AGC Studios CEO Stuart Ford has called for a reorientation of the relationship between U.S. theatrical distributors and the independent production industry, calling it a “hot button issue at the moment” for the latter sector. He said there is.
“If we want to go back to the days of efficiency in the independent film world, we need a collective solution for theaters in the United States. “I think the relationship is broken at this point,” Ford said.
At the Zurich Film Festival’s industry event Zurich Summit, he was joined by 30West Executive Vice President Maren Olsen, UTA agent Alex Brunner, Anton CEO Sebastien Raybault, and representatives from WME International. He spoke at a panel examining the monetization of independent films, along with co-director Katie Irwin and others.
Ford was in Zurich again this year as a producer on Justin Kurzel’s “The Order,” which opened the festival on Thursday.
The film was acquired by Vertical for theatrical release in the U.S., which also released AGC’s Poolman this year and has proven to be a solid partner of late, but producer and film financier , suggested that this type of partnership is difficult to achieve at this time.
Although he acknowledged that the U.S. theatrical distribution model faces its own hurdles, he said advances and minimum guarantees remain well below what has been customary in the past, and distributors have difficulty producing films. He said the country is ripe for a reset, given the country’s reluctance to do so.
“The appetite of U.S. theatrical distributors these days has been severely limited, even in terms of pricing, and you can also talk about the economic conditions that have contributed to that, but the overall appetite, the belief that they can sell movies. “You can also speak in terms of a willingness to want to be theatrical,” he said.
“What I’m seeing now is the difference between what other people think should be theatrical and the people who actually have to promote the movie, get it into theaters, and take the P&A risk. I mean, there’s a pretty big disconnect between them… It’s a harmful disconnect right now. It’s a real wrinkle in the system.”
He noted that the signaled reticence on the part of U.S. distributors has had a knock-on effect in terms of bringing overseas buyers into large-scale projects.
“Internationally, in most regions, there are multiple distributors willing to release theatrically. Economic conditions may wax and wane, but there are still relatively strong areas of business,” he said. said. “The real challenge is that the international distributor wants this movie to be released theatrically in the United States. That’s always been the criteria.”
“Unless the asset owners and film financiers can find a business model to license their films to U.S. theatrical distributors and monetize them efficiently and transparently, we will continue to see these kinds of problems. There will continue to be a difference between what a movie thinks it’s worth, what the market thinks it’s worth, and what the most important gatekeeper, the U.S. theatrical market, thinks it’s worth. ”
Asked about possible solutions, Ford suggested that the ball is primarily in the distribution sector and said we need to think about that model.
“Culturally speaking, over the last 50 years, and I think Hollywood studios started this culture, to be honest, the whole system of accounting and participation has been like, ‘We’re going to keep the money, and we’re going to own the film. If you do, you can be exposed.”
