The New World Of Film Distribution

Peter Broderick is someone that has been involved in movie distribution for a long time, and he has done a magisterial job of pulling together a handbook for the new economics of indie movies:

Peter Broderick, WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD

Welcome to the New World of Distribution. Many filmmakers are emigrating from the Old World, where they have little chance of succeeding. They are attracted by unprecedented opportunities and the freedom to shape their own destiny. Life in the New World requires them to work harder, be more tenacious, and take more risks. There are daunting challenges and no guarantees of success. But this hasn’t stopped more and more intrepid filmmakers from exploring uncharted territory and staking claims.

Before the discovery of the New World, the Old World of Distribution reigned supreme. It is a hierarchical realm where filmmakers must petition the powers that be to grant them distribution. Independents who are able to make all-rights deals are required to give distributors total control of the marketing and distribution of their films. The terms of these deals have gotten worse and few filmmakers end up satisfied.

All is not well for companies and filmmakers in what I call the Old World of Distribution. At Film Independent’s 2008 Film Financing Conference, Mark Gill vividly described “the ways the independent film business is in trouble” in his widely read and discussed keynote. Mark listed the companies and divisions that have been shut down or are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, noted that five others are in “serious financial peril,” and said that ten independent film financiers may soon “exit the business.” Mark made a persuasive case that “the sky really is falling… because the accumulation of bad news is kind of awe-inspiring.” While he doesn’t expect that the sky will “hit the ground everywhere,” he warned, “it will feel like we just survived a medieval plague. The carnage and the stench will be overwhelming.”

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The Old World executives who do acknowledge the New World can be as dismissive as record industry executives were when they first noticed the internet. Their usual condescending response is the internet may work for “little” films with “niche” audiences.

Sounds just like the print media executives dismissing the blogosphere five years ago.

Peter offers a chart that captures the core of the shift from the old to the new world, which is a move from mass markets to socially scaled communities: