Clarion Call for Case Studies

"a strong request for something to happen" Britannica Dictionary

We need to help each other through information sharing.

Recently after a post screening reception I was hearing once again from directors in the documentary field talking about how they have multiple projects on the go, in production, in post, in distribution but their yearly total income from these funded projects are not hitting the six figures range. Not great. What I’ve thought for a while is directors need to talk to each other and be open about what they are making and what they are not making. So in that moment I grabbed two other directors at the reception and said “hey you all need to talk to each other and tell each other what your fees are”. I walked away and let them fly. Empowerment through transparency...hopefully.

For myself I’m after transparency too. My focus right now is learning what revenues films are bringing in when pursuing non-dependent distribution models (read my last post about the model). So I’m after case studies and you’re going to help me! Yes you! More about that further down.

We all like case studies because we want to understand how things work.

— how much revenue is coming in through theatrical, what size of a run, what about regional art house runs vs series of one night only events?

— what about non-theatrical screenings i.e. screenings outside of traditional theaters, in community centers, educational spaces, churches, and other gathering places?

— if you use Kinema, Gathr, Jolt, Attend and the like what can you make and what are best practices for success?

— what type of return can you build from direct sales via your website, that D2C (direct to consumer) path, and how much budget do you need to support a release this way?

— PBS distribution and underwriting, what can you expect there?

— FAST channels and other ad supported streaming, what’s the take home?

— Criterion, Mubi and other specialty streamers in either exclusive or non-exclusive runs, what are the numbers there?

— old fashion educational distribution, what’s the range you can bring in and how long do you play that out before wider distribution?

— broadcast sales internationally what could you bring in?

— how about that merch? or book? or event and other ancillary revenue?

— beyond these what are the innovative new experiments, what haven’t I mentioned?

— I said this once above already, what is the budget needed to pull this off and support audience awareness and engagement?

— what if you’re not financial return focused and it’s about the eyeballs + impact? what are your ways to raise funds from grants and other non-recoupable sources?

— for the marketing and audience engagement what are the smart direct methods that are low cost and high conversion?

Earlier this year I spoke with a couple film teams and quizzed them on their paths, really appreciated them sharing numbers. If you have a project in recent release and you’re open to chatting please reach out.

As I’ve been incubating this post I’ve started to gather case studies others are putting out. I’m going to focus on more recent films post pandemic. We’re in a different environment since that moment. In time there might be good reason to dive further back but for now keeping the focus tight. Please send me links to good ones and I’ll add them to the list below in an ongoing fashion. Bonus points for case studies that share numbers. Extra bonus if you hit me up with the ENO case study, haha. and hint hint I’d love to read an Invisible Nation case study (now included below from Kathleen)!

** note I’ve been updating this post as new case studies come into my orbit.

The Film Collaborative Case Studies - a list of films that keeps growing.

Twin Seas Media Case Studies - these are impact campaign focused, there’s a lot to learn from too.

The Distribution Playbook Case Studies - scroll down to the bottom of the playbook (really worth reading through too!) and there are a hand full of case studies. There’s been a update to the playbook in Spring ‘25 so circle back if you haven’t looked at it recently.

Kathleen Lingo from Lingo on Docs is dropping case studies now and here’s one on Invisible Nation. Here’s a great two parter on Union, part 1 & part 2.

Jon Reiss’ Case Studies - Jon just dropped one last week on the film “No time to fail” it’s a good one with a great set of questions. What I love is the team got into numbers. Super helpful. Then go check his Hundreds of Beavers case study. And now added Eno and 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture case studies.

D-Word summary of 2024 DocNYC pro - This is behind a registration wall, not even a hurdle basically, sign up! These are summaries written up by Katy McClellan, there is a panel on ENO, one on Union and one on distribution platforms Kinema, Gathr & Jolt. All three worth checking out (numbers dropped!) plus the link has bonus panels too! In the distro panel this gem was dropped “Giant influencers - don’t chase them. Even with huge followers, their audiences may not be aligned with your film. Example, Serena Williams posted about a film, but only 10-20 people purchased”.

The Distribution Advocates’ Film-ade Fund grant funded case study on ENO is finally out and you can read it here. They just dropped a case study on UNION. Another gem (4/24/25) from the DA crew, the You Me & Her case study.

Firelight Media, a new addition to my list is publishing case studies as part of their 2025 Beyond Resilience series. Check out their case study on the doc Unseen. Check out their recent talk/Q&A with filmmakers from Unseen & Union.

Filmmaker Magazine’s Anthony Kaufman put a piece out on 6 films from Sundance 2024 and their distribution numbers. His substack is worth a follow too. The piece covers Ghostlight, Thelma, Good One (a fav for me!), Sugarcane, Between the Temples, and Union.

Peter Broderick’s Wisdom of Trauma case study - I sometimes hesitate to read this because it’s very successful, maybe too successful and if it can be replicated. But there’re fresh ideas and they open our minds to what’s possible and knocks you out of ridgid ways of thinking. I need to dig through Peter’s older posts for other films. The folks over at Kinema did a case study recently on the filmmakers.

The

Widdoespeak

“As We Speak” case study. Four posts (so far) from the producer of the documentary.

The Popcorn List - They did a nice roundup circling back to the films they had highlighted in their 2024 cohort to see how their distribution went one year later. Read about it here.

Thunder Road Sundance case study - ok this breaks my rule of “post 2020 films only” as this is from 2016 but I’m leaving this here because the level of information and detail is fab.

John Fitzgerald Alternative Distribution case study - confession I need to get a subscription to his substack to read this. But knowing what he writes I’m assuming good stuff here.

Reminder send me links to what I should be reading.

One of the current films out there running an event driven release is Born Innocent: the Redd Kross Story. I’m aiming to gather up the numbers for a case study post early next year. The film started its Fall/Winter release at the Chinese Theater in LA and heading towards 30+ playdates locked in with hopefully some returns and holdovers. Currently selling out our LA shows thankfully. Few tickets left for Wednesday in Santa Monica.

As always I’d love to know about your non-dependent experiences.