Jawa Ex Machina
Veteran
The company I started to make MARIANNE, Jämtfilm AB, is still pretty new. About 18 months or so.
Anyway, I was contacted a while back by a small local cinema owned by an organisation here in Sweden called Folkets Bio that run small independent films across the country. Because MARIANNE was shot here in my home town, they really wanted to screen it because that gives people here extra incentive to see it. There's another film that was shot here a few years ago, a Norwegian film called Hjem til Jul, which they ran and that was very popular here.
It's a local thing.
Anyway, in order for them to purchase MARIANNE for a limited run here in town, they needed the film to have a registered Swedish theatrical distributor, which it doesn't. So I registered Jämtfilm. It didn't cost anything, and it was just the easiest way to do it.
They did eight screenings in ten days, and all of them were pretty much sold out. We got a lot of great press out of it too, and even some national television coverage. I'm thinking of doing more screenings here and maybe in other cities as well. It's good press, I figure, and also I get a small theatrical run which would probably be bigger than if a major distributor took charge of it, and I get more money out of it as well in the end even if the money isn't very much.
Because right now, I just happen to own a theatrical distribution company in Sweden.
Doing DVDs is harder, because a lot of the major retailers only actually buy from a few very select distributors and not from the smaller ones so it's hard to get in on that market. But I think small, limited, threatrical runs might not onnly be possible, but actually profitable, if done right. Not a major profit at all, but a small one. And it gives good press.
I just need to figure out where to go from here, since this oportunity just opened up.
Anyway, I was contacted a while back by a small local cinema owned by an organisation here in Sweden called Folkets Bio that run small independent films across the country. Because MARIANNE was shot here in my home town, they really wanted to screen it because that gives people here extra incentive to see it. There's another film that was shot here a few years ago, a Norwegian film called Hjem til Jul, which they ran and that was very popular here.
It's a local thing.
Anyway, in order for them to purchase MARIANNE for a limited run here in town, they needed the film to have a registered Swedish theatrical distributor, which it doesn't. So I registered Jämtfilm. It didn't cost anything, and it was just the easiest way to do it.
They did eight screenings in ten days, and all of them were pretty much sold out. We got a lot of great press out of it too, and even some national television coverage. I'm thinking of doing more screenings here and maybe in other cities as well. It's good press, I figure, and also I get a small theatrical run which would probably be bigger than if a major distributor took charge of it, and I get more money out of it as well in the end even if the money isn't very much.
Because right now, I just happen to own a theatrical distribution company in Sweden.
Doing DVDs is harder, because a lot of the major retailers only actually buy from a few very select distributors and not from the smaller ones so it's hard to get in on that market. But I think small, limited, threatrical runs might not onnly be possible, but actually profitable, if done right. Not a major profit at all, but a small one. And it gives good press.
I just need to figure out where to go from here, since this oportunity just opened up.