How do you get your movie into blockbuster, or lions gate?

Yeah, we're actually looking at getting our first feature distributed (three companies are "negotiating" with us). It's more of a documentary/comedy thing, so we didn't have to compete with every other low budget horror/thriller movie.
 
Thank god this thread turned into actual discussion. My goal is not to make a crappy movie, my point was, how are these crappy movies getting distribution, and how would someone go about trying to make a DECENT film as well as seek distribution.

The thread is more of a "if these guys could do it, why couldn't I"

:/
 
dakotapod said:
If you are the rave @ Sundance, you will do fine.
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This seems not to be true 100% from what I read in last months Independent mag i think. They did a little thing on directors that never went anywhere even though they won the peoples choice award or whatever the biggest award is at Sundance. Grand Jury Award?
 
make a movie -> call distributors -> goto film festival -> win some awards -> talk business -> get your distribution -> give me some cheddar
 
I've got a buddy who made a feature length in his backyard. His budget was about 3 grand I think, and lion's gate picked him up. (I'm not naming the film, but it's pretty terrible). He said they gave him 5 grand for distribution rights. Their packaging made the movie look like a multimillion dollar blockbuster, but it was shot on a vhs-c camcorder. lol

I don't know what this means other than, anyone can get a distribution deal with lion's gate no matter how awful your film is and if you want to turn around a profit, you make your budget less than 5 grand. I'm guessing Lion's Gate has a deal with blockbuster that says "for every big seller we give you, you have to buy and stock 5 of our crappy films". That'd be the most profitable way for Lion's Gate to do business. It's cheap to print the dvd's, and the rights purchase is even cheaper. Lion's Gate wins.
 
dj, is there anyway you could get me in contact with that guy? I'd love to discuss with him what he did and how he went about it.

Thank you :)
 
I think the best method as you all should know is make a good film and get it out there to many festivals as possible. The plan is, get your name or your company's name out there, eventually someone is going to notice.

It's not easy and it will get expensive, but it beats trying to get a major distribution deal by faith.
 
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