Firm seeks new way to market indie movies
More than 3,600 independent features were submitted to the Sundance Film Festival this year, a record driven by inexpensive digital equipment and an abundance of film financing. But only a couple of hundred of those movies will ever be distributed in theaters. Does that mean that almost 90 percent of indies have no value?
The movie business has been grappling with that question as the number of specialty films soars but the number of screens stays roughly the same. The two big puzzles nobody seems able to solve are how to have more of these films seen and how to make money doing it.
One of moviedom's savviest executives thinks he has a solution.
John Sloss is one of the top sales agents for independent films. Sloss, 52, has handled the sale of such diamonds in the rough as "Little Miss Sunshine." He sold the $8 million project to Fox Searchlight for $10.5 million, setting a festival price record that still holds.
Now Sloss and his company, Cinetic Media, are rolling out a new business called Cinetic Rights Management. The executive and his team will act as sales agents for filmmakers left on the sidelines. And here is the twist: The goal is not exhibition in theaters but rather distribution via the Internet and other delivery routes like cable on-demand services.
The idea is to create value for that other 90 percent of independent movies, or at least for a good chunk of them.
The company will charge a commission that will vary depending on the type of film. While no single title is likely to deliver a windfall - unless it breaks through as an unexpected hit - the company is betting that the "long tail" of niche content on the Internet will, in aggregate, produce meaningful income.
The company has raised outside capital to help pay for the venture. To sign up clients, it has already gone back through five years' worth of films that did not make it to theaters.
Cinetic Rights Management also isn't the only game in town. Other players are sniffing around the area, including a couple of major Hollywood talent agencies. Niche companies like Without a Box, a Web-based service intended to help independent filmmakers submit their work to festivals, are also trying to change the way people obtain movies.
