Independent film vs Hollywood film

Hollywood companies are normally called what's known as 'Vertically Integrated'. Vertically integrated means that the company will normally own a number of stages involved in getting a movie production to an audience.

This image gives a clear indication of the stages:

The company would own all the stages from the production stage to the distributing and marketing stage to the exhibition stage.

Independent companies often find it difficult to find a distributor and as a result struggle to get the movie released to its audience.

Many hollywood studies already have a distributor lined up before the production of the film, where as independent productions have to find a distributor after the film has been made. Distributors will often buy a movie in which after the producers receive none of the profits that the film makes on sale or will offer the producers a cut of the profits that the film sells.

Examples

Hollywood films would tend to have a large amount of distributors, an example would be the comical classic 'Despicable me' which totaled 25 distributors if you include both cinema and home video distributors.

Over half of which (16) in total of the companies are owned by Universal studios, which clearly displays vertical integration.

On the other hand the classic thriller 'Reservoir Dogs' was an independent production and had only 3 distributors:

Miramax Films - Domestic Theatrical Distributor

• Rank Film Distributors Ltd - Foreign Theatrical Distributor

• Cinexus/Famous Players Distribution - Foreign Theatrical Distributor

A large scale difference compared to the Hollywood production.