Sundance Distribution Offers

Some numbers are in for distribution offers at Sundance (as reported by Stacy Parks from Film Specific):

"In terms of ALL RIGHTS North American deals we're seeing ranges from the low to mid six figures up to the top price of $5 million (of course the $5 million acquisition has several A-list stars and director) with most acquisition prices hovering in the high six figure/low seven figure range.
The biggest question people want to know is this - will the Producers ever see
additional money aside from these advances?
The answer is MAYBE....and the reason is because it depends on how much
marketing money the distributors put behind the movies they acquire, and if and
when the Distributor ever recoups the advance PLUS marketing expenses, and then of course what deal they've negotiated with the producers on profit splits.
For the highest grossing theatrically released films with widest DVD releases, YES ...the producers will probably see a nice back-end down the line. But without a very wide release that only a Studio can pull off, the chances are SLIM.

At least for some of these films there will be foreign sales money to add to the pot,
but always remember this .... Distributors don't care what you made the movie for,
they will pay for your film what the market will bear, and that may NOT be commensurate with what you put into the film."

She neglected to say only about 10-15 movies got offers... out of the 200 shown and more than 5,000 submitted.
Moral to the story here... Keep you budgets as low as possible.
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Comments

  • Sounds like great advice from someone who's been there! If you do have something good and you spark interest from distributors...now you're playing in their home court. How could you know what you don't know that you don't know???? That's why the attorney.
  • Well put Frank. Perhaps you would share this with us tonight!

    M
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