A Distribution Contract may only be words on a piece of paper

Every producer seeks a Distribution Contract. The ideal situation is securing the right distributor for your particular movie. Remember when we talked about sending your script to the right producer?

Well the same holds true for presenting your movie to the right distributor. Don't waste time, energy, and money by sending your family movie to a distributor whose specialty is sci/fi.

Also don't shotgun your movie. Don't send it out to fifteen distributors at the same time. Make a list of the ones that best fit your movie. Put them in order of preference. Then send out one or two at a time. See what develops before sending out other copies.

Ok, since this section is all about Contracts, let's say you receive an offer of distribution. Now what? Are there different types? Is it attorney time?

First let me start by saying remember, I am an ex-cop NOT an attorney. I am NOT giving any legal advice. I am only providing information about the offers I received and have researched. So before I go any further, yes I believe every producer should have an attorney. Even better if he/she is an entertainment attorney.

The first type I would like to mention is one that really isn't done that often anymore but was sure a boom for the low budget producer in the 70's. It's call a negative pickup.

When the video explosion (VHS) occured, distributors just couldn't get enough product. It was a feeding frenzy. Instead of offering distribution Contracts, a distributor would just offer to buy 100% of the rights, a negative pickup.

Basically the distributor bought the film's negative. The producer received their one time payment and surrendered all rights. So no matter how much the movie made, the producer was not due any further payments. Of course, the producer made sure to sell their movie for the total production costs plus whatever they could get from the distributor.

Now there is also just the basic Contract. One where there is a percentage agreement between the distributor and producer. This also includes the distributor receiving first payment for their expenses. From my experience it is always best to cap all expenses.

I remember when I received my first offer. What a great feeling. Everyone involved in the production and of course the investors were thrilled. Then I read the offer.

It was definitely distributor friendly. I went through it over and over. I began deleting paragraphs and then graduated to deleting whole pages. I contacted the distributor and told them there were things I just couldn't accept.

Remember when I said earlier that most everything was negotiable? Well the distributor said I received their standard offer, but they were open to discuss anything. They added, most first time producers are so excited to get an offer they seldom fully read the Contract. Right then and there I got my first bad gut feeling about distribution.

As I will discuss more later in the My Productions section, I learned the Contracts really didn't mean very much. Unless you are perched on your distributor's shoulder while they makes sales you have no idea what they are doing.

You may get copies but what if they aren't the originals? Just copies of false deal memos with different lesser sale prices. What if territories were sold that you were never told about? Believe me it adds up.

From Contract to Distribution