Western cinema is littered with rags-to-riches stories of independent films making millions, but in an age of streaming where box offices are bypassed altogether, are windfalls becoming a thing of the past?
George Miller's Mad Max of 1979, for example, was made with a budget of $350,000 and went on to make nearly $100 million in box office gross earnings.
In the United States, Jared Hess's Napoleon Dynamite of 2004 cost about $400,000 and grossed more than $46 million.
South Australian filmmaker John deCaux has recently received funding from a US company to make a feature horror film called Drop Bear.
He said the market for independent films had changed, but pointed to Adelaide's Michael and Danny Philippou's 2023 debut feature, Talk to Me, as a recent example of success.
It was made for about $5 million and became the highest-grossing horror film for American independent entertainment company, A24, earning $140 million in global box office sales.
"I think it does still exist, but it's about understanding your niche and knowing where you can get your revenue from,"
deCaux said.
"The Napoleon Dynamites are super rare and are exceptions to the rule but traditionally, for most filmmakers, it's about learning a craft and doing it over and over, and building up to those bigger projects.
"We found our way of making money through a beekeeping series on YouTube, and through YouTube revenue."
The Philippous too had been creating short films and clips for their YouTube channel RackaRacka for about a decade prior to securing backing for their first feature, which is now getting a second life on Netflix — currently ranked in the global top 10 most watched chart.
The digital shift
deCaux said there had been two major shifts in filmmaking over the past 20-odd years.
First was the shift in medium from film to digital, making cameras more affordable and bypassing the need to buy, develop and edit on film.
Then there was the emergence of online streaming services in the mid-1990s that evolved with technology into more user-friendly platforms, like YouTube in 2005 and Netflix in 2007.
But streaming's convenience reduced attendance numbers in cinemas, prompting major Hollywood studios to take less risks on new ideas and spend big money on safer bets like superhero franchises.
Conversely, streaming platforms opened up new channels for low and mid-budget films that might not have been made or distributed otherwise.
South Australian Film Corporation chief executive Kate Croser said "the era of breakout indie films certainly isn't over, it's just evolving".
"The more popular the film is on the [streaming] platform, the more views it gets, and the more buzz it generates, the more likely the streamer is to want to work with the filmmaker again and may even directly commission their next project," she said.
"Streaming can amplify success, in many ways … it can mean massive global exposure, sometimes more than a limited theatrical release could, and it can also allow films to have two rounds of critical and audience success."
Beyond negotiating acquisition contracts, however, independents creating a film for streaming platforms alone cannot benefit from the box office sales of the past.
Ms Croser said acquisition agreements with streaming services and the rates paid were often commercial in confidence, but they could be boosted by star power or large existing audiences.
"Typically, the streamer either pays the filmmaker a flat fee to win the rights to the film outright, or the filmmaker will licence the film to the streamer for a set period of time, either exclusively or non-exclusively, after which they may licence it elsewhere," she said.
"Revenue sharing arrangements can be a possibility, more commonly on smaller platforms [based on subscriber views or engagement time]."
But she said there were other benefits, such as low and mid-budget films not needing to sell as much to break even and return a profit, and streamers being able to commission directly from filmmakers and finance their production.
"Depending on the platform, this can open up much bigger budgets and global audiences than might otherwise be available," Ms Croser said.
She added the lack of a programming schedule and the need for a "huge catalogue of content" for varied demographics made it an "especially fertile ground for genre films or those with a specific or niche interest audience".
Film festival 'launch pads'
Regardless of how a project would be distributed, Ms Croser added that international film festivals remained "critical launch pads" that contributed to whether an independent film, or TV series, was a critical and/or commercial success.
She said SA's Run Rabbit Run was acquired by Netflix off the back of its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival in 2023 and "smashed the streamer's ratings in its first week of release" with 6 million views.
Stan series Thou Shalt Not Steal premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and SXSW Sydney and became one of Australia's biggest critical hits last year.
And SA's animated feature, Lesbian Space Princess, has recently been acquired for worldwide distribution after winning best feature after its premiere at the Berlinale in Germany.
"Cinemas aren't the only kingmakers anymore," Ms Croser said.
"It's a mix including streaming, festivals, smart distribution and a rise in audience-generated buzz."
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