Each week I look at a different topic around the film industry, focusing on the data and statistics which reveal what’s going on.
Last year, I shared the full costs and income of a £850k feature film called Papadopoulos & Sons. The article remains popular and has led to a number of people asking me to share similar details of other films. It’s a tricky ask, as the film industry is normally a closed shop and withholds numbers even when […]
Some producers do all they can to court film critics, under the impression that one positive review in the right journal can herald financial success for their movie. While other producers scoff at the notion of the all-powerful film critic, believing instead that reviews hold no sway in the actions of movie-goers. Bruce Nash from […]
Crowdfunding provides filmmakers with a much better form of financing than investment or loans. There’s nothing to repay, no one controls the creative process and you own 100% of your film. However, some people question how sustainable crowdfunding is as a repeating funding source. Can you really go back and raise more money on Kickstarter for a […]
This is the fourth article in my series looking at the financial side of the film business. In previous articles, I’ve looked at $100m+ Hollywood blockbusters, $30m-$100m movies and profitability across all movies released between 1990 and 2015. This week I have teamed up with Bruce Nash from The Numbers for a research project originally commissioned […]
For the third part in my series on the financial side of the film industry, I am turning to profitability and asking “Do Hollywood movies make a profit?” Hollywood has a negative reputation when it comes to transparency and financial openness. It feels as though each month brings yet another news story about a Hollywood flop losing […]
Last week I took you through all the costs involved in making and releasing a Hollywood blockbuster (budgeted over $100m), and how they earn their income. This week we’re sliding down the budget range and looking at how films make money on a smaller scale, with a focus on movies budgeted between $30m and $100m. Like […]
Last week, the BBC broadcast ‘The Great Gangster Film Fraud‘, a feature-length documentary which told the true story of an attempted scam by two “filmmakers”. They used a combination of tax frauds in an attempt to claim £2.5 million from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). They said they had made a £20 million film and so were […]
I’m continuing my investigation into crowdfunding and today I’m sharing some practical film crowdfunding tips. In previous articles I’ve looked at the number of projects, where they’re based, how much money they’re asking for and the day and time they’re launched. We’ve seen a few correlations with success, some predictable (projects which ask for less […]
Over the past few months I’ve been running a number of research projects into film crowdfunding and now I’m ready to start sharing what I’ve found. The research has two outcomes. Firstly, blog articles sharing the results of my data research into film projects on Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other crowdfunding platforms. It’s going to take a few weeks to publish it […]
Today’s article is an offshoot of two strands of research I’ve been working on over the past few years – gender in the film industry and UK films with public funding. I looked at the percentage of female writers, producers and directors within UK films, focusing on how the female representation changes between films supported by […]
