Film Finance Experts Weigh In On Netflix and Amazon

[Music]

so let's talk about the elephant in the

room the Netflix's and the Amazons and

the Hulu's and what's going on with that

so bill you have a point of view have

you sold anything yeah I don't think

they're waiting in line to make my

movies you know but you know the inner

seventy million dollar movie right about

the Transcontinental Railroad hmm if you

had Christopher Nolan saying he wanted

to do it now I met by the way I'd say no

no no well what my point is my point is

you might be able to get a studio to

finance it or you might get Netflix to

come in like they did with Scorsese and

really overpay and get that movie I

wouldn't do it the here's the thing the

only reason I'm doing these movies this

way is for artistic freedom for what

artistic freedom I'm trying to make I'm

trying to honestly yeah you don't spend

fourteen years to make a movie or

seventeen years to make a movie if

you're smart so you you only do it

because you're stupid enough to want to

make a movie that you want to make and

you know like actually I could do

stories out of all these movies but

hacksaw ridges you know there's take the

war out of the movie you know bring the

budget down so don't show any action

okay well then it's not how do you tell

the story even even and again I took

your last question not it's not the next

Netflix per se but then raising extra

money to control the marketing so that I

get a release date and I get the film

out that I wanted Lionsgate with a movie

that tested as well as any movie I've

had other than Titanic I mean literally

was in you know the 96 or something

percent range I had for three months at

the fight to not put it in a dead slot

the next year because they could never

be nominated for an Academy Award you

know at the same time I look I hear what

you're saying at the same time we were

having a conversation at the producers

guild at a border was a producers

council meeting and

Chuck Rovin who produced Wonder Woman

was there and we were talking about

Netflix had come up and he had just come

back from a meeting at Netflix and he's

doing a movie called triple frontier and

he said and everybody was kind of we're

not so sure about Netflix and he said

look he said I developed that script for

five or six years it it got shut down

five or six times okay it had a ton of

money against it and he said finally

Netflix said that they would make it

with I think Ben and Casey Affleck and

it's being made and and it was here I

think was at Paramount for years and he

said it when I never gotten made and he

said you know they've been respectful

they've paid me a decent fee I'm getting

the movie made and and you know it was

really interesting with all of a sudden

the guy who's done you know the

Christopher Nolan movies The Dark Knight

and all that produced that and produced

Wonder Woman and and you know clear I

did I expected him to be film centric

but he was look if I can't get a studio

to make it I'm gonna go to them and I

would have said and spend another few

years

so Jessica what's now you've sold to

Netflix what's your what's your thinking

about it well I mean I'm a little more

conflicted because for years Netflix

provided an outlet for the independent

films I was making and they were paying

very handsomely for those films and and

they were films that I did not think

would necessarily work theatrically they

were films that I thought would reach a

wider audience on Netflix than anywhere

else

the problem is that now they're not

buying those movies so they've really

hurt my business and and I think the

independent business in that so when you

say they're not buying them they're

they're not finished

okay so they're not buying them finished

longer buying they're also not buying

these types of films in general even to

make in-house I mean I think you know

I'm not sure that today the types of

films you know I've done 15 films of

with the Duplass brothers right Netflix

I'm not sure that today they would make

those films anymore right make them or

acquire them or anything of that nature

so it is you know they also for a long

time were acquiring films just for the S

VOD rights just for the

rights and then you would partner them

with a distributor for remaining you

know for all the other rights they're

not doing that either they're only

really acquiring those rights from a

third-party distributor and in terms of

buying films on an original basis they

seem to be focused you know either in

you know producing in-house you know

getting involved in an earlier stage or

acquiring films that can make a huge

splash you know the brights of the

worlds the and Charles you made mud bond

there yes so I mean we're being flexible

and working with both Netflix as well as

all the major studios and and we're

financing some things independently

without distribution you know being

mindful and thoughtful about how we're

going about it we did not make my bound

with them we made it independently right

we've you know co-financed through a

series of equity and farm pre-sales and

alone against that and then tax

incentives and then we took it to

Sundance Film Festival and then at that

festival last year we had an incredible

response from it and there were a number

of some of these smaller distributors

that were interested in Netflix you know

after hits around else and saw the film

they were blown away and they basically

came in and they were so far above the

rest of the marketplace and what they

presented to us in terms of in a war

season campaign after sitting down with

the filmmaker any concerns that we had

going into it frankly we we put those

concerns out and and to be honest they

were an incredible partner I think in

that case I mean the movie was seen all

around the world I haven't been to a

single place through all of my travels

where someone has not seen my bound

whether in our industry or not and you

know was the first time what they have

for nominations and four of those

categories and you know we nee made a

nice return on our investment it wasn't

anything just you know off the charts

but it was but it was better than being

in a snare where we would have lost

money right and we would have been and

who knows if the market would have been

seen by the marketplace the way that it

did and so I look at that it was an

incredible win so we have we have one

original we're doing with them but don't

you think it would have done better in

the Oscars and had

if it had a better I'm not sure because

they were so ok they they went so above

and beyond on on their campaign for that

I mean it was they took it to ten other

festivals they they canvassed the

marketplace in a way that I think a

little small indeed distribute I don't

know if they would have had the

wherewithal to do what they did but and

what saw I actually think but I think I

don't know well if it would had it was

maybe were certain other distributors

who had stepped but that didn't stuff I

think you would have and those limiters

did not step up right but let me but let

me ask you this Jessica you're saying in

your judgment that they wouldn't make

mud bound now they wouldn't pick it up I

don't know about making it they I don't

think they would have acquired it

certainly not for twelve and a half

million dollars I can tell you we're

making a movie with them just okay has

to be double it did it is not a

spectacle movie like bright way I can't

say what it is when I haven't announced

it yet and it's completely oh they're

making wrong I mean the things that they

are choosing to make a movie as well and

it's great to have a buyer like them up

there making sixty seventy eighty movies

yes you know I mean you know they're

making movies you know they're financing

movies they support diversity they

support gender equality there and they

are financing movies around the world

local language so I mean it's it's great

to have somebody like that out there the

the idea that you you kind of have to in

in the independent space have to perhaps

you know kind of fit into their model in

a certain way because you if you sell

foreign territories they perhaps make

you go and buy them back and write all

of that kind of stuff yes they have a

very specific sort of model and and you

know they're kind of the six hundred

nine hundred whatever hundred pound

gorilla in the block so they tend to get

what they want great to have them I

think they're great for certain movies

[Music]

you