D. B. Sweeney Quotes

Their argument, and I think it's a correct one, is that they'll make more money from the trades and the hardcovers if nobody messes with the creative team.

The studios basically, besides developing some material, their strength is distribution. Distribution in any other business is a cost that you incur. You know, in a trucking business, you eat it. In a film business, distribution is a profit center.

I have made a decision that in future, I will only take on movies that have a better than 75 per cent chance of being made, and that's not easy.

Filmmakers need to realize that their job isn't done when they lock picture. We must see our films through.

Publishing is a business. Writing may be art, but publishing, when all is said and done, comes down to dollars.

They say now in America that final cut doesn't mean anything. As Harvey Weinstein said to some film-maker, 'You can have final cut. I'll open your film in Arkansas.'

I think the British industry is set up to support British film, if we make films that enable them to support it. If you don't make a commercial film, distributors can't get behind it. If they don't get behind it, the film doesn't do well.

Things have to sell, of course, but if I don't want to put bags on the runway, we don't put bags on the runway. I have complete creative control.

The studio is spending great amounts of money, and they want some insurance they will get money back. They go for the middle of the road, broad in appeal. It's restrictive. It's a constant struggle, but if you give in, you're just making cottage cheese, and that's the end of it.

I would love to do a big studio movie, just because they're going to put the money into distributing it. A lot of times you do these little movies, you love them and they never get seen by anyone.

I think there are more films being made, but there are probably less outlets for them and distributors.

When you work in film, you learn to appreciate a distributor. You can have this great little film, but if you don't have a distributor, you are sitting in your living room with a great little film.

You are at the mercies of the dailies. With an indie you don't have that.

Once you become a producer, you're really selling something. It is a control issue, because you don't really know how it's going to pan out, but the creative control makes it work it.

Once Miramax gets involved, if they like your movie, there's a big machine that gets involved.

We know full well we cannot sell where we do not buy and we cannot sell successfully where we do not carry.

The idea that content is king has long rested on the notion that distribution - in whatever form it takes - is a low-margin commodity, and the biggest share of profits flows to the creators of original programming, who can sell to the highest bidder.

Corporate houses and big companies can be meaningful distribution channels for start-ups.

I did not plan... the Cube as a competitive item.

We don't decide how a movie will be distributed until it's finished. It might be on iTunes, it might be on 3,000 theaters, but we make that decision after the fact.

I'm trying to develop an approach to putting out a movie in wide release that makes some kind of economic sense for the filmmakers and the people that have a participation in the movie.

One of the benefits of doing low-budget movies is you don't have to release them wide to recoup. You can release it in a smaller way, make your money back, and keep going.

If a book sells a few hundred thousand copies or a million copies, which is great, it's perfect for PassionFlix because we don't have the same overhead as some of the studios do to make these movies.

We're trying to evolve a lot away from YouTube because YouTube is awesome - they have a huge audience, and we started there - but then you're at the mercy of their algorithms a lot, too. They can change anything, and it's really up to them, and you can't say anything about it.

So much of selling a film in the industry is about creating a fulcrum where all the pressure comes to bear, and something seems suddenly valuable and approved by an audience. It's amazing how people could pick up tons of films on the cheap, but they don't because they wait until everything is laid out for them.