Film distribution for New Orleans filmmakers. Mann Robinson Distribution licenses independent films and TV to major streaming platforms and networks, including Tubi. 20 percent fee, two year term, you keep ownership.
Mann Robinson Distribution is an independent film and television distribution company that works with filmmakers in New Orleans and across Louisiana. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with a presence in Detroit and Los Angeles, and it licenses finished features, television shows, sitcoms and reality series to major streaming platforms and networks, including Tubi. A New Orleans filmmaker with a completed project can submit at mannrobinsondistribution.com/submit or write to distribution@mannrobinsonstudios.com.
The terms are the same for every filmmaker: a 20 percent distribution fee on gross, a two year exclusive term, quarterly payments, and ownership of the film stays with the filmmaker.
New Orleans has been a working production center for decades, and Louisiana's incentive program continues to bring features and series to the city and the surrounding parishes. Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" is among the recent productions that shot in Louisiana.
The infrastructure behind that is local. Second Line Stages is a long established studio operation in New Orleans, and Deep South Studios has been developing a full service motion picture and television production facility in the city. Crew, camera houses and equipment vendors are based in the region, so a production in Orleans Parish can staff most departments locally.
The independent side runs on its own institutions. The New Orleans Film Society programs the New Orleans Film Festival each October, centered on the Contemporary Arts Center with screenings at independent theaters around the city. The festival is Oscar qualifying in all three Academy short subject categories, and it runs a filmmaker conference alongside the screenings. The Society also runs South Pitch, the Southern Producers Lab and the Emerging Voices Directors Lab, a fellowship for Louisiana based directors of color, and it programs the New Orleans French Film Festival at the Prytania Theatre.
NOVAC, the New Orleans Video Access Center, has been running since 1972 and offers equipment and facility rental, job referrals and workforce training. Between these organizations, an independent film made in New Orleans can find gear, crew and a premiere in the city. The work that comes out of it tends to reflect the place: music documentaries, Southern Gothic narrative features, and documentary work rooted in local history and geography.
The Louisiana Motion Picture Production Program pays a 25 percent base credit on qualified in state spend, with a 10 percent uplift for a Louisiana screenplay, a 5 percent uplift for shooting outside the New Orleans metropolitan statistical area, a 15 percent Louisiana resident payroll credit and a 5 percent visual effects credit. Total credits cannot exceed 40 percent of the base investment. The standard minimum in state spend is $300,000, while a Louisiana screenplay production can qualify at $50,000. Current terms are published by Louisiana Entertainment at louisianaentertainment.gov.
Two consequences follow for filmmakers working in New Orleans. A script written by a Louisiana resident carries real value, and the lower $50,000 threshold puts the program within reach of genuinely small features. The 5 percent geographic uplift, though, applies outside the New Orleans metropolitan statistical area, so a film made inside Orleans Parish works from different arithmetic than one made in Shreveport or Lafayette.
Permitting runs through Film New Orleans, which sits under the Mayor's Office of Cultural Economy. Every production shooting in Orleans Parish, student films included, needs a city film permit and a certificate of insurance carrying $1 million in general liability that names the City of New Orleans.
All of that covers production. None of it covers what happens after picture lock, which is where distribution starts.
Mann Robinson Distribution licenses distribution rights to finished independent projects and places them with major streaming platforms and networks.
The whole deal is five numbers, and they are the same for every filmmaker.
Typically about 90 days from signing to go live. A New Orleans filmmaker planning around a fall festival premiere should count backward from the release date they want.
On ad supported platforms, earnings are impressions multiplied by CPM, not a flat amount per view. An impression is an ad served against your title, and CPM is the rate paid per thousand of them, so revenue tracks the advertising that ran against your film, not a headcount of viewers.
Every filmmaker gets a portal login that shows impressions, CPM and earnings broken out per platform, alongside statements and payment history. Payments are quarterly, and the distribution fee is 20 percent of gross.
Have the film and the paperwork finished before you make contact, because the conversation moves faster when nothing is outstanding.
No. Mann Robinson Distribution works with filmmakers across New Orleans, and the process runs on submitted materials and the online portal.
Yes. Mann Robinson Distribution licenses distribution rights for a two year exclusive term. Ownership of the film stays with the filmmaker.
Independent films, television shows, sitcoms and reality series.
The distribution fee is 20 percent of gross. Payments are made quarterly.
Yes. Every filmmaker has a portal login showing impressions, CPM and earnings per platform, plus statements and payment history.
Submit your finished project at mannrobinsondistribution.com/submit or email distribution@mannrobinsonstudios.com.