For our film, we don’t need a huge name behind our distribution, so using a smaller scale distribution company may work out for us.
We considered 20th Century Fox since that was the company that distributed Murder On the Orient Express, but considering the other feature films they have released and the big names they have behind them, they wouldn’t want to take the financial risk of having such representation of a lead female detective. We also most likely wouldn’t have the budget for the amount of marketing required for that distribution company anyway, so going smaller would be our best choice for an indie film.
A few other studios caught my eye as I was researching and I found Artisan Entertainment and Momentum Pictures. They both have released mystery films before and as somewhat as a indie film with low budgets, Momentum especially since they released Following by Christopher Nolan with the low budget they had. Considering the good reputation these two studios have had in the past, choosing either of them would fit our film’s themes and target audience.
Another consideration was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, or MGM for short. They released Murder At The Gallop back in 1963 with a female lead detective (one of very few), we considered them for our distribution, but it does have somewhat of a big reputation, not particularly compared to 20th Century Fox, but too big for the indie film vibe we really want to go for. So, our ultimate choices for the distribution companies we might choose for our film would be Artisan Entertainment or Momentum Pictures, with a preference to Momentum Pictures.
Exhibition
For our movie, we would most likely platform our film and release it to major cities first with the most people to see if the target demographic is reached and if the movie is actually really successful or not. Other films that have platformed in this genre have done well and earned back the money that they used for their budget, like Following by Christopher Nolan. This will give us a good opportunity to really see how our film will perform up against others.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newmarket_Film
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artisan_Entertainment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century_Fox
Into The Truth 