To Succeed, Follow My 50% Rule

In my book, “Don’t Let Your Film Die,” and in the many talks I give to filmmakers, I emphasize a rule that’s most often ignored. It’s a rule that probably causes more films to fail than any other.  The rule simply states, allocate 50% of your budget to making your film and 50% of your budget to marketing your film. When I ask filmmakers at seminars to raise their hands if they are following this rule, shockingly, very few hands go up.

I’ve often said that marketing a film is often harder than making a film. Making a film is a process that one can define. Marketing a film is different: it consists of pursuing many different opportunities, each one carrying a certain amount of risk. You never know for sure which part of your campaign will capture an audience, so you have to try them all. This is the case for a small-time filmmaker on a starvation budget and the mega studios with millions of dollars to burn.

Our CINEMAflix DISTRIBUTION Program offers filmmakers opportunities to inexpensively and successfully market their films, in both the theatrical and non-theatrical (ancillary) outlets. And our program is set up to both minimize your risk and minimize your cost.

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