Do direct to video movies make money

From a distance, the movie business might look pretty glamorous. Celebrities and producers glide down red carpets, clutch their Oscars and vacation in St. Barts…just because they. The public can be fickle, the industry is in flux, and just about any movie is an extremely risky investment, even a film starring big name actors and actresses. Major studios and indie filmmakers alike now spend much of their days videoo for new sources of revenue, because ticket sales are no longer the be-all and end-all for films. This is in part because it costs far more to make and market a film than it .

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Make sure to read the rules! This subreddit is for asking for objective explanations. It is not a repository for any question you may have. LI5 means friendly, simplified and layperson-accessible explanations — not responses aimed at literal five-year-olds. Perform a keyword search, you may find good explanations in past threads. You should also consider looking for your question in the FAQ. ELI5: Who makes direct-to-video movies and how do they make money? How do they make profit? Do people actually buy these movies, and how is it okay that they seemingly rip off other movies? I am curious about this world of direct-to-video films. Are any of them any good? Filmmaker here. To understand how studios such as «The Asylum» make money on movies like Transmorphers you have to understand a bit about the industry. There are approximately 7 major studios who make the major pictures you’ve heard of eg. The majors have the vast money to fund, make and distribute their own movies. But they make very few films and they’re very expensive. But internationally there is a huge demand for original content to fill television time slots.

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In the realm of straight-to-DVD releases, films aimed at kids reign supreme. After all, families with young children may be too worried about pinching pennies to splurge on a trip to the movies, but those same families will get great value from a DVD that the kids will watch again and again. Disney was an early entrant into this market with its «Aladdin» sequel, «The Return of Jafar. In a similar vein, the Olsen twins built a billion-dollar empire in the ’90s, largely thanks to a series of movies designed for the home market. Of course, the straight-to-DVD strategy isn’t limited to movies with a young audience. It also works well for movies that lack commercial appeal or those that simply won’t do well in theaters. Face it: Some films with a delicate or controversial subject matter are simply not designed for the mass market. Sending these films out on DVD allows them to find their niche without the time and expense required to promote them at the box office. The business model also works well to extend a franchise. While the first few «American Pie» movies made millions in theaters, producers also released a series of straight-to-DVD spin-offs. Finally, skipping straight to the home entertainment market might be another example of the reduced barriers to entry in the modern movie industry. Just as writers can get their work out via self-publishing, filmmakers who lack big-studio support can eschew the main channels and opt for small DVD runs or release on services like iTunes. A straight-to-DVD release has less to do with quality than it once did. These days, as the lines between big studios and independent producers blur, the DVD remains another means of bringing movies to the masses. How the Cannes Film Festival Works. How the Oscars Work. Prev NEXT. Kids are big fans of direct-to-DVD films and so are the parents who have a little more quiet time as a result. Davidson, Adam. June 26, June 10, October 25, November 8, October 26, April 11,

The Straight-to-DVD Strategy

We making money selling your short film, feature film or web series just got a whole lot easier. What makes this a game-changer is indie filmmakers no longer have to deal with a maie man or distributor to gain access to one of the largest marketplaces in the world. I already am making money with my past short films on Amazon Video Direct. Check out what I uploaded to Amazon Video Direct.

Or post to your blog and anywhere moviees you feel it would be a good fit. Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Now Video Blocks is a subscription based stock media company that has unlimited amount of stock footage that you can download and it is super affordable. I use this on all of my projects. It is my go to place for stock footage.

They have over one hundred fifteen thousand HD video clips, after effects templates, motion graphic backgrounds and cynic graphs and on average most people spend about a dollar per download over the course of the year. It has the same amount of content, same kind idrect footage that is available movids other more expensive platforms and the best thing about it is that is one hundred percent royalty free even if you cancel your subscription you have unrestricted usage of it for your personal or commercial projects that means films, commercials anything you want to use it for and you keep the download and maintain all usage rights for.

So if you want to get a Indie Film Hustle discount head over to videoblocks. That is an insane value guys. So definitely check it. While my friends making money with do direct to video movies make money film online has become much much easier after today.

Amazon Video Direct. Amazon has announced that they are going to allow individual creators and filmmakers to upload their projects directly to Amazon and share in either revenue, ad revenue or subscription based revenue.

This is huge guys. It is knocked out the middleman for filmmakers. Now you can directly upload your short films, your web series, your feature films. Anything you want to upload you. You have to have some technical requirements which I am going to go over to in a mney but I was so excited when I heard.

But allowing filmmakers to upload their projects directly. Just like you to without any sort of oversight or approval process. Now currently Amazon Video Direct will be played in the UK, the US, Germany and Japan and they will be growing to different regions of the world as they grow but this is huge. I cannot express to you how huge this is to have a complete, basically a distribution outlet without having to go to a middleman, without having to pay obscene amounts of money to a distributor or to anything.

It would be a non-exclusive. Why not upload it to Amazon Video Direct. And in addition to. Everybody on the planet uses Amazon and to have direct access to direct distribution access to Amazon without a middleman is crazy.

Now if you have a short film, feature film, web series whatever I think this all will count the exact same way. You go through the catalog listing, you put in your information synopses John. Rating if you have one and you have to create key art, you have to create a sixteen by nine, ninteen by twenty by ten eighty piece of key art and also for background image and then you have to create a dk by four or a twelve hundred by sixteen hundred key art which is basically a movie poster.

To upload there you add in your cast and crew, any of that stuff. So if you have any stars or anything like that people searching for the stars will have these things come up and then for as far as video assets are concerned. Direct links to their technical requirements, all sorts of links that discussing things about Amazon Video Direct. Especially if you have features, shorts or other things. Is you have to close caption.

Everything has to be uploaded with a closed caption file because that is part of the rules. Now I know closed captioning is a pain in the butt but you can now afford fairly easily online you can get closed captioning for about a buck a minute if not sometimes cheaper depending on how much you do so for a dollar a minute you can get it close caption with the proper file formats, the most common of those file formats is a.

SCC file. All frame rates as. So you can have a ma,e show, a web series, things that have a much different episodes on. You can do. A series, you could upload a full direvt, you can upload full seasons. All sorts of different content that you can upload there so. You can do direct to video movies make money whether people find it on Amazon.

But if you can drive some traffic to it even more so giving people options and on top of it all you can connect everything with Create Space. So you can offer DVDs of your movies as well without any diredt cost. Now mind you not going to make a whole lot of money. So for independent filmmakers this is a huge huge game changer.

So again head over to indiefilmhustle. It is a game changer for everybody guys. Please let us know what your experiences are. Hit us up on our Facebook group and you can talk about. Go. Sign up and we can talk about your experiences with Amazon and this is just one revenue stream guys.

We did another episode called how to create multiple revenue streams for your Indie film that was episode 44 and you can check that. I will put that in the show notes as well but this adds to that multiple revenue stream. It is a brand new world and it is vireo that you have access to things that you never had access to. A little bit of time to upload some stuff and you are rocking and rolling. Mlney as always head over to filmmakingpodcast. It really helps out a lot. As always guys keep that hustle going.

Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast at indiefilmhustle. Facebook Comments.

Why Box Office Results Don’t Explain How Movies Make Money

How to Make Money TODAY Selling Your Short or Feature Film with Amazon Video Direct!

Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film to the public immediately on home video formats rather than a theatrical release or television broadcast. Because inferior sequels or prequels of larger-budget films may be released direct-to-video, review references to direct-to-video releases are often pejorative. A production studio may decide not to generally release a TV show or film for several possible reasons: a low budget, lack of support from a TV network, negative reviews, its controversial nature, moviez it may appeal to a small niche marketor a simple lack of general public. Studios, limited in the annual number of films to do direct to video movies make money they eo cinematic releases, may choose to pull the completed film from the theaters, or never exhibit it in theaters at all. Studios then generate revenue through video sales and rentals. Direct-to-video releases have historically carried a stigma of lower technical or artistic quality than theatrical releases. This delay often occurs when a studio doubts a film’s commercial prospects justify mondy full cinema release, or because its release window has closed. In film industry slang, such films are referred to as having been «vaulted». Direct-to-video releases can be done for films which cannot be shown theatrically due to controversial content, or because the cost involved in a theatrical release is beyond the releasing company. Animated sequels and feature-length episodes of animated series are also often released in this fashion. Vidro Walt Disney Company started planning to make sequels to many of its animated films for video release makf with The Return of Jafar the sequel to Aladdin in and Aladdin and the King of Thieves the second makw to Aladdin in By an average of six new direct-to-video films appeared each week. Erotic thrillers and R-rated action films were the two most successful genres. According to the Los Angeles Times : [9]. Often, the downfall of live-action family films at the box office is their strength on video. Their appeal is to families with gideo children, who may go to only a couple of movies per year but who will watch many videos multiple times.