OK, let’s say that a great documentary does $500k in box office sales over a three month run in theaters. That means that about 50k people saw the film. We would all rejoice. That would be a hit!

Now in round numbers, more than half of those box office receipts will stay with the theater owners; let’s say $300k of the $500k. That leaves $200k in revenues for the distributor. The distributor needs to take their fee off of that $200k. Let’s say they are nice and they take 25 percent, $50k for all of their work. That sure won’t pay for a lot of rent and payroll for the distributor. And it certainly wouldn’t motivate the distributor to pay up front fees.

Now that leaves $150k for prints, advertising, PR, agency fees, expenses for film festivals, etc. etc. Let us say to reach $500k in box office the film went into 20 theaters in 10 cities. That means to break even the budgets can only be $15k per city and we know print ads, PR and ad agency fees, posters and associated expenses are much higher. The film loses money as a “hit” in theaters.

Let us all hope it will be bought by TV and do well in DVD format.

Hence a good documentary at the box office will generate a miniscule audience and no real cash for the filmmaker.

I just went to YouTube. The number two video today is called “Joey Chestnut Wins Bikinis French Fry Contest.” It has already 141,000 plus views. Nice production values, huh?

This is exactly what drives me crazy: Great films that people don’t see and the filmmakers don’t get any monies and the film industry infrastructure all wet their beak while junk videos get wide distribution on YouTube.

This pain point is at the heart of why I created SnagFilms. We just want to help. We just want to stop the madness.