Magic Rock has been on a roll since September, and we’ve been very busy despite the challenging economy. We’re fortunate to be working several new clients and their films–including “The Singing Revolution“, “Spirit of the Marathon“, “Supercharge Me!“, “Soy Andina“, “Long Green Line“, “The Black Candle“, “Open Windows“, “Pond Hockey“, “Schooled” “Schraders Exorcism“, “Beyond the Call“, and about a dozen others who are just launching.
This quarter we’ve also worked on several feature improvements, including our Indie Clix affiliate marketing application. We also began our public and high-school library distribution program, which we’re calling Library Orders, and is currently on beta-test with a handful of clients by invitation-only. We’re very hopeful that LIBO will increase sales into the under-served public and high school library market.
During the October and November, several clients had successful pre-order DVD launches (both within a 3-4 week window). One client garnered over $60k in pre-sales, and another surpassed over $100k in pre-sales. In both cases, all orders were online from their own websites where they keep over 90% of the product revenues!
We’re also seeing clients find new customers by changing merchandising and licensing strategies. Emmy winners Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar of “Made in LA” came up with a fantastic idea for a community screening kit that we’re enthusiastically recommending to other clients. I believe in the first few weeks that Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne of “Pond Hockey” offered their kit, a couple of hockey clubs approach them to buy them so they can use it for fund-raising. It’s a “win-win” for both the filmmaker and their fans.
We’re learning a lot from many clients who are finding unexpected self-distributing channels. They are creating these unique deals by combining their marketing outreach with services and tools Neoflilx provides, and selling hundreds of DVDs. As a result, we’ve processed more offline sales into corporations and government institutions in the last two months than the previous 12 months combined.
It’s also exciting to receive inquiries from filmmakers outside the USA asking questions about international self-distribution. Despite the numerous challenges and obstacles facing both our clients and us, these are exciting times as new avenues are discovered and new markets opened.
As much as possible, we’re trying to share that knowledge here and at our other the self-distribution user forum. Brian and I are looking at other ways to share this information more quickly with other clients and other filmmakers who are out there trying to make independent distribution work for them. Stay tuned…