How Many Independent Movies Make Money? Film Executives Discuss

How many indie movies make money? was one of the questions posed to top European film financiers and producers today at the Zurich Summit, which takes place during the Zurich Film Festival.

Vincent Maraval, President Goodfellas / The Veterans; Christian Vesper, CEO of Global Drama and Film Fremantle; Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO Mediawan Pictures; Karl Spoerri, Co-Founder & Managing Director Zurich Avenue AG; and Constantin board member Martin Bachmann, all took part in the session.

Film sales vet Maraval, who has recently handled high profile movies such as Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez starrer Emilia Perez and Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, responded: “I can only speak to what I know about our films. It’s different between independent American film and independent international film, but in terms of independent local [to Europe] film, I would say that probably 60 to 70% make money, or at least recoup and don’t lose money, because they are in a system where the pre-financing model covers costs. It’s not as speculative as the U.S. system. In Europe, you don’t really make huge profit but you don’t lose as much or take as big a risk. In American cinema, I would say it’s more likely that one out of three indie movies make money. Our job is to make sure that the third compensates for the two thirds that don’t make money but the challenged theatrical market for indie cinema in the U.S. today means that the gamble is bigger there than it used to be.”

Maraval, who sold Emilia Perez to Netflix for multiple territories at Cannes, was asked how attractive streamer deals are today compared to international theatrical distribution.

He commented: “I don’t see the streamers as competition to the traditional windowing system. I think it’s one more option. I think with the competition between the streamers today has brought so much flexibility to the way we can make films. You can combine streamers, shorten the theatrical window a times, and in a territory like France we have imposed obligations on streamers. We’ve been approached by streamers to produce things for them. And if our talent want to do it, we do it. I don’t have any problem with that. Emilia Perez was sold to Netflix for only two territories, and all the other territories were pre-sold. So the global deal only model has changed. We’ve never had so many options as today. When I started, we were doing films with the same people: Canal Plus, French Television, theatrical distributors, the tax credit, and that’s it. And we couldn’t have any creativity about the way we exploit.”

He pointed to the recent example of Emmanuelle, which hasn’t performed at the box office to date, as a film whose model offers flexibility.

“We just released Emmanuelle and fair to say it is not working so well. I don’t want my distributors to lose money. If there is an opportunity to shorten the window and recoup I’m happy that they have that possibility. I told them, ‘do it, it’s not a problem.’”

Elisabeth d’Arvieu, CEO of Mediawan Pictures, was asked about the company’s integration of Brad Pitt’s firm Plan B.

The executive said: “Mediawan’s core business was European content but as our ambitions grew we found that we really needed a U.S. partner. Hollywood is getting into Europe, but Europe is also getting into Hollywood. We took our time to choose the right one. Plan B had a strong appetite for working in the European model. The partnership was driven by a common will, a common goal.”

The acquisition is starting to bear fruit, she noted. “In recent weeks we announced that Plan B is making a movie based on one of our IPs: the sports movie Weekend Warriors, which will star Mark Wahlberg. Plan B acquired the remake rights, and now they are going to produce it for the U.S. for Apple. They’re also developing a Spanish-language movie in Spain with one of our production companies. They’re also working a lot on the TV side with us, including on French IP. They want to be working with us on English and local-language movies.”

Mediawan has also recently struck a deal with LeBron James’ and Maverick Carter’s The SpringHill Company with an eye to bolstering both companies’ presence in their respective markets. Under terms of the deal, Mediawan and SpringHill Co. will develop and co-produce original film and TV projects.