Filmmakers hit $100 million mark on Kickstarter

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Making it big on the silver screen has never been easy, but Kickstarter is trying to change that. The world’s largest funding platform for “creative projects” hosted roughly 82,000 project pitches online last year, receiving a total of $450 million dollars in pledged donations. In the past three years, $100 million dollars has been donated to filmmakers. (Kickstarter updates their stats here).

“This would be a very impressive track record for an established studio or production company. To see these results come from outside the system in such a short time is even more inspiring,” Kickstarter wrote in a blog post. Film is at the top of Kickstarter’s list of crowdfunded project categories (followed by Games and Design). Documentary films grossed the majority of the funds, reaching a sum of $42.64 million dollars, while animated works took home $4.87 million. The Hollywood Reporter has a rundown of where the money goes by genre.

$100 million may be a paltry sum for a Hollywood production; “The Hobbit” cost Warner Brothers an estimated $315 million for the first installment of the trilogy alone.  However, independent filmmakers have the virtue of resourcefulness. In 2012, 10 percent of films on the Sundance roster were directly related to Kickstarter; an additional 16 projects were screened on PBS, HBO, or Showtime. Among the 20 best-reviewed films of 2012 on RottenTomatoes.com, three were Kickstarter-funded. Two films, “Sun Come Up,” and “Incident in New Baghdad,” have been nominated for an Oscar. An additional five documentaries are shortlisted for 2013 Oscar nominations. Below are trailers for some of the successful Kickstarter films:

AI WEI WEI: NEVER SORRY

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