DISTRIBUTION/REVENUE

Hoyo will yield the production budget many times over.

To understand why, we must familiarize ourselves with the 2005 film "Paradise Now directed by Hany Abu-Assad, a Dutch-Palestinian filmmaker, about two Palestinian childhood friends who have been recruited for suicide attacks in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. It focuses on their last days together.

The Paradise Now Model

Paradise Now opened in the United States on a late-October weekend in 2005 that was notoriously slow for box offices nationwide. Yet, the film managed to generate $48'023 from four theaters, averaging $12,005 per theater. This was a decent opening, but by no means a blockbuster. Week 1 ended with a box office gross of $71,499 generated by the 4 theaters. Week 2 expanded the release to a total of 23 theaters and made another $146,117. Week 3 saw 45 theaters screening Paradise Now and brought in another $191,390 There was nothing extraordinary about the run so far but, in three weeks, Paradise Now had earned a total of $409,006. Week 4 8 saw Paradise Now consistently screened at 55 theaters and earn another $525,265, bringing the total up to $934,271 at the end of eight weeks. The holiday season arrived and theaters began to drop the film for more family-friendly material, leaving it with a box office total of $1.05 million after ten weeks in American theaters. In January the film received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, and

that extended the films run in the US for another ten weeks, generating another $410000, leaving Paradise Now with a final US box office total of $1.46 million after twenty weeks. Hoyo. Familiar with Paradise Now, let us look at its relation to

Hoyo: Similarities to Paradise Now

1) Plot Both stories focus on terrorist recruitment and its effect on interpersonal relations. 2) Narrative Style Hoyo, like Paradise Now, takes a human approach to the subject of terrorism, rather than a clear-cut good-vs.-evil perspective. 3) Language Both works are bilingualHoyo using Somali and English and Paradise Now using Arabic and English. 4) Release Date Like Paradise Now, Hoyo is scheduled to be released in October, when mainstream studios scale back distribution of new releases in anticipation of the holiday season. 5) Size of Limited Release Hoyo will contract 64 theaters from the US, UK and Canadaa number very close to the 55 that Paradise Now screened at between Week 4 and 8. 6) Length of Run Hoyos main run will take place over a four-week period, with a limited release taking place in the few weeks preceding, almost identical to Paradise Nows distribution. 7) Minimum Audience based on culture Due to the language and subject matter, Arab-Americans were a target audience for Paradise Now as Somalis in the US, UK and Canada are a target audience of Hoyo. Having a target audience based on culture assures exhibitors of a minimum audience

size. 8) Mainstream counterpart The Spielberg blockbuster Munich came out during December of 2005 and sparked public interest in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Paradise Now, being an independent film with an artistically-minded take on the subject, became a part of that discussion, and saw its box office gross increase as a result. In late- October of this year, on the same weekend on which Hoyo is to be released, Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks will open in theaters worldwide. The story is about the 2009 hijacking of an American cargo ship by Somali pirates. Again, the publics interest in this subject will rise dramatically and Hoyo will be there as an independent, artistically-minded take on the subject, and see its production costs return manifold.

Hoyo: Advantages over Paradise Now

1) Untouched topic Though the subject of terrorist recruitment has been addressed by films such as Paradise Now, Hoyo deals with a particular eventthe 2008 Al-Shabaab recruitments of Somali-American youththat no dramatic film has focused on to date. Additionally, the event is of supreme interest, as the phenomenon of Americans willingly enlisting in military forces that are doctrinally anti-American hasnt occurred since the return of Japanese- and German-Americans to their countries of origin to fight against Allied forces in World War II. 2) Setting Paradise Now takes place in Israel and Palestine and tells the stories of Palestinians and Israelis. Hoyo is much closer to home, being about firstgeneration American immigrants. 3) Language Paradise Now is primarily in Arabic, with occasional dialogue in English. Hoyo is mostly in English with a large minority of the dialogue in Somali. 4) Release Dates Proximity to Eid Al-Adha Specifically referring to the minimum audience, Paradise Now was released nearly

two months before 2005s Eid Al-Adha, the most-important Muslim holiday on which gift-giving and movie attendance among Muslims is significantly high. ArabAmerican Muslims could have been drawn in larger numbers to Paradise Now if the films release date fell around the time of Eid Al-Adha. Hoyos release date is set exactly three-days before 2013s Eid Al-Adha, thus making full use of the increased Somali Muslim film attendance during those days, 5) Urban Concentration of Minimum Audience Somali-Americans and Somalis in Canada and the UK live in much higher densities and more accessible urban centers than Arab-Americans. See Note on Minimum Audience. 6) Fantastical Bollywood Dance A key unique selling point (USP) for Hoyo, which has no counterpart in Paradise Now, is the fantastical Bollywood dances that occur thrice in the film (as part of little Sahras attempts to psychologically deny incidents of physical violence). This particular element will serve as a defining element of the film and the word- ofmouth that plays an indispensable part in a films success. 7) Budget This is the most important difference: Despite making almost $1.5 million in the US, Paradise Now didnt earn back its production costs of $2 million. It was only after an international release, with strong performances in France, Germany, and the UK, that the final gross of $4.5 million was achieved. Even then, with the average studio taking in 55% of a movies total box office gross, it is imaginable that Paradise Now was a close call financially, and that financiers didnt see a significant return on their investments. Hoyos budget is $100000. This disparity in budget size is due to (1) the international nature of Paradise Nows production vs. Hoyos setting in one city, (2) the drastic amount of physical risks involved in Paradise Nows productionthere were severe security concerns, including an actual kidnapping of a crew member by militants, and another instance when lethal Israeli gunfire was directed towards the crew,

(3) the different types of sets needed: Hoyo is intimate and domestic, requiring mostly indoor sets. Paradise Now is about a public act of terrorism and the conflicts leading up to it and consequentially required greater funding to secure public spaces for filming.

Hoyo and the Paradise Now Model

Special attention must be paid to the Difference #7, because therein lies that applicability of the Paradise Now model to the projections for Hoyo. It is evident that Hoyo can be made for a twentieth of the cost of Paradise Now and still offer the same market.

Hypothetically, let us say we contract those very same 55 theaters that screened Paradise Now in its fifth through eighth weeks and offer a four-week run for Hoyo and they accept. Even if attendance fell to a dismal half of what Paradise Now had, Hoyo would make a 25% return on the cost of production.This is only possible because the production cost of Hoyo is low. Now let us say that Hoyo doesnt receive Oscar recognition and maintains a tenweek run similar to that of Paradise Now with similar attendance. Hoyo would make ten times its production cost and pay manifold returns to the investor. If Hoyo can match Paradise Nows performance, then the return on the cost of production will be fifteen-fold from the American market alonei.e. $1.4 million.

An International Release
The Paradise Now model has been utilized in describing the American market. It is evident that just the United States will suffice to return a sizeable margin to an investment in Hoyo. Recall that Paradise Now had a larger cumulative box office gross from the non-U.S. market$2 million against the $1.5 million earned in America. This only hints at the tremendous possibilities attached to global distribution. The UK and Canada are readily identifiable as targets

for an international release and continental Europe demonstrated its interest in movies of this particular subgenre via Paradise Now. Though there is a great opportunity for revenue in an international release, this prospectus chose to stay in the domestic market, where the data is more readily available and verifiable. I hope it has been shown that even the domestic market by itself will suffice for Hoyo to, as initially claimed, yield the production budget many times over.

Note on Minimum Audience

The Somali Diaspora in the US, Canada and the UK will provide a minimum audience, giving theaters an additional incentive to screen Hoyo. Top 11 Somali Populations in the US, Canada and the UK (2011 est.) Minneapolis 38000 London 36000 Columbus 35000 Birmingham 35000 Toronto 18500 Leicester 15000 Sheffield 10000 Cardiff 10000 Manchester 6000 Ottawa 5000 Liverpool 4000 If we were to rely solely on a Somali audience: Averaging $5 in revenue for every audience member (which is possible if exhibitors share in box office receipts is limited to 38%, an agreeable portion), breakeven requires attendance of only 20% of target audience in top three urban centers. Revenue, after sharing with theater, would be $107,250, a few thousand above the $100000 budget estimate. If expanding to all of top 11 urban centers, breakeven requires only an 11% attendance.