Four-Walling | Self-Theatrical Releasing

Kholi

Section Moderator
Alright, so this has been on my mind a lot lately. Mostly as a back-up plan at first, but then I started thinking of it as a primary. While I know there are several cases even just on DVXuser where producers have found a nice distribution deal (our own Kegan Sant just got a 10 City theatrical release deal out of AFM for their feature SEARCHING FOR ANGELS), with digital projection poised to take over the world of theatrical soon... why aren't we all thinking about taking our products directly to small chains etc?

Well..

1. Advertising budgets are non existent
2. Lack of general knowledge and case-studies on Four-Walling in a digital age.

There probably won't be many here that have gone that route, Faith Granger may be too busy these days but maybe she could stop in and share what she's done. THe point of the thread, though, is to accumulate the data from around the internet and build a resource that sits in one place.

I'll be updating the thread as I find more links to people who have done it, numbers, etc. If you have any, please post and share.
 
General Kevin Smith-type s..t: http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/kevin-smith-red-state-self-distributing-four-walling.php

Online distribution article that I haven't read: http://www.baselineintel.com/resear...line_self-distribution_options_for_filmmakers

This might interest you as well. It's mostly promoting their book (Selling Your Film without Selling Your Soul), but it does have some hard numbers on publicists, print ads, etc. There are also other articles/excerpts in the links section of the page that might be helpful. http://www.sellingyourfilm.com/blog/2011/10/27/theatrical-screenings/
 
Marketing, marketing, and marketing. Just because it is in a theater doesn't mean it will do well. During Halloween and independent film titled Inkubus (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650537/) was four-walled at about 10 theaters mainly in the northeast. Film had Robert Englund and other name actors. It's only marketing was really a facebook page/wall. It was in the theater for a 6 day run with the typical 6-8 or so screenings. I went to the Friday 28th 7:30 screening (Halloween weekend) and asked the manager how many tickets sold all day. 22. There were 8 people in the 110 seat theater. I doubt the producer even got close to breaking even on cost of four-walling and ticket sales in that theater. I don't know about the other theaters.

Michael
 
Thanks for contributing, both Michael's. xD

Selling your Film without Selling your soul is worth the buy. I read it on the way to vegas about two months back or so. GOod and inspiring info.
 
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