"Today we live or die on a model that is completely dependent upon the amount of screens a film plays on. Common wisdom is that the more screens your movie is playing on, the more money you’re making. But for most films, this is a complete fallacy in which demand is not meeting supply and costs are exceeding revenue. And because of this, for far too many good movies, the theatrical window has become nothing more than a loss leader. But it does’t have to be this way. As bands have learned long ago, the key to making money is to make things feel exclusive and special, and then work to get the “average spend per customer” higher."
— Some interesting remarks from Marc Schiller on treating the indie filmmaking business “like a rockstar” would. But as long as major media outlets only review movies that have traditional theatrical releases, we’re never going to move past the “middleman” hump. Without a P&A budget or a major review, the majority of people will not find the work you’re trying to sell. But I couldn’t agree more that theatrical box office numbers will mean little down the road. Part of me thinks, though, that instead of making the theater experience even more limited and precious-feeling, theaters should move into a subscription model, so people see content more freely and filmmakers don’t feel beholden to technical gimmicks or the need to pander to certain genres.
