DJariya

I just rented 2 Indie films from Red Box last night.

At Middleton starring Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga

Walk of Shame starring Elizabeth Banks and James Marsden


I enjoyed both of them, but looked up info about each one.


At Middleton was made for over $2.5M, but grossed a paltry $53K

Walk of Shame was made for significantly more. $15M and made only $59K


I mean these are some pretty significant financial losses. Is it just because the distribution for these films sucked and there was no chance for them to make any money? They can't honestly expect these movies to make money back from VOD and DVD sales?

majorjoe23

Because they require a much smaller investment. If they cost $200 million, they would stop, but there are tv show episodes that have cost less than both of these examples.

I suspect some of it also comes down to fulfilling contracts for actors/directors.

robin2099

Because its a low investment with the potential to earn more depending on how the movie is received. You could have the next Troll 2 or you could have the next Slumdog Millionaire. It just depends on how the movie gets received in the festivals and what not.

Also because of the low investment they are typically able to make their money back before it gets released in overseas sales to distributors. For instance Sabotage(which is kind of an Indy film with a bigger budget) already made a profit from being sold to distributors overseas before it even was finished filming.

Troy Stiffler

It's risk. No different than financing a new business.

Indie movies are paid with pools of money. $2.5M really isn't that much money. A handful of investors put in some expendable cash. To "normal upper class" people, movies are interesting in a portfolio because it's cool. Everyone wants to be able to tell their friends they helped produce 'so and so movie'. If any of you guy have a tangible (probably unfinished) production packet, and need help coming up with $2.5M, PM me.

Also, indie movies make money in other ways. And it pays off. Just the amount of pre-sold DVD's, Netflix rights, TV rights, etc. pay for a lot. DVD distributors will pay for rights. A streaming company will pay for rights. And so will a TV station.

If the movie is good, it can also be sold to some distributor like Fox Searchlight, Magnolia, etc. If that $2.5M was a good movie, it might sell off to a distributor for $5M. Everyone gets paid and the production company has a credit, contacts and a little money in hand.

It doesn't get much better than to sell off to a distributor. The idea of getting much more than a flat sum isn't too common. Sometimes there will be multiple bidders, and you'll get more than expected. Even if they buy that movie, and it goes on to make $100M at the box office, the original production company rarely gets backend points. Just to sell off to a known distributor is something to be proud of.

TomOpus

I would imagine people that invest in indy films have a little money to burn. It's not that big a deal if they lose on a couple when one big one gets their monies back.

Matthew Chmiel

This is the best answer.

Philzilla

Tax write off

RichC2

Walk of Shame was a simultaneous video-on-demand release, who knows how much money they make by selling it 1) VoD/iTunes/Vudu/Amazon Streaming, 2) Bluray/DVD Sales, 3) Sales to a Cable network like HBO or Starz, 4) Sales to a cable network like FX or TNT, 5) Sale to Netflix, etc; Walk of Shame was the #1 selling Indie on iTunes for a few weeks.

Troy Stiffler

Blech. That's not how it works. A loss is still a loss if you don't get your money back. Do you think that taxes cover losses? The lost amount just offsets other income (which is approximately 35% of your investment). In example, if you invest $100k and never see a return, it'll offset your other income. So you'll get around $35k of that back through tax savings. But you still lost $65k.

PhantomStranger

The world of indie filmmaking is much different from the big studio projects. They make their money on home video and cable, not at the box office. Sometimes they are vanity projects attached to actors looking for a role to showcase their skills. Securing a name actor can bankroll an entire movie. There was some real interesting background about this type of thing on the special features for Blue Ruin, an indie film made for around a million dollars.

Quatermass

Movie studios are notorious for using creative accounting, too.
Here's an article about it:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...ofitable.shtml
You can google "hollywood accounting" and find several other examples. It doesn't really explain the Indie returns though.