What you say is true. What keeps me interested, even with the misses to date, is looking at the total, long-term picture. At least as I see it. I am impressed with the relationships Eric and Fred have established with well known consultants, major film studios (Fox, MGM, Gaumont), and the contacts to get films into theaters nationwide. I believe at some point TDGI will begin to see success on a large scale. The fact that Gaumont approached TDGI for a partnership says a lot.
Last year NASCAR and Best Buy were heavily involved working with TDGI to promote "Racing Dreams". Best Buy spent $2M on its own advertising for the launch and had Racing Dreams up on TV monitors in stores across the country when it went to DVD. I am sure NASCAR and Best Buy were surprised the film did not perform better than it did. So we can't put the blame entirely on TDGI. The film just did not do well. Eric learned from this that it would probably have been better to launch the documentary in New York first on a limited basis, then move out to other theaters if it did well. That is the approach they will now take with other films.
TDGI paid "very expensive, high-level consultants" to help strategize the launch of "Twelve". This was mentioned at the shareholder meeting and in 2010 PRs. Tom Ortenberg (do a Google search on this guy) planned the staggered launch campaign. It didn't work as well as they thought it would. At least Eric was able to get 20th Century Fox to distribute the video. Fox will get TDGI a fairly good return, much better than they would have gotten on their own. Fox will also promote "Twelve" again during the summer.
TDGI lost one source of funding who decided to start his own distribution business (Fotis whose name appears on Twelve posters), who probably was also to provide the funding for "Girlfriends". Twelve's performance resulted in less available funding than everyone involved with the films promotion expected which then limited funds available to TDGI for other films.
Eric mentioned at the shareholder meeting that the major studio backing "All's Faire in Love" would pay all up front costs to promote the film. TDGI won't have to come up with funds for that. The relationship with Patriot Films and the major studio (which we had already been told was MGM) gives TDGI a strong partnership. So if there are any delays releasing that film to theaters we can probably blame Patriot Films and MGM.
I would like to have seen "Wild Hunt" which I thought should do well on DVD. Don't really care about "Girlfriend". These are just my personal interests. But understanding that lack of funding due to circumstances for the most part out of TDGI's control, and seeing other/better opportunities ahead with a greater ROI potential -- well, at this point I care more about "Turtles" which could do much better (extraordinarily so) than both "Wild Hunt", "Girlfriend" and a bunch of other small films combined.
Turtles is the one I want to see TDGI get right. Even if they have to bring on partners to ensure the film gets the distribution it deserves is fine with me. They now have access to up to $2M from Graham Financial, may involve some dilution but then people can't complain about off balance sheet financing. Plus if the partnership with Gaumont happens, that's another $1.25M available cash and access to other funding sources. And then there is the cash to come from Fox's distribution of Twelve.
It may take a while, at least perhaps until late June/July with Turtles launch, to see what TDGI may be capable of. But I believe I see enough to make me want to hold this for the long term. JMHO.
AI
