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International sales agents (“sales agent(s)”) are your pipeline to foreign distribution whether they are pre-selling or licensing the completed picture. Sales agents develop a marketing plan for the pictures they represent, design poster artwork, and undertake to cut an appropriate trailer if they believe that your sales materials are not up to par. Sales agents…

Distribution Fees/Royalties The distributor will take into consideration the type of picture it is distributing and distribution fees will reflect that. Distribution fees are generally calculated as a percentage of gross revenues. “Gross revenues” means the money earned by the picture from first dollar, without deductions for distribution fees, marketing expenses, taxes, residuals to any…

Distribution Agreement I investigate any distributor with whom I am unfamiliar prior to commencing negotiations on behalf of a client: I want to ascertain their track record, acquire a list of the markets they attend, and contact their references (filmmakers, whose films they have distributed in the last five years). I do not start negotiating…

Distribution “Distribution” is the process through which your picture is exhibited and exploited throughout the world in all media. Distribution is how your picture earns revenues. If you do not already have distribution, you will start seeking it once your picture is completed. The goal is to secure Distribution Agreements with distributors that have the…

Distribution The studio will have worldwide distribution in all media if it finances 100% of the picture’s production and distribution. The studio will own the picture, its copyright, the screenplay, and the motion picture rights to the underlying literary property upon which it is based (if any) and, therefore, it will have the right to…

Whether you get to be a “producer” hinges on your ability to raise the monies you need in order to produce your pictures. You can acquire financing via a studio, private investors, production incentives, the pre-sale of all or a portion of your picture’s foreign territories, and by securing bank financing. Some of the aforementioned…