美国电影发行收益分析指南

假设一个制片人有幸能募集到足够的资金来完全支撑一部电影的制作费用，并且找到了愿意发行电影的一个或多个发行公司，那么下一步就是考虑这些费用是否都能收回，最终是否能盈利。在这部分讨论中，编者将对发行收益的分析分为两部分：一部分是电影在美国发行从而获取的收益，另一部分是电影通过全球发行从而获取的收益。

娱乐媒体热衷于报道在美国发行的知名电影的院线票房收益。根据数据分析来看，如一部制作费在5000万美元的电影，院线票房收益为1亿美元，则人们很容易认为这部电影必然已获得收益。但不幸的是，对于电影投资者，这样的认定是存在误区的。

编者就以这个1亿美元票房收益为例，来分析电影的收益是如何分配的。首先，票房收益将在影片放映的影院和院线发行公司之间进行分配。这个分配比例是完全根据不同的电影进行协商确定的，一般来说，分成比例为五比五。这就意味着，1亿美元中，影院将收取5000万美元，剩下5000万美元由院线发行公司收取。院线发行协议中通常会说明，在发行公司收到电影发行获取的任何收益之后，将从中扣取多项费用，在发行公司支付制片人或电影投资人收益之前，这部分费用将会被提前预留出来。在这部分费用中，首先，发行公司将扣除其发行代理费，这是发行公司通过提供服务和专业知识而收取的费用。这笔费用的数额取决于发行公司是否约定向制片人支付预付款（俗称最低保证金）（这部分将在后文作更详细的讨论）。院线收益的发行代理费惯常为发行净收益的20%—35%（收取20%是在发行公司没有支付预付款的情况下）。为本章讨论之目的，编者假设发行代理费为20%，这就意味着发行公司将首先扣除1000万美元作为发行代理费，剩余可分配收益为4000万美元。

其次，就是发行成本费用。该费用是发行公司为发行电影所自付的所有成本费。但如上所述，成本费中的大部分与电影宣传推广及电影送至影院的传输过程有关，也包括电影的其他语言的配音和字幕所需成本费，应对不按时付款的影院所需的维权支出等。有些发行公司甚至要求根据所支出的宣传推广费用收取管理费（编者认为，这部分是发行公司的贪婪表现，但大多数制片人没有能力和发行公司就此进行协商，把这部分费用剔除）。如上文所述，这部分发行成本费用的金额可以与电影制作费用持平，甚至超过电影制作费。为本文讨论之目的，我们假设发行公司花费了3000万美元左右的发行成本费用。这个费用将从刚刚扣除发行代理费后剩下的4000万美元中进行扣除。由此，剩余的1000万美元将作为发行公司的净收益，可供进一步分配。

发行公司的净收益1000万美元将如何分配取决于几个不同的因素。在俗称为“直接分配协议”（即该协议中未约定发行公司需支付最低保证金）中，除非双方另有约定，所有的发行净收益都将用来支付给制作人，以供抵付制作费用。如果发行公司同意预付最低保证金（无论电影票房表现如何，制作人都能获得的最低收益金额），则发行公司在支付给制作人之前，将从发行公司的净收益中首先扣除最低保证金及其税费。在此情形下，除了税费之外，这种模式对制作人非常具有说服力，因为制作人可以事先就拿到一笔资金（最低保证金）。这就造成在一些案例中，如果发行公司的议价能力强，他们也会与制作人协商要求对发行公司的净收益进行分割，这可能将制作人的净红利潜在地减少20%—40%。

因此，如果我们假设这个制作人签订了直接分配协议，则在票房收入达到1亿美元的情况下，制作人可以获得大约1000万美元，部分会用来抵付电影制作成本费。但请注意，这不是制作人可以从电影的美国发行公司处获得的唯一的资金。随着电影在二级市场（按次付费观看、视频点播、DVD剩余市场、流媒体视频服务、付费有线电视、免费有线电视等）的推广，也可以产生额外的收入，在扣除相应代理费和成本费后，还能产生其他可支付给制作人的资金。但是，除非该电影大获成功，仅仅在美国获取的收入不太可能使制作人完全收回制作费。这也是需要进行国际发行的原因所在。

除了授权给美国发行公司外，独立制片人也会在其他国家根据不同地域寻找发行公司给予授权。这种运作方式与大型电影制作公司运作方式具有明显的区别。大型电影制作公司的典型做法是获取全球发行权利，然后通过其全球的子电影发行公司发行影片，或通过已经存在合作关系的当地发行公司进行电影发行。大多数独立制作人没有这些类型的全球性资源网络。因此，他们会聘请国际销售代理机构，这种机构是一种专注于向国际电影发行公司出售电影放映权的公司。制作人与全球发行公司签订的发行协议都非常相似。通常情况下，发行公司会同意在收到制作完毕的电影后向制片人支付最低保证金。然后，发行公司将从发行收入（扣除其发行代理费和成本费用后）中抵扣这笔最低保证金。最后，如果发行收入还有盈余（这种情况很少有），发行公司将继续支付给制片人。如果一部电影销量可观，则全部发行收入中制片人所占的份额，加上未支出的制片成本部分（如制片激励），将足够完全归还投资者投资，并且还能获取一些利润。

Assum ing that a producer is fortunate enough to be able to raise enough money to fully fund a film’s production cost and has found a distributor or distributors who are willing to release the film，the next step is to figure out if all of these costs will ever be recouped and if the film might eventually earn a profit.For this part of the discussion，Iwill separate out the analysis of exp loitation revenues into two pools；those derived from the exp loitation of a film in the US and those derived from international exp loitation.(www.xing528.com)

The entertainmentmedia is very enamored with reporting the theatrical box office revenues of the higher profile films that are released in the US.When one looks at the numbers，it would be easy to assume that a film which cost，say，$50，000，000 to produce and that had earned$100，000，000 in theatrical box office revenues would most certainly have earned a profit.Unfortunately for the film’s investors，thatwould be a sadly mistaken assumption.

Let’s startwith that$100，000，000 in box office revenue and look at how that money flows.First off，box office revenues are split between the theatres that show the film and the theatrical distributor.While the splits are all negotiated and will vary from film to film，on average the split is about 50/50.This means that，of that$100，000，000，the theatres will keep around $50，000，000 and the other$50，000，000 will be paid to the theatrical distributor.A theatrical distribution agreement typically provides that，after the distributor receives any money from the exploitation of a film，there are numerous items that are deducted from that money and retained by the distributor before anything is paid to the producer or the film’s investors.First，the distributor will deduct its distribution fee.This is a fee that the distributor charges from providing its services and expertise.The amount of the fee may vary depending on whether or not the distributor has made an up front payment（known as am inimum guarantee）to the producer（this will be discussed in more detail later）.Customary distribution fees on theatrical revenues range anywhere from 20% to 35% of the distributor’s gross receipts（with the fee being on the lower side if no upfront payment wasmade）.For our purposes，let’s assume the fee is 20%.Thismeans that the distributor will first deduct$10，000，000 as its fee，leaving$40，000，000.

Next up are the distribution expenses.This means all of the out of pocket costs the distributor has incurred in connection with releasing the film.While，as mentioned above，the bulk of these costs are related to advertising the film and delivering it to the theatres，these costs would also include costs to dub or subtitle the film into other languages，costs incurred to collectmoney from recalcitrant theatres who do not pay promptly，etc.Some distributors even go as far as to charge an overhead charge on the amount they spend on advertising（which I find to be rather greedy，butmany producers are not able to negotiate this out）.And，as Imentioned before，these distribution expenses can often equal or exceed the cost of production of the film.For our purposes，let’s assume that the distributor spent amodest$30，000，000 in distribution expenses.Itwould then deduct this amount from the$40，000，000 thatwas remaining after it had deducted its fee.The balance of$10，000，000 would be considered the distributor’s net receipts and would be available for further distribution.

What happens to that$10，000，000 in distributor’s net receipts depends on several different factors.In what’s known as a“straight”distribution agreement（i.e.，one where thedistributor does not pay a minimum guarantee），unless agreed otherwise，all of the distributor’s net receipts would be paid to the producer and could be applied to repay the production costs.If the distributor has agreed to pay a minimum guarantee（which is，in essence，a guaranteed minimum amount that the producer will earn from the film，regardless of how well it performs at the box office）then the distributor will first deduct the amount of the minimum guarantee，plus interest，from the distributor’s net receipts beforemaking any payments to the producer.In this case，except for the interest，this is a wash for the producer，since itwill have already gotten the money that is being deducted.That said，in some instances where distributors have excessive bargaining power，they will also negotiate a split of the distributor’s net revenues between the distributor and the producer.This could，potentially，reduce the share of net revenues the producer receives by anywhere from 20%—40%.

So，if we assume our hypothetical producer has a straight distribution agreement，then，out of that$100，000，000 in box office revenues，the producer would get approximately$10，000，000，which could then be app lied to recoup some of the film’s production costs.Now it’s important to keep in mind that this is not the only money the producer will receive from the film’s US distributor.As the film works its way through the ancillary markets（pay-per-view，video-on-demand，what’s left of the DVD market，stream ing video services，pay cable，free cable，etc.）and generates additional revenues，after deducting fees and expenses，there will be further monies that are payable to the producer，but，unless the film is a huge hit，most likely the US revenue alone will never be enough to allow the producer to fully recoup the production costs.This is where international distribution comes into play.

In addition to licensing rights to a US distributor，an independent producer will also seek to license rights on a territory-by-territory basis in all the other countries of the world.This ismarked ly different from how major studio films work.Major studios will typically acquire worldwide distribution rights and then will distribute a film internationally through its international subsidiaries or through local distributors with whom it has existing output arrangements.Most independent producer do not have access to these types of global networks.Instead they engage the services of an international sales agent，which is a type of distribution company that specializes in selling right to films to international distributors.The agreements that a producer will enter into with the international distributors are all very similar.Typically，the distributor will agree to pay a minimum guarantee paymentwhich is due on delivery of the completed film to the distributor.The distributor will then recoup this payment（after first deducting its fees and expenses）from its distribution revenues，and if there is anything left over（which there rarely is），the distributor will pay the remaining amount to the producer.If a film does well，the producer’s share of the combined distribution revenues，together with components of the production costs that do not have to be repaid（such as production incentives），will be sufficient to repay the investors in full and turn a bit of a profit.