Independent Producers - Distribution shark pool.

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DannyboyLIAC

Hey Folks,
I had to delay the release of my $300K Indie Drama Juvenile Delinquents by over 6 months when I unsuspectedly swam into the US distribution shark pool. I am trying to find others who have been there and lived to tell the tale or are about to approach it with films in post production. I have been trying to work out a way through the minefield without giving away my Intellectual Property but its seems self distribution which represents its own risk is the only option. Film Distribution is too hard on your own but we should not have to give away our films just to get onto platforms or infant of SVOD providers, so I am looking to ping people to see if there is any interest in discussing collaborations, co-operative positions or even some other alternatives. This is for those who filmmakers/producers only folks.
 
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I currently have both of my features on Prime Video directly, which can be frustrating to do as they seem under-staffed. But it did work and there's no fee. I'm currently working with FilmHub to get the features out to other streamers. The service that I like the best is TubiTV; they selected my features when they were listed on FilmHub. The movies are also on several other smaller services, which I'm happy to have but haven't yet seen any revenue from them.

FilmHub does not charge a fee but does take 20% of your revenue. That's why I opted to do Amazon Prime myself - it was a bit of a headache but avoids the fee.
 
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Richard Culver said:
I am curious hot the Prime Video situation worked out for you. I mean are they getting any revenue and exposure? And what are the films about?
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I'm not super optimistic about revenue because Prime Video keeps cutting the rate that they pay. On that score, I'll have to wait until I see an actual revenue report in a few weeks as my movies have only been live there since March 10 (in the US & UK).

They ARE getting exposure. Their system reports "minutes viewed" daily, although sometimes it experiences delays of up to a week.

My first feature is Surviving Family - it's about a young woman from a dysfunctional family. It benefits from having Billy Magnussen in the cast.
Total minutes viewed since March 10 (when it went live directly rather than through an intermediary, as I had it previously) are a little over 3,000.

Second is DETOURS, which is a father/daughter road trip comedy with Richard Kind & Paul Sorvino. It has about 1,500 minutes since March 10.

It's not costing me anything and they (Prime) don't take a cut.
 
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Amazon Prime has continued to drop their royalty rates, sadly, for those who have their movies available for free to Prime Subscribers. They dropped the royalty rate 3 times in 2020 (!). Now one has to have a CER of perhaps 75% to get more than .01 per hour viewed. It's ridiculous. They appear to be wanting the indie movies that made up this service to gravitate toward IMDb TV, and keep the "free for Prime subscribers" for their original content they continue to pump out. But instead of forcing people to go to IMDb TV, one has to opt for that voluntarily. (And my advice is, that most should. You will make .01 per commercial that's fed during your movie; so with 20 or 25 commercials for a full-length movie, that's .20 - .25 per full view -- which is WAY more than the .01 per hour viewed.)

As to the original poster's comment above from last year: Yes, it's a minefield out there among distributors. A majority of them are not honest. Some are. So you have to do your "due diligence" to be sure you're not making a deal with one of the dishonest ones. Good luck.

JC
 
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DannyboyLIAC said:
Hey Folks,
I had to delay the release of my $300K Indie Drama Juvenile Delinquents by over 6 months when I unsuspectedly swam into the US distribution shark pool. I am trying to find others who have been there and lived to tell the tale or are about to approach it with films in post production. I have been trying to work out a way through the minefield without giving away my Intellectual Property but its seems self distribution which represents its own risk is the only option. Film Distribution is too hard on your own but we should not have to give away our films just to get onto platforms or infant of SVOD providers, so I am looking to ping people to see if there is any interest in discussing collaborations, co-operative positions or even some other alternatives. This is for those who filmmakers/producers only folks.
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What's the issue specifically, Dannyboy? There are a few reputable distributors out there.
 
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