Cinetic Media CEO John Sloss Talks Dire Need for Indie Films’ Theatrical Distribution

variety.com:

Addie Morfoot Contributor Independent cinema is in trouble.That’s according to Bob Berney, CEO of Picturehouse, John Sloss, founder and CEO of Cinetic Media, and Eugene Hernandez, director of the Sundance Film Festival and head of public programming.

During an Oct. 1 Woodstock Film Festival panel titled the “Current and Future State of Independent Cinema” the trio ruminated on the future of independent film distribution.Sloss acknowledged that while Netflix heads Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos are progressive, their decision to withhold data from the industry at large “set the industry back 50 years.”That said, Sloss admitted that he was immediately drawn to the streaming service when they began acquiring independently made films over two decades ago.“I have 70 films in my office that pay overages, which is not an insignificant amount,” Sloss said. “Then Netflix came in and it was really a conflict because they were paying so much money.

From everyone’s standpoint, it was like, ‘Do I stick up for the theatrical and all the media and the possibility of making money on the back end and betting on myself, or do I just take this windfall and give it to them for perpetuity?'”The global-only rights policy Netflix implemented had repercussions on smaller, indie films, which included the loss of a theatrical release.

That led to a decline of indie films in movies theaters, which was followed by the pandemic shutting down many independently run movie theaters.