Wednesday, November 07, 2007

What's It Worth In Today's Market?

Every annual AFM issue of The Hollywood Reporter has a column called "The Going Rate" which estimates prices various territories are paying for "all rights to theatrical films in Overseas Markets."

***Disclaimer***

Per THR, this list is only meant as an approximate guidleine to launch negotiations and are not sanctioned by any industry organization. Per me, I am only listing the information related to films made for $750k - $1M as this is closer to budgets for first timers than any other. THR also lists information on budgets from: $1-3M, $3-6M and $6-12M.

So, if you produced a movie for between $750K -1M then you could expect to negotiate for the following for all rights in that particular territory:

EUROPE:

France $30-60K
Germany/Austria $30 - 75K
Greece $5-10K
Italy $30-60K
Netherlands $10-25K
Portugal $5-10K
Scandinavia $30-60K
Spain $30-60K
UK $40-80

ASIA / PACIFIC RIM:

Austrailia/New Zealand $15-30K
Hong Kong $3-5K
Indonesia $5-10K
Japan $40-80K
Malaysia $3-5K
Philippines $3-5K
Singapore $3-5K
South Korea $20-50K
Taiwan $5-15K

LATIN AMERICA:

Argentina/Paraguay/Uruguay $2-5K
Bolia/Ecuador/Peru $1-3K
Brazil $15-30K
Chile $2-5K
Colombia $2-5K
Mexico $15-30K
Venezuela $2-5K

EASTERN EUROPE:

Czech Republic/Slovakia $5-10K
Former Yugoslavia $2-5K
Hungary $10-20K
Poland $5-10K
Russia $20-50K

OTHERS:

China $3-5K
India $5-10K
Israel $2-5K
Middle East $2-5K
South Africa $5-10K
Turkey $10-20K

What the list isn't telling you how to sell the territories and in what order. For example, you can't sell Japan before Korea because the discs will mysteriously end up in Korea and Taiwan and selling on the streets.

Same goes for Turkey and Greece. If it goes for sale in Greece, it will be bought and copied and on the streets in Istanbul within a week.

The trick is to always sell for the best possible return, which doesn't mean selling all rights (DVD, cable and free tv) right away. You should sell according to the territories demand. Free TV in India doesn't get you anything (or it didn't used to), but VCD and DVD does.

There's also the taste factor to include in the sales plan. Certain territories buy more of a certain type of film. Example: India and the Middle East don't buy a lot of porn.

Now there's a few smart ones out there who are asking, "Why are you showing us this, Bill?"

I'm showing you all this because this system, these rates, the distributors, salespeople, sell sheets and posters and a whole ton of other "middleman" factors are all going the way of the dinosaur.

More later.

1 comment:

ME said...

I hate those "what they are worth around the world" stupid charts because they're always wrong. Know why? People lie. Even though the surveys are anonymous, they want to look smugly better than everyone else. I find they're usually about 25% inflated. So take them with a grain of salt when you're calculating. I also hate them because every producer with a finished turd of a show or movie wants to you know why you aren't achieving premium dollar for his piece of junk.