At long last, another entry from me! The last few weeks have been very interesting ones for me.  And I’ve been thinking about distribution through a different lens.  As I mentioned before, this business is difficult for everybody.  There are thousands and thousands of films released every year and yet there is not an endless market for them all.  Don’t get me wrong - there are definite opportunities out there but the market is not big enough to support all of the films being released each year.  [Frankly, not all films are very good so (hopefully) there shouldn’t be much of a market for them.]

So I imagine that some distributors feel an obligation to pick up more than they should because there are so many.  However, if they’re acquiring films with exclusive rights doesn’t that due a disservice to the filmmakers?
Unless of course, the distributor can promote to all of the markets: educational, theatrical, broadcast, home video, streaming, etc.   But doing everything well is extremely difficult, especially if you’re picking up 30-50 films a year.  It’s downright impossible.

Here’s a question for distributors: Do you think it’s possible for distributors to collaborate with other distributors so that everyone, including the filmmaker, wins?    I know there’s a fine line between collaboration and competition, but isn’t the goal to raise awareness and drive sales?  To do that, I believe distributors must be more open to ideas, to technology, to others who may know a bit more than they do about a particular market.  Distributors shouldn’t feel threatened - instead - we need to work together to *advance* film distribution to the next levels.  If done right, everybody can win.