How to make money with movies 1 Now that you have completed your film, you will need to get a big movie studio to pay for your "Print and Advertising" budget. Remember: It is not called a movie until you can charge ten dollars per ticket, and you cant do that until you get it in the theaters. It will cost more to advertise the movie than it did to film it. Assuming that you have the money to advertise it by yourself it should be put in the theaters first. Movies are in the theaters for less time than ever in this day in age, but Americans are spending more time and money on Movies even in a troubled economy. Your film will need to be in the theater until it is not selling movie tickets. 2 When you are ready to pull it out of the theater, make sure that you have all of your DVD's printed and ready. This is the next step in making money. This is where you will have the ability to cash in on another 6 month window. Put all of the DVD's on the shelves of all music, movie, and video stores. Also you will need to find a foreign agent that will get your merchandise overseas. In the USA movies generate more income than the entire rest of the world. Over the last few years it has been neck and neck when it comes to which market makes the most money. 3 When the DVD sales start to slow, make sure that you have aligned a deal with the major cable tv executives. This window can pay as much as twenty million dollars for exclusive rights. The exclusivity period is usually around 6 months. HBO has been known to pay that kind of money for the right show or movie. 4 You can have someone make toys and other merchandise of your characters. This another very common way that people make money. Especially with the G rated movies. Merchandise royalties last forever. As long as people like the theme or the characters you will make money from it. Merchandise can be the most profitable income stream. 5 You will need to be careful of which movie theaters that you put your movie in. Most privately owned theaters are in bankruptcy court and do not pay the production studio on time. In some cases they refuse to pay the company until they have a new movie to release. The theaters cut is around 50% of the total gross. After you go through this cycle, the next best way to make money in movies is to start a trilogy. As long as people like the first one, they will at least give the others a fair chance.