Film Courage: Will filmmakers make more money from Netflix or Tubi?
Glen Reynolds, Founder of Circus Road Films: It depends on the film. Netflix
mostly pays license fees for films straight payments and here's what
will pay you for your film and we'll get it for this length of time and that's it.
Tubi can do that too now they have paid upfront monies but Tubi mostly works with distributors
so like I don't pitch Tubi because I just don't find they're really that interested in taking on
true independent films directly from filmmakers or from reps so they're more part of the mix with
what the distributors doing at the end of the day and so most films most true Indies are not
getting the Netflix deal but getting on Tubi so they're making more money by default from Tubi on
their films if they were to get it if Netflix did buy the film and then eventually it got on Tubi
it could be that it could be that the Netflix deal was so good that they'll
never make as much money on Tubi as they did for that deal or it could be a small license
fee and then it takes off on Tubi because it's the right kind of content for Tubi
so yeah it just kind of depends it's not really a very straightforward answer to that really
working filmmakers go to make the most money on their films so I would say the in general
most people are going to make the most money through all rights distributors to handle all
these various platforms and maximize all the platforms as best they can for the filmmaker
ideally you get a big fat license fee from a streamer
ideally you get a lot or ideally you get a large minimum guarantee a payment up front
from your distributor to handle the rights which they'll recoup from revenues later
but that doesn't happen for most movies so and most movies don't get the direct to streaming deal
so most movies get the all rights distribution digital and sales deals that are out there
and for me unless you want to put on the hat of self-distribution for six months to a year
and you have the right kind of film for self-distribution
the path of going that way with an all rights distributor is the best way to go
on the other hand if you've made a documentary about dogs and you have
great contacts with organizations that are devoted to dogs saving dogs rescue organizations
lovers of dogs on in social media groups and you've cultivated over that time or you're willing
to go and cultivate that and there are there are people out there that can help you do that there's
a couple of great kind of self-distribution gurus out there that are great at teaching you how to
maximize the that the value out of that kind of film
and there have been a couple filmmakers I said well you've got the kind of film you should
probably do that with rather than going through me and trying to get traditional distribution
but for the most part if you've made a comedy drama thriller horror or family film
a narrative film or a documentary that doesn't have a knee like that kind of niche that you and
and you don't have a self-distribution hat that you want to put on self-devision is not the thing
to do like it's a overwhelming undertaking and it's and it's got its own risk is not foolproof
you can go out there and do all those things those self-distribution things and it not work as well
but as long as you're happy with that and that's the thing you want to do that that could be the
option for some some filmmakers but overwhelmingly most people are going to maximize the value of
their film by going into an all rights distributor that handles all the various rights what if you
have a Christmas film or a women in Peril slash women in power whatever they're called now
there's lots of there's lots of options for both of those genres kind of depends on the
quality of the film and how it comes out but the both of those are in demand internationally
both of those you have to sell it at the right time of year though
because you need a long lead time like most Christmas films are released in November
to be released in November you have to made your deal with someone by August or so
so the best time to sell I mean truly the best time to sell a Christmas film is probably May
because then you're giving your distributor a lot of time to
really get everything going and geared up properly for that release in November
but you see Christmas films on Netflix and on all the different streamers and
theatrical and it's definitely if you pull it off it's it's it's definitely
I think there's lower like there's a margin for error there there isn't with other films
same with well I think women in peril thrillers there's also a margin of error there like you can
the film doesn't have to be quite as good in order to make money because it's a such desired genre
and that's overseas as well as domestic yeah oh wow for both of those interesting
what is the self-distribution hat just in a nutshell what what is that so there are
different methodologies that different people teach on on how to self-distribute a movie
and that usually involves trying to identify groups out there that
would have natural inclination to dig your film and then whether it's going whether
it's going after those people on social media directly and trying to market directly to them
or it's creating partnerships with organizations that have the same cause and doing free screenings
with those people in order to create word of mouth and then sell to their have them in exchange for
doing a free screening they market to their the larger group of people in their organization
that's the way I've seen a couple of people what a couple of self-distribution gurus
teaching these days in terms of techniques to try to but it takes a lot of time and effort and it's
a different mindset that a lot of film most of my filmmakers like okay I'm done with my job
I want to distribute or distribute the movie and don't have the and don't want to spend six months
to they want to they want that movie to get out and make money and they want to get under they
want to be creative and make the next project and they don't have that salesmanship marketing
and you really got to get after it I mean in order to make it work it's not as easy
as like finding a group on dog lovers on social media and then just send them a
message you got to really engage with them and get them and connect with them and over time
make yourself well known to them and and become a part of that culture almost in order
to do that kind of self-distribution there are a couple anomalies of filmmakers that
managed to get some money in order to help do their own self-distribution of a non-documentary
film where it was a a comedy or a thriller but usually it took it when they did it they
managed to pre-sell they they had someone that pre-sold rights to a foreign territory and they
took that money or they got money from some a Sundance or some company entity that was just
wanting to support them and they poured that money into a theatrical release and either they
booked the theater themselves and figured out how to do that or they hired a booker and then
then perhaps they really most of them do end up doing a deal with a distributor though at that
point they handle all the various digital rights rather than going through an aggregator so most
most successful self-distribution of non-documentaries that I've seen have
been pretty well funded to do a theatrical and that helped the overall picture of the film.