For Hollywood selling theater tickets to consumers, requiring them to transport themselves to a certain place at a certain time, often making them wear 3D (non-Google) glasses, and then months later selling many of those same customers hunks of laser etched plastic, is a lot more profitable than licensing the film to digital distributors for rental or as part of a subscription service like Netflix. Especially if you can send that same film overseas and do it all over again. It’s probably more accurate to say that Hollywood is in the simultaneous, repeatable event business, not the film business. It’s a business model based on creating artificial scarcity and charging more for the least efficient distribution method. For indie producers, a more artisanal approach is evolving in which is evolving in which emerging technology is an important connector to a passionate fan base.

This talk will explore the evolving economics of film distribution for studios and indies.