Distribution.

There are TOO MANY movies being made … and we see it in the middling quality of too many films that are not getting bought. The production tools that make filmmaking accessible to just about anybody are resulting in a glut of films that aren’t nearly good enough to attract an audience of consequence. How can we make it stop?

Crowdfunding is creating a bottleneck. The wonderful financing platforms of Kickstarter and Indiegogo are fueling dozens of new projects. That’s a great thing for filmmakers, and a big problem for the indie business. Because now hundreds of movies are getting financed that have no prayer of financial return for the filmmaker. Yes, there is distribution on VOD and Vimeo and Netflix in addition to Sony Classics and The Weinstein Co. Good luck paying your rent with that revenue.”

There are many new buyers, but they don’t pay much. So we now supposedly have a wide array of distribution channels: traditional theatrical, VOD, streaming on Netflix/Hulu/Amazon and the like, iTunes, Snagfilms, Indieflix. The problem: none of it pays enough to support a proper filmmaking culture. Do we need to start thinking about a government-subsidized model like they have in Europe? (Short answer: that doesn’t work either. Their films aren’t any better.) New ideas, anyone?

http://pando.com/2014/02/10/as-more-movies-are-made-is-this-good-for-the-art-and-business-of-film/    February 10 2014

Towards the end of 2005, the UK distribution and exhibition sectors were starting to move towards digital distribution and exhibition.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/distribution/distribution7.html

Fighting piracy with release windowsThe VoD window has compressed even further into a window that opens right into the theatrical run. Premium VoD is available up to 60 days following theatrical release for a fee of around $25-30. Adriana Whiteley, managing partner at Farncombe Consulting, suggests that compressing windows is imperative to combat piracy.

http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/The-future-of-online-movie-distribution.php september-october 2011