MoviVue is a new streaming service launching today which features highly curated indie horror gems. Compared to other streaming giants such as Prime Video, MoviVue pays filmmakers up to 50 times more per stream.
There are many indie horror success stories that have inspired other filmmakers to pick up a camera and film their dream projects. Independent movies such as Halloween, The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and the more recent Longlegs have all proved very profitable and made many times more than their respective production budgets.
The problem is that for every Longlegs there are 50 other indie horror films vying for the attention of genre fans. What’s more, these indie filmmakers often sell their rights to streaming giants such as Netflix or Prime Video as well as ad-supported providers such as Tubi. In return, the filmmakers receive pennies for every stream and have to compete with thousands of other films hosted by the provider.
MoviVue Pays Filmmakers $1 Per Stream
MoviVue adjusts the payment strategy in the filmmakers’ favor by putting $1 per stream directly into the pocket of the person who made the film. The streaming service launches today with the action-horror creature feature The Prey and will feature both new and vintage indie horror films as well as bonus material. Jim Thalman, president of MovieVue, compares the dilemma the makers of these films face with most streaming providers to David and Goliath.
“We’re actually going to promote these films and get behind these movies because I don’t have a slate of 1,000 films like Netflix or Amazon and I don’t want it,” says Thalman. “I like the idea of one new movie every couple of weeks because then we can really curate.
“The big guys have steadily shut out the little guys or taken advantage of them. Amazon charges you $3.99 to rent a movie on Prime Video. They give the filmmaker 1.98 cents of that. Jeff Bezos makes $8 million an hour — that’s a fact and you can quote me on that — and a filmmaker gets less than 1% per stream while he keeps 99%. He did not work on the movie or even advertise it — he just provides a platform.”
Thalman continues, “If that’s all it takes, then why not create a platform where filmmakers can come make real money, get real support, and then go on and make their next movie? That’s what MoviVue is.”
Indie Filmmakers Just Want People To See Their Movies
The reason why indie filmmakers sell their movie rights to streaming giants is that they just want audiences to see what they created.
“That’s the plight of filmmakers because, at the end of the day, they just love the art of making movies,” says Thalman. “But they want audiences — not Mom, Dad and, you know, cousin Elmo — they want strangers to see their films and hopefully entertain them, so they wind up signing their rights away. Their movies deserve to generate hundreds of thousands of views and in turn, make hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Indie Horror Fans Seek a Sense of Community
Horror movies bring fans together like no other genre. You can find dozens of horror websites, blogs, podcasts, and conventions such as Monsterpalooza because what scares us unites us. Your skin color, sexual orientation, political party, or size of your paycheck doesn’t matter if Michael Myers is coming toward you on the big screen — scary is scary for everyone. Fans can debate each other about how sequels measure up or if a remake was necessary until they are blue in the face without getting angry because the thrill of “surviving” a scary movie is a shared experience.
MoviVue wants to re-create this sense of community at home by curating select indie horror titles and inviting people to hang out with their friends and discuss the movie, the behind-the-scenes bonus features, and live stream podcasts.
“We want to bring back that feeling of community you can only get by sitting in a dark movie theater with 150 strangers,” says Thalman. “Anything we acquire, we will put the full source of our marketing and social media teams behind it. We will do everything to let our audiences know about the film. We just want really fun films that we feel great about getting behind.”
Thalman continues, “I’m just trying to carve out a niche, a segment, a safe haven for indie filmmakers who want to take risks and make movies that impact audiences.”
