How an indie filmmaker raised $1.7 million in micro-funding from the public.

Sam Pressman is offering everyone a piece of Hollywood IP for $200.

Forget Disney share certificates, Sam Pressman has thrown open the doors of Hollywood development to the public for as little as $200. Once the preserve of ultra high net worth individuals, movie financing has taken a decidedly democratic turn. Sam is the son of Edward R. Pressman who made decade defining blockbusters including Wall Street and American Psycho and he’s been raising money to continue his father’s legacy via a platform called Republic. So far, he’s raised $1.7 million from movie fans who will share the benefits if he creates a hit.

I chatted with Sam, CEO of Pressman Film, about this unique approach to movie funding. Details of the raise ending tomorrow are here.  This interview is condensed for clarity

Q: Why are you doing this?

A: My father was excited by the prospect of constructing a medium where fans could participate in both the intellectual process of a film’s evolution from development to distribution, but also, most significantly, the revenues derived from film. We hit our target goal of a million and a half dollars, and we’ve seen an uptick in interest recently but it would be amazing to just connect to more people. 

Q: Who’s investing, little old ladies in Omaha?

A: A gentleman in Indonesia put in $30,000 and I was completely blown away. We’re waiting to get to know who our investors are until after it closes.  There was an investor in Idaho who came in the first day for $500 and they just said, “This is so amazing. I've never thought of being able to be part of making a movie.”  It was someone completely outside of our network. We have people in our network that we knew we would go to, and that’s been a meaningful piece of the total that we've raised but it’s really about democratizing how fans relate to the movies they love.

Q: What will the money help fund? A specific movie or a slate?

A: All the funds raised go towards a slate of projects. So the investors’ risk is diversified across a number of films, and also they have visibility on a range of films, and they’re going to be eclectic and subtly political and cult, and yet somehow commercial in the way that speaks to my father’s career in filmography. They’re the million and a half dollar model that we put together that’s available to anyone, who wants to take a look. We’ve contemplated developing six films, three are from the catalog of my father’s films, and three of which are new IP. Potentially, all of them are like “Ed’s Picks.”

Q: So what happens when the raise closes?

A: We’re going to get straight into action. We close [the raise] on November 22 and there are a number of projects that will commence writing before the end of the year.  I believe that we’ll see movies go into production at the end of 2025, and then there's like a three year arc with all of those. 

What’s compelling about it being a development slate, in terms of the return for investors, is that you get the principle of whatever goes into that specific film back immediately upon principal production, like any traditional development money with a 20 percent premium, and then investors also get 15 percent of our producer’s fee and 15 percent of any applicable rights fee. 

So all of those three revenue streams are kind of like success proof. We have to make the movies, but it doesn’t have to go through the roof for the investor to see the returns.  And then on top of that -  something development investors rarely get - we’re giving a serious participation in the upside of the film. So if it’s a runaway hit, we’re giving 100 percent of our share of net profits until the entire fund has recouped all of the money that’s gone in. Say we raised two million at the end of the raise; even if  just two movies get made in the first two years, if one of them is a big hit, the fund can recoup entirely with a meaningful premium on top.

 Ed’s movies meant something to culture and people. We’ve been celebrating the 50 year anniversary of “Phantom of the Paradise,” [ A 1974 rock musical, comedy horror movie directed by Brian De Palma.] It’s just wild to be with a crowd of people whose lives have been shaped by the movie. That's what we live for - love of the movies.

Q: Who does this initiative appeal to?

A: There’s multiple audiences: traditional investors who probably have some cross indexing with fans of Gordon Gekko and Patrick Bateman. There are traditional film lovers who can be on their couch and invest $200 and suddenly be a part of a community making movies, not just like the next six months, but for years. They’ll get to engage. Then there’s a blockchain component, which is actually part of what makes it technologically innovative, and without which accounting to hundreds of investors with efficient, transparent immediacy would be unfathomable. 

Q: What’s going on in the indie film sector right now? 

A: The traditional foreign sales market is much more challenging. My father would go to Cannes with a poster and finance the movie right there. In the seventies it was a different world. Now, you really need to have all the materials prepared so that buyers globally understand how and why that movie will connect with audiences. 

I think that streaming has changed the market. So much capital came into the industry, it kind of squeezed the studios because they couldn't compete in some ways so they started making less product, less films, and then the streamers in recent times have all contracted because stock valuations did not line up with the actual revenues. So now the streamers are making less films, the studios are making less films, and independent producers actually have an amazing window. Look at a movie like “The Brutalist,” made for $8 million and it’s a massive epic. 

Q: Are you optimistic about the indie film business? 

A: Independent film producers have an amazing moment to catalyze new voices and find new ways of reaching audiences. Others in the motion picture business have done a much better job of connecting creator to the community, and that ties into what we want to do with this Republic raise to allow our fans to feel a true sense of participation and ownership in the works.

Jason Blum is on our board of advisors, look at Blumhouse and the way they've constructed a label. There are these companies that are able to form a relationship with the fans and the fans of that imprint have an expectation of what that means. Pressman Film has that historically, and we need to keep making movies that wake people up to that. The same company made such movies as Wall Street, Conan the Barbarian, Thank You for Smoking and American Psycho. My father was able to work simultaneously with David Byrne and David Mamet, and then Werner Herzog and Terrence Malik, Oliver Stone and Abel Ferrara. Mary Harron and Charles Burnett. I look at the movies he made, and I'm just in awe, and want to do everything I can to nourish that same tree of life that we film lovers love.

You can read more on Pressman Films’ projects here.