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The 'Veronica Mars' Kickstarter Win Won't Revolutionize The Movie Business

This article is more than 10 years old.

Kristen Bell

Yesterday was a huge win for a very specific group of people: Veronica Mars fans. In just a few hours they raised enough money to finance a movie version of their beloved TV show which went off the air in 2007 after only 3 seasons. According to Kickstarter, 44,651 people contributed $2.7 million. That's $700,000 more than the film makers needed and it's the strong show of support Warner Bros. was looking for. The studio will now kick in the money to market and distribute the film in a few theaters and on VOD.

On the face of it, this seems like a watershed moment for independent film financing. Passionate filmmakers could suddenly be free of the burden of searching for investors willing to put money into their films but also expecting returns. The Veronica Mars fans aren't investors. They won't demand an audit if the movie doesn't seem to make money. They're happy with their t-shirts, DVDs and scripts that they received as premiums for their donations.

It's an incredibly great deal for Warner Bros., Mars executive producer Rob Thomas and anyone who has points on the film. As long as the film earns back its marketing money, everyone will make money since there are no other investors to pay out.

But when you look more closely at the project, you realize this is not going to be the new model. There were very specific reasons why this project worked. There was already a script and all of the players (including big name star Kristen Bell) were already on board. There was also already a distributor in place, a rarity these days for any independent project.

Then there's Veronica Mars' fan base. There aren't many shows that have quite as loyal a group of fans as Mars. It takes an enormous effort to pry even a little big of money from someone for something like a Kickstarter project. The backers have to be really and truly invested and in love with the project. Maybe when Community gets canceled they'll have something like this ready and waiting but it's not a fit for every canceled show.

Mars is not the first movie to seek funding on Kickstarter. There's a slew of video projects looking for backers. Some are successful, others aren't having much luck. To stand out, future indie films will need the same hooks they use to attract off line investors, a star or a known director. The quality of the script matters even less with Kickstarter projects as backers are unlikely to read a whole script before deciding whether to donate.

There's even a chance the film could hurt indie financing. If the film does very well, distributors might start to expect filmmakers to be able to raise money on their own from fans but that's easier said than done.

Follow me on Twitter at DorothyatForbes.

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