Although I’ve heard someone argue that piracy made independent films less viable: to the extent consumers would be willing to pay were no pirate option available, but lack of such payments causes fewer films to be made
Piracy is not an issue these days, but the inflexibility of current distribution arrangements still is. Part of the issue is that making a movie—even an indie one—is a lot more costly than most backers would expect, so indie creators generally set inadequate crowdfunding targets, expecting that they’ll be able to make up the difference by signing on to a traditional distributor. However, all this does is compound problems. (Compare this to the games sector, where high-stakes crowdfunding campaigns have in fact become relatively common.)
Piracy is not an issue these days, but the inflexibility of current distribution arrangements still is. Part of the issue is that making a movie—even an indie one—is a lot more costly than most backers would expect, so indie creators generally set inadequate crowdfunding targets, expecting that they’ll be able to make up the difference by signing on to a traditional distributor. However, all this does is compound problems. (Compare this to the games sector, where high-stakes crowdfunding campaigns have in fact become relatively common.)