The excellent First Weekend Club recently posted an article by Anita Adams about Demystifying Digital Distribution in Canada.
Some takeaways:
- Theatrical releases can be costly and impractical, unless mandated by Telefilm or required to garner critical reviews.
- A better strategy is to rent a theatre where your fans are and fill it.
- Even better, after strong festival showings, immediately launch on VOD.
Regarding VOD aggregators, be wary. Some charge you $1,000 to work with them and then $175 per outlet, leaving the marketing up to you. Vimeo Pro lets you DIY and keep 90%. CanadaScreens seems like a great deal at $100-$250.
Other tips:
- Make sure you have a clean poster that works well as a thumbnail.
- If you don’t have a professional trailer, just use a thirty second clip from your movie.
- Post your trailer on your Youtube channel, but don’t monetize it.
My take: I would love to see an analysis that compares the number of titles divided by each platform’s revenues to get a very rough idea of revenue by VOD outlet.