So, what's the answer? How can you tap into large, engaged church databases with your film if the site license concept is no longer what it once was? Tune in next time for an answer…"
Here's the answer we used for our ministry's new film, Hope for Hurting Hearts (hope.harvest.org)… In developing a relationship with Lifeway for our main ministry outreach Harvest America (harvestamerica.com), I became aware of the various divisions within Lifeway… We've discussed them in prior posts. But I became interested in Lifeway Events. For years, they have hosted and simulcasted live events like Beth Moore, David Platt, church-related events, etc… Therefore, they have a great database of mostly churches that have pulled one of these events down over their history. Just think… You're a Pastor and twenty ladies from your church want to attend the next Beth Moore conference… You can send them all out to the location of the conference or you can spend much less money and bring the conference into your own church.
So I came up with an idea… "Lifeway Films allow me to introduce you to Lifeway Events…" Not only do you get your film into churches but what's the difference between a bunch of people sitting in the dark watching a film on a movie theater screen or a a bunch of people sitting in the dark watching a film on a screen in a church?
Well, first, you save tons of money… It costs between $10K and $20K per screen in upfront money to market a film in through a traditional theatrical release.
So, here's how it worked for our film… I pitched Lifeway on utilizing Lifeway Events to do our world premiere. From July 10-14, 2013, any church, group or individual could register (for free) and do a movie night at their church, venue, etc… for their community. Now, it wasn't free for us, the filmmaker; it cost over $20K to cover Lifeway's expenses. Now before you bug out and stop reading, read what's next…
Lifeway would much rather do a deal where you don't provide their expenses upfront... Why? Because they top out on their revenue when they did this deal with us. They'd much rather partner with you and your excellent film and risk sharing profits with you. So, instead of paying $10K to $20K per screen to market your film in the traditional theatrical model and potentially (probably) lose money on a premiere, you can (potentially) make money through a world premiere with Lifeway.
The goal with the traditional theatrical distribution model is to break-even or make a little money in this channel. Why? Because a theater run generates awareness for a film that translates into $$$ later in the retail and other "downstream" channels. It's promotion. So, you can break-even and still win with this model. You can also lose a ton of money. And in most cases, movies lose money at the box office. But with Lifeway, you can share in the profits with your premiere. How?
Instead of providing the premiere free to churches and venues like we did with our film, Lifeway charges churches for the movie event (like they do for a Beth Moore conference). Will you get as many churches registered as you would with a free world premiere? No. There is little out of pocket cost this way to you and you will generate awareness and audiences this way.
What were the results of this innovative alternative theatrical distribution model for Hope for Hurting Hearts? Did it achieve what we wanted? Did it generate awareness for downstream marketing channels? Overall, was it a success? We'll discuss that next time.
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