Three Things You Must Embrace

📣 Most movies do not make their money back.

📣 Nobody is going to solve this problem for you.

📣 All distribution is active distribution.

Most movies do not make their money back.

Let’s look at the numbers.

At Sundance 2019, of the $2.29B worth of financial investment in films that were submitted, only 3% percent were accepted.

Only a portion of those receive traditional distribution deals.

And, of those, only a small fraction receive deals that are financial fairy tales, covering the cost of making the film.

Over 2022, Distribution Advocates contacted all the documentary feature film teams with projects premiering at the Sundance, SXSW, and Tribeca film festivals to collect data on their distribution. Over 100 filmmakers responded to the questionnaire. They learned:

2022 Festival Acceptance Rates:

• 2% for Sundance
• 4.2% for SXSW
• 57% had a producer or director that previously showed at the same festival
• 56% of documentary makers participating at the festivals were female (growth!)
• 8.7% Hispanic filmmakers
• 5.8% Black or African Americans
• 70% White or European.

Image Source: Anthony Kaufman and Distribution Advocates, Sundance 2022

Nobody is going to solve this problem for you.

More on these numbers from Distribution Advocates here.

To read more about audience identification and outreach, jump ahead to Audience Engagement.