Merch for independent films, on sale long after the cinema run.
For producers and distributors who hold a film’s merchandising rights. We design the range from the film, fund it, pay for the advertising and run the store. You approve every piece.
ReviewedWhat we run for a film
An independent film is years in the making and weeks in cinemas. The people who love it go on loving it long after the run has ended, and for most films there is nothing to buy but the disc. We design a range from the film, fund it, pay for the advertising and run the store, and you approve every piece before it goes on sale.
A film’s range starts from three things: its title in its own lettering, its poster, and something from inside the story, such as the jacket a character wears or the badge of a company that does not exist. The last is the piece the audience recognises and nobody else does.
The film companies with the most devoted audiences already do this for themselves. Each of these four runs a shop of its own, and is the seller named in its own terms.
| The company | What its shop lists | The seller in its terms |
|---|---|---|
| A24 | Clothing, homeware, toys and games, posters, vinyl, screenplays and zines | A24 Films LLC |
| NEON | Clothing, bags, Blu-rays, collectibles, posters and toys | NEON Rated, LLC |
| MUBI | Clothing, posters, film collectibles and collaborations | MUBI Shop |
| The Criterion Collection | T-shirts, totes, hats, mugs and postcards | Criterion Janus Holdings LLC |
Filed or disclosedEach shop’s own menu and terms. · Source: A24 Shop, A24 Shop, Terms of use, NEON, Shop, NEON, Terms of use, MUBI Shop, MUBI Shop, Terms of service, The Criterion Collection, Gift shop, The Criterion Collection, Terms of use · checked
A shop is part of what each of them is. A producer with one film, or a distributor with a dozen, has the audience and not the department. That is the part we run: the design, the store, the printing, the customer service and the advertising.
A short run, and a long life
The cinema run is the smallest part of a film’s life, and for an independent film it is small in money too. These are the British Film Institute’s figures for 2025.
Official sourceThe BFI counts a film as independent when it is made without the five major US studios or the three major US streaming companies. · Source: BFI, The UK box office, January to December 2025 · checked
The run is short as well. Cinema United, the trade body for US cinemas, put the average window for the top 100 films of 2025 at 37 days. A store has no window. It opens before the film does, and it is still open when the film is ten years old.
Official sourceIts president’s address of 14 April 2026. · Source: Cinema United, State of the industry address, CinemaCon 2026 · checked
- PremiereThe festival
A numbered print of the poster, for the people who saw it first.
- A few weeksThe cinema
The title tee and the poster, on sale the day the film opens.
- Streaming and discAt home
A piece from inside the film, for an audience that has now seen it twice.
- For yearsAfterwards
An anniversary, a reissue or a season at a repertory cinema. The store is open for it.
Online, each order is printed after it is placed, so none of the four needs stock bought on a guess. The numbered print is the exception: its run is printed once, and not again.
The cinema sells merch now
The largest cinema chains have found that film merchandise sells where the film is shown. Cinemark’s annual report for 2025 calls merchandise “a growing portion of our product mix”, and names it among the reasons each customer spent more on concessions: $8.30, up from $7.89. AMC’s says its collectible concession vessels “drive movie-goers to our theatres”. Neither gives a figure for merchandise by itself.
Filed or disclosedSource: Cinemark Holdings, annual report for 2025 (Form 10-K), AMC Entertainment Holdings, annual report for 2025 (Form 10-K) · checked
Those are the studios’ films, in the chains’ foyers. An independent film is more often shown with its makers in the room: a festival, a preview, a run of question-and-answer screenings. That is a table, and it runs as a tour table does. A vending partner staffs it, and we supply the stock and settle up. Tour and music merch sets it out.
The poster is already a product
Film has a product that other audiences have to invent. Companies exist to sell licensed film posters in limited editions. Mondo, which joined Funko in 2022, says its posters are numbered runs that are “never reprinted”. Vice Press, in Sheffield, says everything it sells is licensed from the studio or rights holder, that a release which has sold out is not reprinted, and that its artists are paid a royalty on sales. If the artwork is yours, a numbered print of it is yours to release.
Filed or disclosedSource: Mondo, FAQs, Mondo, About, Vice Press, FAQs · checked
Whose artwork, and whose face
A film is made by hundreds of people under dozens of contracts, and one product can touch several of them. Four things are checked before anything is designed.
- Who holds the merchandising rightsRead each distribution agreement. Under the Independent Film & Television Alliance’s standard terms, a right not expressly licensed to the distributor stays with the licensor.
- Who drew the posterWhoever made a commissioned work owns its copyright, unless it was agreed otherwise in writing. Paying for it does not move it.
- Who took the stillsThe same rule covers the photographer.
- Who is in the pictureUnder the Pact and Equity cinema agreement, merchandise that features an artist in character, or otherwise prominently, earns the artist a payment the first time, unless they are paid more than four times the minimum.
Official sourceClause 3.2 of the alliance’s International Standard Terms of 2022; the Intellectual Property Office on commissioned works; and clause F24 of the Pact and Equity agreement, in the 2016 edition on Pact’s own site. · Source: IFTA, International Standard Terms, Intellectual Property Office, Ownership of copyright works, Pact and Equity, Cinema Films Agreement · checked
The trade’s own definition shows how far it reaches. The alliance’s schedule counts as merchandising any goods that use the title, “the names, likenesses or characteristics of artists in their roles”, or “physical materials appearing in or used for” the film. So the range starts with the title and the artwork, and a face joins it when the paperwork allows.
Official sourceThe alliance’s International Schedule of Definitions, 2018. · Source: IFTA, International Schedule of Definitions · checked
The money
Nothing up front. There is no fee, no retainer and no minimum order, and online there is no stock for the production to buy. We pay for the design, the store and the advertising, and we are paid a share of the profit on the range. The split is put in writing before you sign. How we get paid works one sale line by line.
One store, many territories
A film’s rights are usually sold country by country, and a store sells to every country at once. So we need to know who holds the merchandising rights in each territory before the range goes on sale, and we contract with whoever that is. Bring the sales agent’s and the distributors’ agreements to the first call.
Questions
Our distributor holds the merchandising rights; can we still do this?
With the distributor, yes. The range is theirs to agree, and it is often in their interest: it advertises the film in every week it is not in cinemas. Ask them, and bring them to the call.
If the agreement does not mention merchandise at all, do not assume either way. Under the standard terms much of the trade uses, a right that was not expressly licensed stayed with the licensor, but your agreement is the one that counts.
Official sourceSource: IFTA, International Standard Terms · checked
The film is not out for a year; when do we start?
When the poster exists. The range is designed from the artwork the campaign will use, so it can be approved while the film is still being finished. Online pieces need no stock, and can go on sale with the trailer. A numbered print has to be printed before the premiere, so it is agreed first.
The film came out years ago; is it too late?
No. An older film is often the easier range, because its audience has already chosen the lines and the images it loves. An anniversary, a reissue or a new restoration is the date to work to.
Check who holds the merchandising rights today. They may have gone back to the producer, or moved on with the catalogue.
Can you sell at festivals and at Q&A screenings?
At a run of screenings with the makers present, yes. It is planned like a small tour, and the run for it is printed ahead. Each cinema and each festival has its own rules about selling in the building, so that is asked when the screening is booked.
The store does not depend on it. Most of a film’s audience will never be in the room.
Book a call.
30 minutes with our founder, who takes every first call himself.
Or email contact@divini.co.uk