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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Start-Up: Post # 41: Blockbuster Trends

By Roger Jackson
KinoSmall

Previously: Music for Movies, Expert Tips, Part II of II

Blockbuster Trends

At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster had 9000 stores worldwide. All but 50 of the remaining 350 stores will close by next year. 2004 was a peak year for DVD revenues — close to $30 billion globally. In 2014 it’ll be less than $16 billion and falling fast — certainly VoD has yet to make up the difference. Our investor projections — culled from disparate sources — predict worldwide VoD sales hitting $40 billion by 2024, with DVD (Blu-ray, Ultra HD, etc.) still alive but shrunk to maybe $2-3 billion. Who knows…ten years is a long time, but for sure VoD will have long eclipsed DVD. This is good news for indie filmmakers for the simple reason that those 9,000 Blockbuster stores had limited shelf space, with very little reserved for independent titles. Whereas VoD platforms have, essentially, unlimited shelf space. Meaning more — even most — indie films will

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Truly Free Film

Over 30 Really Bad Things In The Indie Film Biz 2013

"It Feels Like A War Zone" 30 Really Bad Things About #IndieFilm Biz 2013
“It Feels Like A War Zone” 30 Really Bad Things About #IndieFilm Biz 2013

Note: If you’d like to share this post, please use this link: http://bit.ly/18A5DN9

Ah…  I have given my thanks so now it’s that time of the year when I get to complain about what’s wrong — and what hasn’t yet been fixed.  I have done this before (several times), but this is that post on where we are right now. Like always, I suggest you don’t forget that lists like these only make the foolish despair.  After all, we can build it better together.  Let’s take this post as an action list. All are opportunities to truly ToDo. It does not need to be this way.

  1. The film business lives in Bizarro World, thinking we do something for the love of it, but in fact creating something far far far away from what we actually love — and thus making it so much harder to do what we love in the process. We have turned our strengths into our weaknesses. The worst of course is we now take it for granted that this is how it is and this is what the film biz needs be (if you are not fully following me here, I suggest you click on the link above).  It’s not and it doesn’t but I don’t hear a whole lot of folks saying we need a complete systems reboot of the whole film ecosystem (see #2).
  2. It’s not enough to just think outside the box.  The box is a trap and a false representation of a reality.  We have to break the box, probably smash it to bits and then
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Truly Free Film

How To Make Money With The New Independent Film Distributors’ Business Model

Guest post by Sheri Candler.

Yesterday we ran part one highlighting the problem.  Today, Sheri points to how distributors will benefit financially from the new model.

It may be that while you are in audience building mode, you will be spending more than making to develop a truly exceptional experience for your community. If you start this now before your entire business collapses, you will fare better.

-Create an online experience that makes the lives of your community better, easier, richer and be the number 1 site they visit for news, information, resources and community tailored to what interests them.

-Fill the vacuum of the lack of curation. People are confused by where to find things they like and overwhelmed by the choice. In a sea of content, be their favored destination. In this way, you can take on the likes of Netflix, a company that offers a huge range that makes finding content specific to personal interests nearly impossible because they don’t intimately know who their customers are. You will know this.

-Lock in the community by maintaining a dialog that will turn their initial attention into a revenue stream for your brand. A subscription model is what you should aspire to, but you cannot rush to that without first showing what you have to offer and reeling them in. First offer the ability to sample, share and then buy.

-Innovate in the online experiences you build to keep the community engaged and interested in making the circle bigger for you and for them. Incentivize those who are the most active at enlarging the community. Take the money you would have spent on outside marketers and use it to think of interesting incentives for your tribe.