walling, and while it's difficult there have been people who have had success with it. There's a site (http://www.tugg.com/) that's set up to help with it; they let you pre-sell tickets to a screening in a method similar to crowdfunding, where the screening only gets booked if you hit a minimum number of ticket sales. That can help a lot with the logistics of getting booked and guaranteeing you're not going to lose money on most screenings - but it doesn't really help with the most difficult part, which is finding and convincing audience members to actually commit to buying a ticket. That comes down to marketing, and it requires either a lot of time or a lot of money (or, in many cases, both) in order to be successful.
 
That process is called four walling, and while it's difficult there have been people who have had success with it. There's a site (http://www.tugg.com/) that's set up to help with it; they let you pre-sell tickets to a screening in a method similar to crowdfunding, where the screening only gets booked if you hit a minimum number of ticket sales. That can help a lot with the logistics of getting booked and guaranteeing you're not going to lose money on most screenings - but it doesn't really help with the most difficult part, which is finding and convincing audience members to actually commit to buying a ticket. That comes down to marketing, and it requires either a lot of time or a lot of money (or, in many cases, both) in order to be successful.

thanks thats cool. So i'm a little analogue. I guess these days a film can be sent to someone easy and you can just contact indie theatre owners?

with this site how do people see it per the theatre you are aiming at. I dont get quite how it would work
 
That process is called four walling, and while it's difficult there have been people who have had success with it. There's a site (http://www.tugg.com/) that's set up to help with it; they let you pre-sell tickets to a screening in a method similar to crowdfunding, where the screening only gets booked if you hit a minimum number of ticket sales. That can help a lot with the logistics of getting booked and guaranteeing you're not going to lose money on most screenings - but it doesn't really help with the most difficult part, which is finding and convincing audience members to actually commit to buying a ticket. That comes down to marketing, and it requires either a lot of time or a lot of money (or, in many cases, both) in order to be successful.

doesnt it seem sort of backwards? i dont plan on making a living with a crappy film so.. With tugg yes you are right how can you book if there is no marketing no one know about it?

You would have to create buzz first before any of that. Making a living meant not getting distribution but also making a film that there was a buzz about

right?
 
check out the stories and work of Darren Lynn Bousman (http://darrenlynnbousman.com/ who came up in discussion around here not too long ago). He four-walled a couple horror/musical/weird films (Repo and The Devil's Carnival) with pretty decent success. Of course, when he did that, he had been working on the stage show of Repo for a decade and already had recognition as the writer/director of Saw 2. Kevin Smith has done well four-walling as well (one of his talk/lecture videos he speaks in detail about his experiences with Red State). Again, he only did that after he had a few hits and quite a bit of name recognition.

It can be done, but it's tough, and even more tough if no one knows who you are.
 
Well, yes, that's the idea - if you don't get distribution where the distributor is the one doing (and paying for) the marketing, then you have to do the marketing yourself. If you don't do any marketing then no one will know about your film, and if they don't know about it there's no chance they're going buy a ticket or download it, and something like Tugg won't be of much use.
 
Well, yes, that's the idea - if you don't get distribution where the distributor is the one doing (and paying for) the marketing, then you have to do the marketing yourself. If you don't do any marketing then no one will know about your film, and if they don't know about it there's no chance they're going buy a ticket or download it, and something like Tugg won't be of much use.

But doesnt that lead to the question . If there is any buzz there's going to be a distributor anyway.

Or if you do the legwork to get the buzz then the distributor will come if thats what you want
 
Or if you do the legwork to get the buzz then the distributor will come if thats what you want

Not all buzz is created equal. If it's not a distributors film already, they won't be the ones driving the initial buzz. Some distributors expect you to create your own buzz, even if its their film too. Creating your own buzz is one of the ways to attract distributor.

One thing to note, once you've started selling DVD/Blurays, distributor interest is typically never going to happen. If you're doing a 4 walling run to garner wider distribution, it may be worth taking this into account. I understand T-Shirts and other merchandise is fine.
 
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