So I've been watching the stats on Amazon, and they're pretty mediocre. It's updating slow, but here's how it's going:
On the first film, we broke a million minutes in 12 days. (most of my other movies broke a million between 15-20 days in)
Terrortory 2, as of day 19, hasn't broken a million yet. (it's close) Considering this movie cost more, has more awareness, and has a better trailer, this news SUCKS.
We are still in the top 100 horror movies, but we're not budging off of page 6 or 7.
As I mentioned, if we don't hit the bonus, I lose money. It's that simple. Amazon's new pay scheme basically pays you $1k for a million minutes. They used to pay $2500 for the same amount.
We're not getting the volume of reviews we got on the first one, which is strange. We're not getting many bad reviews, which is just flat out weird. They're starting to smash us on imdb, so where's the haters on Amazon?
To top it all off--and this just fucking STAGGERS me--there are actors/actresses/creators involved in the production of this film who have not MENTIONED the movie on their timeline(or anywhere I can see). But they're sharing youtube videos they're in, and headshots, and other shit nowhere near as impressive as being involved in a feature film.
I don't get it. I honestly don't get it.
Then I have over 800 "friends" on Facebook. I've basically pleaded for them to leave us a review. I've done it a couple of times, and explained how important it is. Some of them have done it, and those people are aces in my book. They want me to return the favor, I'm there.
But the rest of them? The people who just Thumbs Up the post, and move on? Well, let's just say I'm starting to pare down my friends list. And those actors? Well, I won't be working with them again, or passing their name to any filmmaker who asks me to recommend an actor/actress.
What's all this mean? Well, I'm pretty much out of Terrortory. I won't be doing the wraparound on part three(which was the original thought, while the other guys handled everything else). Heck, won't be doing anything else on Terrortory as far as I can tell.
I may even be done with making movies. There are easier ways to lose money. Easier ways that don't take years off my life. Shit, I could have taken the money and gambled it away in one night. I'd feel just as bad as I do now, but wouldn't have wasted all that time.
The bottom line to all this is this: Amazon is no longer viable as a distribution strategy unless you can make your film for under 1K. At that point, maybe you can make your money back plus some. I just don't know how you make something worthwhile for that kind of money.
I'm going to wait and see how the final 2 weeks of October are before I figure what I'm going to do. At this point I'm not really inclined to try an aggregator with the money I've made back. Do I really want to toss more money into the black pit?
I think I need a vacation more than I need to roll that die.
