Norman Hollyn has an excellent summary of a recent Hollywood Reporter article on indie film distribution. The article is a roundtable with industry players David Ansen, Kirk D’Amico, Cassian Elwes, Mark Gill, and Avi Lerner.

Norman Hollyn:
“…the three things that caught my eye, have to do with distribution realities and how they impact production choices. The first was from Lerner, who was commenting on how the international film market is getting more selective in what they will buy from indie filmmakers.”

Says Lerner:
“What we have done, like most of the big independents, is we moved our target from the straight-to-DVD movie to more theatrical films. Today, with the exception of “event” movies, we are doing the same movies as the studios, just with less money.”

Mark Gill goes on to talk about the niche for indie film budgets under the “kill zone” between $50 and $100 million…studios claim a return of just 1% from films in that range, contrasting sharply with the 35% return on $100 million+ budgets. You can read the original article and Norman’s further analysis here.