David Cross On Why and How He Decided to Self-Distribute Hits

As the days went on, the producers and I were fielding other offers from a handful of distributors – they were all uninspiring, to say the least – all of them following the industry standard template for indie film distribution that has become the norm. That is to say, open for a week in Los Angeles and New York (add a couple additional cities from a list of about 10 or so (Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Chicago etc.), then if it does amazingly well, it can be expanded to another 10 or so cities from there. If not, then it’s straight to VOD and Apple iTunes a couple weeks later. So technically, yes, it would have a theatrical run, but I wanted as many people to see it as possible. That’s why I made a movie and not a series of Vines.