Your Film Got Distribution. So Why Isn't Anyone Watching?

If you make a movie, chances are you, uh, actually want people to see it. Right? Right.

But indie distribution is a beast, and it's a world that keeps changing with every new media conglomerate merger and fresh niche streaming service. And there are plenty of people out there ready to scam a hopeful filmmaker out of their budget—which is something we'll look at today.

What can you do? Be as educated as possible about the choices for distributing your work, and know some red flags that should send you running in the opposite direction.

Indie Film Podcast is hosted by Victoria Horn and Chuck Norton, indie filmmakers who are used to doing it all themselves. They work on low budgets and champion their own work, and the work of others.

Norton brings up a local filmmaker on a forum who lost $10,000 in marketing spend to a distributor that wouldn't tell him what the money was used for.

"He ended up getting decent amount of views on his film, and he was like, 'Where's my cash?' And they're like, 'We spent it in marketing.' And he said, 'Show me the itemized receipt.' And they just sent him one line item for the exact amount of money."

"It was exactly $10,000 paid to another marketing agency to run all the ads," Horn added. That filmmaker might pursue legal action against the distributor.

Unfortunately, this isn't uncommon. In 2019, filmmakers who used the aggregator Distribber to get their movies on iTunes and Amazon said they were owed thousands in royalties as the company collapsed, and six told IndieWire they'd waited as long as a year for payments. We covered it as it unfolded, when filmmakers couldn't reach anyone at the company.

But these avenues must be explored, because as we learned from Jon Reiss, author of Think Outside the Box Office, said at SXSW this year that filmmakers shouldn't wait for a distributor to rescue them.

"Traditional distribution doesn't exist anymore, except for maybe 0.1% of films," he said. He added, "Someone else is going to come around and distribute your film in the way that you want it to be distributed ... that world kind of didn't really exist for 95% of filmmakers since '07, and certainly doesn't exist now."

Indie Film Podcast's recent episode talks about all these problems and more. It's the final episode of their three-part series on getting your film seen, and they get candid about flattering distributors, vague marketing receipts, and contracts that reach for the sequel. Check it out below.

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Getting on a Platform Is Not Getting Seen

It is a big achievement to make a movie. For sure. And it's great to get on a streamer. But as they point out, there's a lot of content already there—40,000 individual feature-length films on Tubi alone, per the platform.

So what you have to think about instead, after the hurdle of actually making and putting your thing out, is distinguishing yourself.

Norton recalls putting his second film directly on Amazon in the platform's early days. Amazon removed it after a year of slow rentals. He says getting onto the big platforms now means going through a middleman, then rattles off the competition, including YouTube, Tubi, Netflix, Peacock, Hulu, HBO Max.

"There's just so much out there that signing those distribution deals is not the end of your filmmaking journey, unfortunately. And the likelihood of people finding your stuff is pretty low."

"Not impossible," Horn said.

Admittedly, the do-it-yourself route onto Prime Video has narrowed. In 2021, Amazon stopped taking unsolicited documentaries and short-form work through Prime Video Direct.

How to Stand Out

After warning about predatory deals, the hosts turn to the self-serve route. This means aggregators like Filmhub and Indie Rights that filmmakers can submit to directly. But getting on a platform is only step one.

"But then the problem there is, you're still just kind of like throwing something out," Norton said. "And if you don't have a marketing plan behind it, there's a good chance that it's just going to get lost."

"It'll get buried in those 300,000 other titles," Horn said.

Filmhub's own help center says it passes along 80 cents of every dollar the platforms pay and keeps 20 cents. Fair terms don't guarantee income, though. In a Film Collaborative survey, one filmmaker said that even with a film streaming on eight services, the monthly take tops out around $20.

Here are some ways to build your brand.

Own your audience. Norton said that when he ran a fundraiser with his brother and sister-in-law, the email list came through because those subscribers cared about the work.

"And 100 newsletter subscribers is worth 10,000 Instagram subscribers, probably. I'm pretty convinced."

Ted Hope argues along the same lines, urging filmmakers to own their connection to fans instead of renting it from a platform that can change the rules. Reiss said something similar at his SXSW panel about putting as much effort into finding viewers as into making the film. So build your audience first.

Case in point, Curry Barker had YouTube before he had Obsession.

"He still had to go around and pitch to people to get the investors," Horn said. "But because he had the following in the audience, it gave him the leverage to make those pitches."

One way to build an audience is by hosting screenings and getting marketing content out of that.

"In other words, host a very localized cast and special-invite screening where you don't charge for tickets so you retain your premiere status," Horn said, "and you interview everyone on the way out of the theater, and you start just getting those videos, throwing them up online, everybody talking about what this movie made them feel."

Online, look at niche platforms for shorts. The hosts suggest horror and sci-fi shorts filmmakers look at ALTER and DUST, which they describe as an easy way onto YouTube. The channels' submission page says they reach close to 7 million YouTube subscribers between them but premiere just one short a week on each channel, so getting picked is competitive.

Credit: Photo by Mike Von on Unsplash

What Distributors Want

This bit can be taken in two ways. First, what distributors want from you, which can be a trap. Second, what makes them say yes, which is the opportunity.

Making stuff is fun and creative, but once it's done, the job becomes business. And the business is selling, which is what distributors are doing.

Norton said the distributors his brother spoke with were warm and full of praise, but what they wanted was a signed contract and the film.

"It was like, we're going to promote your film. We're going to spend $10,000 marketing your film, and you'll just have to pay that back, and then you'll keep everything after that."

But what you actually get is a percentage of that money back, which can be very low. It's important to read contracts thoroughly and understand who will own exclusive distribution rights and whether you retain your IP.

If you really want to go the traditional route and have a distributor, what makes them say yes? Distributors respond to a defined target audience, recognizable cast, festival selections and wins, positive reviews, and signs of an existing fan base, like an email list or social following.