HD For Indies

Got a press release email this morning:

Withoutabox has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired by the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), an Amazon.com subsidiary. This presents a great opportunity for all our independent filmmakers, festivals, and industry professionals. The new arrangement preserves the vision that Withoutabox has championed for eight years, teaming it with the Internet's number one destination for film lovers and film insiders.

As Filmmakers and self-distributors, you can look forward to more ways to help reach your audiences and monetize your work.

As Festivals, you can look forward to more powerful tools to scout, collect, select, and schedule films, plus access to a vast audience of movie lovers that only IMDb can deliver - more than 50 million visitors a month.

As film Sellers, Sales Agents, and Acquirers, you can look forward to unprecedented information, discovery, and connectivity at your fingertips, across the entire landscape of commercial and independent film.

The day-to-day operations of Withoutabox will remain much the same, including the entire management team, our experienced staff, and the dedicated customer service you love.


Interesting - points out the direction IMDB might want to head into, from an aggregator of data on finished/developing products, suddenly into the space of helping folks get distribution. From passive to active role. (see update below)

Without A Box started as a service to help filmmakers submit finished films to multiple festivals at once. Last year I reported on how they were trying become a middleman, helping connect filmmakers and acquisition funding. Will IMDB keep pushing this forward, or will they get folded in as is and remain complacent with services offered?

I would love to have been a fly on the wall to see what the cost justification and strategy was for IMDB to acquire these folks.

-mike

UPDATE - AH! And then I, you know, READ the whole thing in detail, and my brain registered this time that IMDB is owned by AMAZON, and it all clicks. (Maybe I should start drinking coffee? Nah...be like starting smoking cigaretttes or jabbing heroin haphazardly into my arm). Amazon wants to be more vertically integrated in the content chain. Like Mark Cuban's HDNet/Magnolia Pictures/etc. Except, you know, bigger and more successful.

Labels: distribution, online distribution