Distribution

Yes, Nick Phillips! The industry is on a great trajectory right now and the global marketplace is abuzz with action and potential. It seems everyone wants in this game around the world and the projections look exciting through 2029 and beyond.

For me, it's really too early to tell.. 12.3% is a significant percentage but what films are 2025 competing against as opposed to 2024? There were a lot of underachievers in 2024 and 2025 is just starting to roll out their projected train wrecks. In January 2024 the releases were The Beekeeper, the disappointing Argylle, and the underwhelming Night Swim and Mean Girls. When you subtract the bleed over from films released in November and December of 2024, pure 2025 releases aren't really lighting up the scoreboard. Let's remember that pretty much everything in the film industry is an illusion. The value of celebrities is an illusion. The gross revenues after P&A costs have been paid leaving unimpressive even negative net profits is an illusion. We are handcuffed by a system that is unfair to creative minds where power players suck the blood of the truly imaginative to pay for their mansions.

So while you find optimism in in positive news, remember that while it is a sliver light in a cave in, the little light you actually see is only allowed by the elites shinning it down on you while they stay hidden in the shadows. Continue to fight and claw to create a brighter light!

I'm looking forward to seeing TRAIN DREAMS, Pat Alexander. I don't think I've watched a Lyrical Drama before. At least I didn't know I was watching one.

This is good news for indie films - cool to see Black Bear fully financing a film like this. Edgerton has done some remarkable work in smaller films and boy is Felicity Jones having a great run fueled by smart and intriguing choices. Excited to see this. Thanks. Pat Alexander.

Ive been predicting that for a decade, Dan MaxXx. One of these years, we'll be right.

There's something about a theatrical run that gives a movie more credibility and buzz—it’s like an event that gets people talking. Plus, it makes sense that seeing a film on the big screen creates excitement and curiosity for when it hits streaming. There are plenty of movies that I would miss entirely if I didn't hear good things about them during their theatrical release.

For indie filmmakers, this feels like a great reminder that a limited theatrical release can really boost a film’s visibility and help it stand out in the crowded streaming space.

Many of the producers from films at Sundance this year told me they are weighing theatrical more heavily than before, Ash.

That’s really exciting to hear, Richard "RB" Botto! Did any of the producers mention specific factors influencing their decision, like audience demand, box office trends, or the impact on distribution deals? I’d love to hear more about their perspective!

As simple as old school economics. More revenue streams, the better. Further, the idea of building eyeballs, branding and, of course, a longer tail for the film is appealing. And why wouldn't it be. Better that than being dumped on a streamer and beholden to an algorithm.

When they first opened Prime to independents, I saw a lot of YouTubers complain that it was to hard to use, the caption requirement was a burden, they didn’t want to fill out tax forms, etc. I saw that as Amazon wanting to distinguish themselves from YouTube. They didn’t want a million short form cat videos or pirated content next to legit movies, so they had barriers to entry. Be a professional and well treat you like a professional.

Over the years, they’ve backtracked a bit, showing less interest in accommodating independent filmmakers. For a while, they stopped accepting documentary uploads, although I think that has opened up again.

As I said, I’m safe for now, but I bet they’ll shut me out at some point. I don’t think they’ll split and then expand to the wide-ranging format of YouTube.

If you make a great film and do selective marketing that doesn't give away too much of your film's premise, a self-created buzz around your film will attract distributors to you. Remember the more work they do to promote your film, the more hidden costs they can add. If you make their jobs easier, they should appreciate the efforts. If they don't, more times than not, they're upset they can't implement their hidden fees.

I remember back in 2016/7ish when CreateSpace (the DVD based service) became Amazon Prime Video. Those were exciting times. I only made my debut feature in 2010 when I knew it might have a chance at distribution but back then the streaming players with the website tech were in the tens. Now, the channels are in their thousands and I get a different start-up every week emailing me but I just don't see where the money is. Having followed pretty much every development in streaming I can safely say it's all gone backwards in the past few years. The best and worst platform has always been Vimeo. Great because of its simple model and transparency, awful because you can't search a catalogue with any hope of finding a film. I've got 22 films out with Filmhub, with about 9 overlapping on my Amazon account. A few years ago, self-distribution looked positive. Now, the tools are being taken away at an alarming rate...

Al, for the “9 overlapping” films, does that mean you have 9 films that have double listing on Amazon? Don’t Amazon and/or Filmhub stop you from doing that?

(I remember using CreateSpace as well, although I think it was just for print on demand DVDs)

Hi Mike, answering the above; yes we still have many double listings on Amazon due to me releasing on Amazon first then uploading separately to Filmhub weeks after. This is how I did it from 2017 onwards and moved onto the FH overlap around 2018. Filmhub changed their T's & C's around late 2022/early 2023 so my 4 films since Eight Hundred Dollar Value in Autumn 2022 have reached Amazon through FH. Everything before was dual release as (then) FH was a non-exclusive agreement when it came to other distribution deals.

I don't think a studio should to market a low budget feature under $2M the same way they do with a big-budget project, Philip David Lee. I think it would be a waste of money.

"Their logic being that if you advertise or post material about the project, you are ruining the surprise for the audience and by the time the film is released, everyone will already have seen your film and not want to go see it in the theaters, if they even manage to get it into a minimum 1,300 screens out of the 39,000 screens across America." I see their point, and I agree with it if they give too much about a movie away. If I see trailers, ads, and posts that give too much away, I might skip watching the movie or just wait until it's on streaming. I like short trailers. Sometimes I'll turn off a long trailer halfway or so. I've seen lots and lots of people complain that studios and companies give too much away with trailers, ads, and posts.

Great share and topic, Geoff Hall! I agree, I think these types of breakdowns can help filmmakers choose which festivals to apply to. I'm not sure if film festivals have political ideologies. From what I got from the article, the Berlin Film Festival doesn't have a political ideology. It sounds like the films focus on internal struggles more than external struggles. And the Berlin films are more likely to take place in the past.

Very interesting, Geoff Hall! It’s always valuable to see data-driven insights on festival selections, especially when trying to decide where to submit a film. It’s not surprising that Berlin favors French and German films given its geographic and cultural ties, but it does make me wonder how much national representation plays into the selection process versus purely artistic merit.

The idea of festivals having a subtle (or not-so-subtle) political or regional bias is definitely worth considering, especially for independent filmmakers who are strategizing their festival runs.

Maurice Vaughan yes, Maurice. I liked that notion of films with internal versus external struggles.

Ashley Renee Smith thank you, Ashley. It was also interesting to read that Berlin favours stories set in the past, and with no surprise that the favoured decade of the past century was the 1940s. It seems that German filmmakers are still trying to come to terms with the demons of their past. So the national psyche seems to play a dominant role.

That seems to be the big "thing" now -- adding more sports to streamers and other providers. Wonder how much of it is because of the fairly new laws about online betting?

Ashley Renee Smith another exciting development for digital distribution, Ash. It is always to have an expansion of the digital market. It would be interesting to see exactly what content they will commission and what the are like to work with for a content creator like myself.

That's huge Ashley Renee Smith. I just cancelled my DAZN account because NFL season is over, and I had it for the past 6 or 7 years because I didn't have control of the cable package. Have to see my Falcons play, no matter how painful. But now that I have cable, will probably use their Game Pass. Anyway, I still hold out hope that the Canadian Football League will strike a deal with DAZN to give it a global reach. Sign. It is a good platform.

Interesting, in keeping with the snow vibing places, how about...

Livingston, Montana, setting of A River Runs through it, Yellowstone...

Minneapolis - sub-zero temps, plenty of art... maybe

Brattleboro, Vermont, mountianous with craft beer and

Fort Collins, it's Colorado and beer, or

Olympia, Washington...

Albuquerque or ?

Portland, Maine ?

Baltimore, colorful, out-of-the-box museums

Springfield, Oregon, green with animated blue skies and fluffy clouds

Denton instead of Austin?

Oklahoma City - distinct neighbourhoods, street art...

Nashville...

Guess I should get back to writing, instead of looking up interesting arty places in the states

Move to a state & town wiling to give special tax breaks to Sundance, put up with show biz ppl for 3-4 weeks, close to airports, luxury hotels.

Maybe Sun Valley, Idaho. The town is already full of famous Hollywood ppl.

Bring it all online, state-of-the-art. Who cares!

This is such an interesting discussion, Sam Sokolow! I agree, Sundance and Park City feel almost inseparable! But with rising costs and logistical challenges, I can understand why a move might be considered. If they do relocate, I think a city like Denver could be a great option. It's easy to travel to, has a growing arts scene, and could definitely handle an event of this scale while still offering that unique, creative atmosphere that makes Sundance so special. Plus, it keeps the festival relatively close to its original roots.

It'll be interesting to see how they balance tradition with the need to evolve.

Not sure where they’ll go but Park city is such an imperative place for this to take place!

Who doesn't love a good telenovela? Karen "Kay" Ross Just finished watching one on Netflix.

Another sign that the industry is global now and that the hits and deals will come from anywhere and everywhere. Very cool share, Karen "Kay" Ross!

What you said Sam Sokolow is why I had to respond to this fantastic video clip of Jeff Daniels commenting on Hollywood. If you're on Threads, the link to that video is here: https://www.threads.net/@michaelwarburton1/post/DFLYht3o0d-

Thank you Stephanie Weier! Your advice really resonates with me, and I’ll be diving into agent searches and networking opportunities on Stage 32. I love the idea of personal connections being key and will definitely start attending more events. I may take you up on your kind offer down the line, and I truly appreciate your willingness to help!

Thanks for this Stephanie Weier. The script breakdown report and this thread is extremely helpful for the newbies out there. With regards to permissions, are we also talking about licenses, permits or is that later on? I imagine every country, state, jurisdiction has their own requirements, which could impact the script. Is there an easy checklist somewhere for the newbies to access that remind you what permits, etc. are needed, if applicable?

Kim Hornsby It is so difficult to get distribution to pay attention early on unless you are completely funded with a great cast/script. There is so much competition. It is always better to have distribution but sometimes just getting a few territories sold is good to get going and save the "heavy lift" for a negative pick up at a festival maybe.

Debbie Elicksen Yes you are correct. After the script breakdown report, then we do a Kick Off Call with all of the various department heads and teams so there is plenty of discussion on specifics of the show we need to address AND the procedures to submit requests to us AND the basic "rules" of clearances based on the studio and attorney I am working with (each has different feelings about tradenames in background, etc.). Then the requests come in and we start to create the Clearance Report with all of the requests added to the master report so we are the "bible" of the entire show. I love the idea of a check list. Here is a basic rules doc for Research that I send out to the shows. Feel free to share.

Stephanie Weier Thanks for this. That's great information. I downloaded it.

It's great to hear more theatrical distribution news, Amanda Toney! One of the things movies do is provide a temporary escape, and people can enjoy that escape in theaters. Streaming is great, but it's hard sometimes to enjoy that escape when you're at home or events -- the places you might be trying to get an escape from.

How cool! My favorite snipet: Branco said the timing was ripe for Studio TF1 to solidify its standing in the French film market “which has shown resilience and growth.” He pointed out the health of the local box office where French movies are thriving alongside Hollywood blockbusters.

The global indie film industry is growing and amazing work is coming from everywhere. Excited to see the films they produce and distribute and to see more competitors get into the game.

This is an exciting move for Studio TF1, Amanda Toney! France has such a rich storytelling tradition, and having a powerhouse like TF1 step more boldly into the theatrical space could open up some great opportunities for filmmakers looking to break into the European market.

Expanding further into theatrical distribution feels like a smart play for them, especially with the growing demand for more diverse content worldwide. It’ll be interesting to see how they leverage their existing TV expertise to develop theatrical projects that appeal to both local and international audiences.