Question about using secured talent to form budget and secure financing

Gratwick Films

Gratwick Films

I am in the process of seeking out investors for a horror film we plan to shoot in mid '10. We do have an attached name to the project and from everything I have read the best way to go about funding (or one such way) is to seek out possible foreign presales. Also to determine a responsible amount for a budget I should use the average foreign sales of my talents previous works. The theory being that as long as the quality is par the numbers will hold up, making it a less risky investment than a budget bigger than the foreign sales average.

My question is does anyone know where you can find this type of information? I have check the usual suspects....imdb.....boxofficemojo....bythenumbers....and so such luck.
 
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Determining budget is more a matter of script breakdown than projected sales. You'll need to make a line item budget of all of the elements within the script and the people necessary to make those things reality to get your budget, then you can compare that against other foreign sales numbers (having a film or two under your belt, even shorts, to prove you can actually pull it off wouldn't hurt either).
 
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I might be able to help, but I'm a little confused about just what you need.

Are you asking how to find out the final box office gross of your actors previous movies?
 
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Stardust Walking said:
I think he is looking for the amount of money his talents previous films have made.

Terry
Click to expand...

Yes but in the foreign market. Knightly I am aware of what goes into a detailed budget. That is irrelevant to my base question. Here is a description of exactly what and why I am looking for.

In fact, we generally get foreign projections on the
combination of actors (and genre), then keep our budget as close to that number as
possible. So, for example, if Sharon Stone were attached to your project, you might have
a foreign sales company talk to their buyers and add together the dollars they can collect
from*each*territory*(Germany,*France,*England,*Japan,*South*Africa,*etc…).**Assuming*
that, at the VERY LEAST,*the*film*was*in*focus*and*generally*presentable,*they’d*come*
back with a range. Say the low-end*of*the*projection*was*$3million…that’s*what*we*
would make the film for and NO MORE. Then, all money made from North America
(theatrical, DVD, television, etc…)*would*be*pure*profit,*assuming*that*the*projections*
held up, which they usually do. Also, if the film is good or catches on in any way, you
could expect more than the low-end projection. This is the way to demonstrate to
potential investors that you take their money very seriously.
 
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Hi Gratwick Films,

This is certainly what the big production companies do, and it's the right way to think when trying to gain investors. However, I don't know where you can get this information, as it is pretty speculative and not widely released. I think they work off a combination of their own internal statistics gained from their own films, project the same rules of returns over other people's films, and probably also have paid for stats from some kind of industry monitoring service.

I'd just look at box office of the actors other films, combined with the box office results of the type of film you're making, be realistic about how many territories you'll be able to enter, and as long as there is logic in how you can up with the figures, the investors should be as set to rest as possible.

A word of caution: only a top tier A list actor is necessarily going to benefit your project by being attached prior to finance. You never know what personal thoughts an investor will have on any given actor, and they may like your idea but not that particular actor. Only about 100 actors in the world have the power to automatically "green light" a film due to their standing.

Good luck with it, and if you are interested in crowdfunding as a possibility you might want to check out some of the posts on my blog, such as the case study on The Age of Stupid. http://yetanotherstrugglingwriter.blogspot.com

Luci
 
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