I hope you had a great week!
After my Berlin dispatch from earlier in the week What’s Most In Demand Right Now?, I received several emails from those of you who are on the ground in Berlin and also some questions in regards to the Film Market Consulting promo, I announced (for upcoming markets Cannes and MIPTV).
So in response to those questions, here’s what I can tell you….
• The indie business seems to be divided into two sectors at the moment – bigger movies with franchise potential and existing fan base, and upscale director-driven, high quality films that can breakout
• Distributors and sales agents continue to push deeper into production and thus have more control over the finished products they are selling
• Buyers are being cautious when considering pre-sales, and want to see more before buying ie: the pre-sales market isn’t dead, it’s just shifted
• MG’s are soft and many buyers want to pay less up front and tie more to back end revenue….which leaves the sales agents in a weird place since they survive and thrive off commissioning the MG’s, so they’re starting to see their paychecks decrease too which brings into light the long term sustainability of smaller sales agencies
• Further to my point above, many of the smaller agencies are consolidating to create more leverage in the marketplace. Combining resources adds to the sustainability factor.
• There’s still a great business in international sales, but producers and sales agents need to temper expectations and budgets to fit the market
• Even big players like Lionsgate and STX are only doing expensive movies when they see franchise potential
• For those of you operating in the low and micro budget worlds of $250K and below, casting even TV level talent can make a difference to wide international distribution and festival acceptance. Case in point, I have a Film Market Consulting client I worked with during AFM….we fielded offers from high end boutique sales agents and closed in time to launch at EFM…. we carefully strategized ahead of time who to cast in her two lead roles and she’s seeing the results of those decisions now….. so don’t cut corners along the way!
So what do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below…
Work Together For MIPTV & Cannes?
And if you’d like to work together on your project or completed film in the lead up to MIPTV and Cannes, I’m offering a $1000 off promo on Film Market Consulting for the rest of this month.
To learn more and fill out the application just go here…
Click here for Film Market Consulting promo (expires 2/28)
Look forward to receiving more apps and discussing your projects with you!
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