Once upon a time, the idea of fans funding a movie was ridiculous. The main sources of revenue were usually studio executives for mainstream films, and people of similar financial status for indies. But crowdsourcing changed all that, due to hubs like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. These are places where people can back entertainment projects of multiple varieties, getting a gift in exchange for the monetary amount that they pledge. Kickstarter has been used to fund films, with the total being raised usually around $20,000 (sometimes higher, depending on the nature of the piece. One documentary recently was funded at $80,000). Obviously crowdsourcing is a very interesting idea. But it seemed until recently that it would only be for cheap indie projects; a “mainstream” high-budget project would be unable to procure the funds on Kickstarter to succeed. Well, last week that all changed. Veronica Mars, a short-lived but well-loved TV show, set up a Kickstarter campaign a few days ago to try to fund a movie. It was a campaign made by the official cast and crew, with blessings from the studio that owned the rights (WB). The amount it wanted to raise in 30 days? $2 million dollars. An insane amount by any stretch of the imagination, and one that, if successful, had the potential to set a precedent. An official campaign raising over a million dollars? It seems absurd. However, not only did the campaign raise the $2 million they needed to fund the film, they raised it all in less than 24 hours (in fact, at the time of this writing, it as $3.5 million already locked down, with quite a lot of time to go).
So of course, the question must be asked: what does this mean for the future of funding entertainment? The fact that $2 million was raised in one day indicates that there can be certain projects that can capture the imagination of a group passionate enough to fund it. So then the next step, it can stand to reason, is that if there is enough hype and goodwill towards certain creative projects, they can be funded by a fanbase for a price that is cheap for entertainment but expensive otherwise. The independent film that people have been searching for backers for because the price tag is a few million? It can be funded by Kickstarter. Of course, the other aspect to the Veronica Mars incident is the fact that the property was not unknown—it was a cult creation, with a passionate fanbase that was willing to contribute. If Joe Director tried to fund a million dollar film through Kickstarter, it is likely there wouldn’t be enough of an incentive for people to contribute—they don’t know who this person is or what the work is, and wouldn’t have the desire to give money. But current creative forces who want to pursue projects have now seen they can potentially fund them. If for example, Joss Whedon decides to try to fund a project through Kickstarter, there is a good chance it will succeed. In fact, the fact that the $2 million was reached with about 34,000 people means that any cult creation can succeed, provided that it has a moderately sized (in this case being 30,000 or more) fanbase. Given the millions of people watching entertainment every day, that number is incredibly small.
The other aspect of what this means for entertainment can be said to be a little more cynical. WB agreed to let the Kickstarter campaign happen, though they originally felt there was too little interest to sustain a film. Now that it’s clear that a small amount of passionate fans can help raise money for projects, does that mean more companies will seek to market and grow their properties on Kickstarter? Instead of an independent creator pursuing a project, Kickstarter could be used as a tool to gauge what properties have a strong base that will support them financially. The Veronica Mars experiment shows that there is a new way to engage with consumers and give them what they want, but also to receive money from them. Could companies be creating exclusive material that they think a small amount of people would be interested in, with fans footing the bill entirely? Time will tell. In the meantime, I’ll get excited for the Veronica Mars film.
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