DISTRIBUTION WT v WARP1 Les Mis v '71

In this post I will compare a UK Indie and the Big Six subsidiary production:

Les Mis (WT) v '71 (Warp)

I used data from BoxOfficeMojo.com. Below you can see an example for each.

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Les Miserables

'71

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The Domestic Total Gross is known as Box Office which means the total revenue they made just from ticket sales only in the US since it is an American website. We can see from this information that a typical British Warp production only made $1.3m in the US and a typical British WT production made $149m so that's 100times more than a Warp production. However, for WT standards the Production Budget is still very low. What they consider as a high budget is +$100m. Nowadays, you even find productions which has a budget over $200m. It is very common that they don't show the production budget for Indie movies.

• WT had a Big Six distributor (Universal) Warp had an Indie (Roadside Attraction)
• WT's film made a 100s more than Warp's
• Les Mis doesn't hit tentpole budget (+$100m)
• High Box Office for UK appeal 
• Nowadays movies have budget of +$200m
• Indie often don't show production budget
• WT release date is in Christmas (family are going to see Blockbusters e.g. Les Mis not some Indie movies)
• That option not available to Warp (but possible counter-programming....)
• Les Mis has a longer running time = fewer screenings per day (accept it from big blockbusters which will bring in a lot of crowd but not for Indie)
• Ratings for Indie (R) is typically higher than WT (PG-13) which reduces viewing (takes in less money)
• Primary audience are teens (family friendly movies)
• BBFC12 for Les Mis in the UK and BBFC18 for '71 in the UK

NUMBER OF TERRITORIES FOR THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION

Les Miserables: 55 v '71: 11

FRAGMENT OF LES MISERABLES

ALL OF '71

INDIE FILM DISTRIBUTION - BIFS film festival

Film festivals are the best way for Indie films to get a theatrical screening. Therefore, most of the time Indie producers are ready to gamble and spend a lot of money on posters, trailers, websites etc.

Why is it hard for an Indie film to find a distributor?

One of the main reason is that Indie film does not feature any stars which are well known to the American audience. However, Ghost Story is the only Indie film that features Martin Freeman who is a well-known actor to the US audience. Second, is the genre. Indie movies are more social realist films which aren't very appealing to the audience. It's also not common to find CGI or special effects. That makes the movies a bit boring and a lot of the shots are handheld so therefore you would find a lot of shaky shots (low budget). Working Title also has IPs (Intellectual Property) which are movies based on a book. To own such an IP it costs a lot of money to buy the rights. Indie does own IP but they aren't as famous e.g. Submarine, it is based on a book but not a famous one. These are some of the main issues Indie companies have to face to get screenings. 

It is possible for low budget companies to self-distribute their movies through their own website ( uploading on Vimeo, YouTube, Amazon or Netflix )  or paying distribution companies. Some are also distributed through small cinema chains where they screen the movie and after the screening, you would have a guest speaker ( actor or director ) to do some Q + A.