reprinted from Ted Hope's Blog: Hope For Film
TED HOPE: Jacques Thelemaque returns today to complete the download of his lessons learned from Digi Hwood knowledge fest. What's the future? Does anyone know? This much I DO know: I would love to have one person cover for our HopeForFilm community all the film related seminars over the course of the year, be they in NYC or LA, and compare what can be gained from these conferences and how they vary. I wonder if we can find a sponsor... I wonder more if we could find one person who can endure -- even with the enticement of tasty sandwiches!
Digital Hollywood NYC 2011 - Part 2
by Jacques Thelemaque
The second day of Digital Hollywood started earlier, but I was there on time, excited by the film-specific panels and those bagels, croissants, muffins and pastries with my name on them....READ MORE
Glad to hear non-exclusivity is gaining more acceptance (at least with these Conference panelists, etc.) as a standard for filmmakers licensing their digital rights. I've been "preaching" this for years, as have some others (I think Ted has too...). I believe Cinetic's contracts (re: digital rights / FilmBuff) were originally exclusive contracts... don't know if they've changed that now.
ReplyDeleteDVD is not dead. (Not yet, anyway.) It's amazing how so many people love this story, love to keep hyping it. Will it be dead in 10 years? Likely. Will it be dead in 5 years? Possibly. Will it be dead in 2 years? Absolutely not. This should STILL be a market that filmmakers should NOT overlook/bypass/etc. currently.
Frankly, I think it's irresponsible of some industry (but mostly press, and those with various agendas) to hype "DVD is dead" -- this does a real disservice to indie filmmakers, most of whom don't understand the markets for film, the options available, the revenues available per market, and believe the BS hype that flies around the community.
For example, here some stats that should wake up indie filmmakers just a tad, re: DVD:
- Approximately 32 Million *new* BD/DVD players & devices were purchased in 2010, in the U.S. alone.
- Netflix' subscriber base (in the U.S.) is about 24 Million. Nearly 60% of this -- 14 Million subscribers -- are DVD only and do not subscribe to streaming.
- 3rd Quarter stats show DVD/BD sales and rentals up over last year, same period. (I only reviewed one report on this... in truth, I like to review more than one report from different sources, since not everyone always is on the same page re: their stats.)
- 2010 saw DVD/BD sell-through & rental revenue at $16-$17 Billion -- still the single largest market for films. The digital revenues, by contrast, were a small percentage of this.
DVD is alive, and does well for some producers. If you're looking at a business plan that is, say 5 years out for a movie that won't hit the market for 5 years, then sure, I wouldn't necessarily count on a specific revenue gain from that market, given we don't know what the marketplace will really look like in 5 years.
Great report, Jacques, thank you.
Jerome Courshon
"THE SECRETS TO DISTRIBUTION: Get Your Movie Distributed Now"