Can you make money from a free open source movie?

photo credit: Cayusa Now to some people the idea of making money from a free movie may seem a bit paradoxical, but it really isn't.  Even though 'Open source movies' are released online for free and as "free cultural works" are inspired by the open source software movement, does not mean the creator and the talented people involved can't recoup expenses and even make a little profit.

If you've been following the Jathia's Wager project and you'll already now that I'm in the process of creating and releasing an open source movie science fiction movie.  Of course profit is not my motivation behind making this film (that seems hard for lots of Hollywood types to understand), but if I can recoup my expenses and earn enough to make another film I'll be ecstatic - I LOVE filmmaking and I want to make more movies!! As you probably already know, in a typical film most of the profit is made from distribution (theaters, mainstream DVD release). In an open source movie, most of the audience will watch or download the film online for free, so most the movies' revenue will come from alternative sources like direct advertising/sponsor revenue, purchasable commercial DVDs, and website monetization sources. Current Streams of revenue I'm working on:

1.    Commercial Distribution for audience members who want to purchase a retail or collector edition DVD, Blueray disc via amazon.com, create space, lulu, or ebay

2.    Direct Advertisers and sponsors - both in the movie at the beginning where the previews are and at the end credits as well as on the website etc.  I'm going to attempt to sell advertising directly in the finished films at the end and right in the beginning - brought to you by ... sort of thing.  See http://hitmypage for a mini-site I setup for this purpose.

3.    Website Traffic Monetization Google Adsense, Pay per View, - performance based advertising.  By releasing a free movie online, if it hits and attracts a large audience the traffic to the official website will be enormous and by optimizing PPC and other performance based advertising this can

4.    Video syndication and commercial re-publishing - I'm a YouTube partner and I actually get paid based on the amount of views on YouTube I generate.  It's a non-exclusive program so I can also submit to other video sharing sites like Metacafe and various content networks that offer cash rewards from video syndication through their network.

5.    Donations from fans and audience members (maybe combined with a commercial DVD and other perks to encourage reciprocation).

6.    Merchandise - T-shirts anyone?

7.    Any creative individuals have any other ideas? I believe the real profit potential from Jathia's Wager will come in the follow-up opportunities once an established audience and a film "franchise" has been created.  If I can use this to fuel an open source web series or perhaps even a feature length film (with an audience in the millions pre-established from this project) I could potentially make some real money while still advancing collaborative filmmaking - which would be really really cool!