Help / How deals work
How film deals work
The six ways members back a film on BucksOffice, in two lines each. Not financial or legal advice: talk to your lawyer or CA before you sign.
- Producer takes the whole film
- A producer buys the project and makes the film with their own money and team.
- The filmmaker gets an agreed fee and credit; the producer owns the film.
- Co-production
- Two or more producers share the money, the risk, the rights and the producer credit.
- Who owns what share, and who decides what, is written down before money moves.
- Investment for a profit share
- An investor puts money into the film for an agreed share of its profits or of certain rights.
- The investor does not run the production and gets a credit only if agreed.
- Loan
- A financier lends money at interest, often against music, OTT or satellite rights, or a pre-sale.
- The lender does not own the film; the loan is repaid on the agreed dates.
- Pre-sale or minimum guarantee (MG)
- A distributor or platform pays an advance for theatrical, OTT, satellite, music or overseas rights before release.
- The advance helps fund the film; the buyer gets the rights it paid for.
- Grant or subsidy
- A state film body or NFDC gives money for a film that meets its rules, often after the shoot.
- It is not repaid if the conditions are met; the rules and paperwork differ by state.
Music in co-productions and music agreements
Every co-production should settle who owns the songs. This is the music section we suggest for co-production terms:
Music (Draft: have your lawyer review). The co-producers will agree in writing who owns the sound recordings and the music publishing of the film, and in what shares. Every agreement with a composer, music director or lyricist will keep the author's right to receive royalties for uses of the work other than in the film shown in a cinema hall; under the Copyright Act 1957 (as amended in 2012) that right cannot be assigned or waived except to legal heirs or a copyright society, and must be shared equally with the author as the law requires.
Agreements on BucksOffice for composers, music directors and lyricists include this clause by themselves:
Royalties for music authors (Draft: have your lawyer review). The Member, as author of the music or lyrics, keeps the right to receive royalties for any use of the work other than its communication to the public with the film in a cinema hall. As the Copyright Act 1957 (as amended in 2012) requires, this right cannot be assigned or waived except to the Member's legal heirs or to a copyright society for collection and distribution, and any assignment of the work is subject to the Member receiving an equal share of such royalties with the assignee. Nothing in this agreement takes this right away. The Member may join a copyright society such as IPRS to collect these royalties.
Composers, lyricists, singers and musicians can show their society membership and get a ready application pack under Rights and royalties.
Safety rules
- Offers and deals are private, one to one, between verified members.
- No public offers of returns to the general public, and no pooling of many small investors into one film (SEBI rules on collective investment schemes). Fans can get rewards, never returns.
- BucksOffice never holds, pools or moves money. Money goes bank to bank, and every release is checked against proven spend.