7 Things I Learned as CEO of a US Film Distributor
If you’re reading this, you might already know that I founded and lead a company called Mutiny Pictures. That company has since sold to Bayview Entertainment. Given I’ve been a producer’s rep for quite a while, I thought I was prepared to step up to leading a team to take films to market directly, I found that while I was up to the task there was still quite a lot of personal growth involved for myself and every level of the team. This is to be expected out of any new venture. Here are some of the biggest things that I personally learned throughout running a US Distribution company.
(Almost) Nobody pays on time.
Filmmakers often complain about Sales agents and Distributors not paying on time. While it goes without saying that there are a lot of shady, dishonest sales agents and distributors out there, I was surprised exactly how few reputable companies did not pay on time. Given that when it comes to film distribution and international sales all stakeholders are part of the same waterfall or pay chain, if one stakeholder is paid late that eventually means that the filmmaker is paid late. We can’t pay you money we don’t have.
So if you’re a filmmaker reading this, you should know that just because your sales agent is late on their reports doesn’t mean they’re not being honest with you. It also doesn’t mean that they’re the reason you’re being paid late. It’s entirely possible that possible their vendor, supplier, or other provider hasn’t paid them yet.
That said, they should still communicate with you about when this is happening, and if they’re paying late you should still be tracking it as much as you can.
Analytics and Reporting really, REALLY suck at every level of the distribution.
Given I do other forms of online and affiliate marketing and used to run marketing for a tech startup, I was utterly flabbergasted by the utter disgrace that is analytics around digital film marketing. In most industries related to digital marketing, the insights are nearly immediate. However, If you deal with a servicer or aggregator, they often won’t give you any level of real-time insight. The best most do is once a week, which is nearly meaningly when it comes to agile marketing practices.
I did find a workaround for my clients, so I’ll share it here. If you’re a filmmaker and want better insights, sign up for the Amazon affiliate program and use those links to your film to market it. This is less about the few extra cents you get from pushing your work and more about real-time sales insights. It can cause some issues around online postings and social media algorithms though, so it’s not a perfect system. I’d love better suggestions in the comments if anyone has any.
Insurance and legal paperwork are way more of the job than you realize.
This wasn’t exactly a surprise. At its core, film distribution and international sales are businesses based almost entirely around tracking rights and trading signatures on paper. is entirely about buying and selling intangible rights restricted by non-physical attributes like territory, right types, region, and other highly specific terms of art. It’s easy to mess this up, so it only makes sense to have solid insurance coverage. What I didn’t expect was how many hours in my standard week were around litigious paperwork around insurance, compliance, reporting, and proposals, as opposed to growing the business.
Additionally, you as a filmmaker will need to provide a lot of insurance paperwork.
You have to pitch earlier than you think.
If you want to have a film on all major TVOD platforms, you generally need to have them pitched/placed 5-6 months ahead of the date. You can do it in 3 months on a rush job. This was surprising given I submitted my first book for publishing less than 3 days before it was available on Amazon. If you sell to an SVOD outlet, they normally require delivery at least 3-6 months in advance as well, and they’ll either pay over the course of the license or a set period after the license begins.
Payouts take longer than you think.
Reporting is one thing, payment is another. Most platforms only pay quarterly, and they pay 30 days after the end of the quarter. There has recently been an additional 90-day delay that was initially for COVID, but that seems to be less of an issue than it used to be. Additionally, they won’t pay for partial quarters, meaning if you launched in February, you won’t get any data from a lot of platforms until August or even November. If there’s a service involved, you might get an additional 30-day delay.
This makes it really hard to run a business, and the only thing you can really do is use a different aggregator or servicer. You can supplement this with direct vendor payments from streamers and physical media outlets, but those are only getting more difficult to place. There are very few companies that are occupying the servicer or aggregator space in the market, and unfortunately, the ones with the greatest physical reach tend to also have the worst reporting timelines.
There’s a great amount of room for an aggregator with fast recording and greater ability for brick-and-mortar physical releases. However, given the rapid decline of physical media, there might not be time for such a company to access that window before it closes forever.
The industry still operates on a tentpole model.
The sad truth of the matter is that on the ultra-low budget scale, only about 2 or 3 in 10 movies make money. If your sales agency or distributor is made up of really good curators, you might be able to get that to 4 or even 5 out of 10. If you’re hitting that high, most industry people will be amazed. If you’re running a distribution company, this means you either need to be exceptionally picky and run a very lean company, or you need to take everything you can and see what sticks. I’ve written another piece on this going into more detail.
Producers get in their own way a lot.
I said earlier that it’s no secret that there are a lot of shady sales agents and distributors out there. That said, not all filmmakers are saints either. Some filmmakers are a complete joy to work with, but others will second guess everything you do and think that the only film that you should ever focus on is theirs.
I had a filmmaker say precisely that to my face. We got tons of press for this person, but nobody wanted to watch it and the film tanked. When this filmmaker wasn’t getting the returns they expected they started taking up a ton of time in angry calls and emails. This reduced A LOT of my available time to actually get their film out there, which further impacted the returns and became a vicious cycle.
Marketing a movie is best when it’s a partnership between the filmmakers and the distributor. In general, you should discuss when you’re making any level of announcement with your distributor so that it can make the biggest possible splash. It’s generally unwise to drop assets like posets and trailers without talking to your distributor, as you may ruin potential exclusive press drops. Worse, if you put your film up in various territories through self-distribution channels, it could cost you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Even if you can take a film down, most buyers won’t want it if it’s already been placed on any platforms in their region. I could go on about this for a while, so I’m going to leave it for another blog.
This is a collaborative process, so they’re definitely give and take, but keep in mind there’s probably a reason you didn’t self-distribute and instead decided to work with your distributor.
In the end, this is a relationship business. If your distributor likes you, they’re more likely to go the extra mile for you. That’s a reality of human nature. If you want your distributor to like you, you might want to grab my free IndieFilm business resource package as it’s got lots of goodies to help make marketing your movie easier for all involved. The resource pack got templates for contacting distributors, and tracking that contact so you don’t bug them, an e-book on the film business, and a whitepaper on the metrics of the film industry. Plus, you’ll get monthly content digests to help you better understand the industry in a manageable way and occasion updates on new releases, courses, workshops, and announcements from Guerrilla Rep Media. Check it out below.
