A good survey of the state of play, entitled, “Frustrated Indies Seek Web Distribution: But But still face challenging online marketing gap,” by Anne Thompson in Variety .
A few good quotes:
Of the 100-some features questing for a distributor at January’s Sundance Film Festival, only a handful found the holy grail: worldwide theatrical distribution with an advance minimum guarantee and back-end participation.
With an unforgiving and glutted marketplace for indie films, where the cost of prints and ads to keep a movie in theaters is punitive for everyone, there’s no appetite for risk-taking.
The key question is, when will an alternative distribution outlet for indie films emerge — an outlet that can interest enough viewers to bring in meaningful returns?
The film industry is rife with eager alternative distributors pitching their wares — but making money isn’t usually part of the equation.
…
”We’re in the transitional post-major studio pre-Internet era,” says Emerging Pictures CEO Ira Deutchman. “Models will be clear in the future. We’re still heading toward Web 2.0.”
…
most Internet downloads are earning filmmakers tens of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands. Which means that this movement will continue to build from the bottom up with micro-indies, not from the top down with real studio investment.
