The VOD experience has been a mixed bag for some indie filmmakers. Although it offers exposure and a venue for audiences to watch their movie, VOD doesn't provide much of a financial payoff. Nevertheless, some top directors have embraced the delivery system.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh's call-girl drama "The Girlfriend Experience" doesn't arrive in theaters until May 22, but it's already available on Magnolia Pictures' VOD service; the "Erin Brockovich" director employed a similar release schedule for last year's Cannes title "Che."
Likewise, the Demi Moore-Michael Caine crime drama "Flawless" scarcely made a ripple at the box office last year, but its video-on-demand sales have surpassed $2 million. The Irish slasher film "Shrooms" played at a number of film festivals but sold less than $3,000 of domestic movie tickets. The outcome was far less gruesome on video on demand, where "Shrooms" is approaching $1 million in gross revenue, distributor Magnolia Pictures says.
"This has turned out to be the most efficient and best distribution paradigm we've come up with so far," said Magnolia's Eamonn Bowles.
For the distributors of independent film, VOD offers a cost-effective end run around most showings at the multiplex, where costs for even a limited national release can total $500,000. The way some forward-looking filmmakers and the VOD channel programmers see things, the new technology can bring their movies into corners of the country that rarely would have a chance to see new films that played in Cannes or other leading festivals at a fraction of the cost of a theatrical release.
"It is the wave of the future," said Andrew Herwitz, whose Films Sales Company is a prominent vendor of independent movies. "But the future is not yet here."
IFC Films, the most aggressive buyer and distributor of VOD releases, now operates two VOD channels, one for movies in limited theatrical release and one for films that have appeared only at festivals and will never make it to a theater. IFC acquired nine movies that premiered at last year's Cannes festival and picked up several others being sold at the concurrent film market.
Jonathan Sehring, the president of IFC Entertainment, was sold on VOD's prospects after the 2006 IFC production "Kill the Poor" failed to attract a theatrical buyer.
