The Practical Guide to DVD/Blu-Ray Distribution for Independent Filmmakers

Last week I examined the rise and fall of physical media for the film industry.  As promised, this week I’ll outline WHY that matters, and the practical aspects of the current independent film industry.  Well, the answer to that (and so many things in both this industry and in life) is that it’s all in how you do it.  What follows is an examination, looking to lend guidance to that question.  Here are the ways you can still make money with independent film.
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A disclaimer: a lot of this article is something that filmmakers can’t do themselves, and will require a distributor to help get the film into place. 
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Redbox pays up front, most others pay on consignment

There aren’t that many large scale DVD retailers left.  It used to be that everyone sold some DVDs by the checkout because people would pick them up on impulse.  Now the only places that still retail DVDs in the US are RedBox, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Family Video in the Midwest.  I’m sure I’m missing a few smaller players, but not much beyond that.  

The trouble with this is that while I won’t name names for legal reasons, a lot of the retailers listed above buy DVDs on consignment, not outright.  In practice this means that your distributor will need to replicate anywhere between 10 thousand and 50 thousand DVDs and then pay shelf rental fees with no hard guarantee that they will get their money back.  Replication at that scale is not horrendously expensive, but even while the per unit cost of replication is cheap, the sheer number of units means that the distributor will have A LOT at risk. 

Redbox on the other hand buys DVDs outright.  Plus, since they don’t use standard cases the DVD replication tends to be cheaper.  Even with that, they pay pretty well on a per unit basis. 
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Redbox might well be your highest value single deal

Since Redbox tends to buy anywhere between 10 thousand and 50 thousand units outright, the profit on the sale can reach well into 6 figures.  This is not a small amount of money, especially considering that they do still buy low budget movies.  By contrast, most PayTV providers only pay low-mid 5 figures. 

If the franchise has strong sequel potential and is brought to Redbox by a distributor they’ve worked with in the past, they’ve even been known to issue a sales agreement while still in development, which can greatly help in financing.  It should be noted that this is rare.

May 2019

Donald Evans
​Ashley P.
​Clever Username

Steve Lack: Audio
​Judah J.

A HUGE Caveat to note here is that both Redbox and most Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) providers only acquire films that have had at least 250,000 USD at the box office. ​

MOD is almost certainly worth doing

MOD stands for Manufacture on Demand.  A LOT of the films you see online but not in store are put there through MOD services.  Not all, but a lot.  There are some services that are available only to distributors.  These services tend to be the widest reaching MOD providers.  However, Amazon’s CreateSpace has recently become a place primarily for Video on Demand and MOD sold through Amazon.  Their analytics are great, and anyone can do it.

I do MOD Distribution for most films I distribute in the US.  If it’s a theatrical film, and it’s something that has a real chance at getting to one of the major retailers, I’ll work with a partner to get it there.  IF You’d like me to consider your film both for theatrical and Platform releases, use the submit button below.  If you enjoyed reading this, you should check out my mailing list and resource package using the other button.  The resource package has lots of great templates and additional information, plus you get a monthly blog digest segmented by topic.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

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