Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). MH is planning to go to the Arizona film festival again. I was able to pay for the flight and the hotel with credit card rewards. I was extra pleased because Capital One gave me an extra $250 travel credit re: booking through their travel site. I've already looked up hotels at least 4 times already. They never have the hotel or the room type that we want. I guess the 5th time is the charm. It's nice I was able to actually use that credit.
I think we can easily pay for the balance of this trip, and the balance of his Austin trip, with MH's income. I was intially eyeing DL's 'college rent fund' for our big anniversary trip. But we've actually been able to build up some cash this year. (Knock on wood). I will probably just more view the DL fund as a secondary emergency fund. & will just see how it all lands at the end of the year.
On Wednesday, MH was able to show his movie at a small micro theater. They have about 25 seats.
MH wasn't sure who was showing up. All his flakey friends who couldn't make it to the IMAX screening were interested but were once again flakes. As we drove to the theater, MH told me he had no idea who was going to show up. The tickets had sold out quickly.
Once we arrived at sat down to watch the movie, MH told me, "I don't know any of these people!" (I think technically there was the two of us, and two of his friends that had confirmed ahead of time.)
Definitely the most cold crowd we have watched the movie with. Because it's always been cast, crew, friends, family.
From the first minute, people were laughing at every.single.joke. I looked at MH and told him, "Well, this is a good crowd!" He definitely found his people. I think it was just a group of people that likes indie horror films. They LOVED it! Which bodes well for the real plan which is to gather a cult following and eventually make a sequel. Maybe we can do this thing.
I told MH that other than the first screening with the cast and crew, I think this audience was the second most excited. MH told me he thought this audience appreciated it more than the cast and crew. Fair. I think MH felt very seen as they laughed at pretty much all of his stupid jokes. When it comes to the movies MH has made, I feel like it usually takes a minute for people to get that this is supposed to be dumb and silly. & this crowd *got it* from the first beat.
It's a horror comedy. If nothing else, we might always do a screening at this theater in September or October. I don't know if we will ever get our initial investment back. But all that money was worth it just to experience that once. & we can do it again! We also chatted with the owners, who said they are trying really hard to find a bigger space. I think we found the right venue. Being able to double or triple how many tickets we can sell... That would be amazing.
The movie theater split the proceeds with us 50/50. The sold out show netted us $135! That's the first money we have ever made from the infinite hours MH has put into making movies.
MH had rush ordered some test Blu Ray disks, hoping to sell at the movie theater. I believe they do a 60/40 cosignment split. It turns out the movie had a small glitch. MH doesn't want them in circulation. It's just a sound glitch in the menu. But selling the blu rays will have to wait for another time.
It's a bummer because this is further delaying the main benefit to all of the financial backers. Who are waiting for their early blu ray copies. So close...
When we woke up Wednesday morning, this was the status of further distribution and streaming: Expected release date end of October.
Really cutting it close as to wanting to have it available for Halloween. & who knows how much that will be pushed back.
All we knew was that it was still under QC review. There was a very high expectation that there would be some rework that needs to be done re: sound or whatever else.
To be continued...
September 14th, 2025 at 11:02 pm 1757887336
September 20th, 2025 at 12:40 am 1758325232
September 20th, 2025 at 04:09 pm 1758380972