The process for selling a film is never the same but there are certain steps that you take to get the ball rolling each time. When you or your sales rep pitches your film to a distributor, the distributor will review the trailer, poster, cast, and other marketing materials. If they like what they see, they'll request a screener to watch the full film.

If they like the film, that's when negotiations start. I'm going to go into some details here that may not be relevant to you. If you hire a sales representative, they'll handle all of this for you but if you decide to negotiate it yourself, this section will help you.

Where Are We At?

Sometimes a distributor will ask "Where are you with <your film>?" which translates into "What is the current asking price?" This is the distributor's way of finding out if the cost of the film is above what they are willing to pay for it. If you have no offers yet, you can either tell them what your minimum ask is or you can tell them you have no offers. It's entirely up to you and your style but I would recommend you tell them your minimum price.

If you're willing to take any offer, you can let them know that by saying something like, "We're at $15,000 but are interested in any offers." That tells them that if they like the film but wanted to make a $10,000 offer, you're open to it.

The Negotiating Begins

A distributor will make a formal offer that includes all of the necessary deal points, which we'll get into later. But the most important thing to pay attention to is the minimum guarantee, or advance, and the distributor fee.

The minimum guarantee is their offer for how much they are willing to buy the film for. If you receive multiple offers and they all hover around $10-20,000, you shouldn't expect to counter with $100k. The market will decide how much it is willing to pay for your film.

Once you are happy with an offer amount, you or your sales rep will begin negotiating other deal points until both sides are happy with it, and at that point, you'll "Agree to terms." Agreeing to terms means that you are on the same page and the lawyers will step in to ensure that the written, or long-form, agreement.

This is called "red-lining" and can be a bit lengthy but it's required to ensure that both sides are happy with the agreed-upon terms.

After the red-lining is complete, you and the distributor will sign and your clock to deliver the deliverables (more on that later) will begin.