The Risks and Rewards of Self-Distributing Movies, With Black Bear’s Teddy Schwarzman

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Teddy Schwarzman, the founder of Black Bear Pictures, to discuss the challenges and strategies behind an independent production company launching its own distribution division. They talk about the risk of making big bets on small movies in theaters, how the industry has evolved, and whether Teddy sees A24 and Neon as competitors (02:46). Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box office prediction for Yorgos Lanthimos’s new film, ‘Bugonia’ (26:54). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us your thoughts! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetown@spotify.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Teddy Schwarzman Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Robin everybody. It's Logan Murdoch here from The Ringer. The 2025-20206 NBA season is here and we got your hoop podcast needs covered.
0:09.6	On the Ringer NBA show, be sure to check out group chat with Justin Barrier, Rob Mahoney, and Jay Kyleman on Sundays and Wednesdays and real ones on Tuesdays and Fridays with myself, Roger Bellelle and Howard Beck, get your ringer related
0:22.4	NBA podcast fix on Spotify or
0:24.5	wherever you get your podcast. And of course,
0:26.3	come find us on YouTube, Twitter,
0:28.4	Instagram, and TikTok at the
0:30.3	handle Ringer MBA.
0:36.2	It is Wednesday, October 29th.
0:39.1	At the Toronto Film Festival last month, I saw a couple good movies that were both produced by Teddy Schwarzen.
0:44.8	One of them, a mountain man drama called Train Dreams, was a big hit at Sundance and sold to Netflix for a big price.
0:50.5	It's now in the Oscar race.
0:51.8	Another one, tuner with Leo Woodall as a piano tuner turned
0:55.8	reluctant thief. It had no distribution at all. And I asked Teddy at the after party, what's up with that?
1:01.0	He said he's going to release it himself. Interesting, I thought. Who in the world would want to
1:05.8	launch an independent film distribution business right now? It's hard enough to make money in movie
1:10.6	theaters for the major
1:11.8	studios, the ones with big budget tent poles and IP-driven blockbusters. Making and releasing
1:17.4	smaller independently financed titles almost seems like a death wish in an age where that
1:22.4	business is kind of downsized or transitioned over to streaming with fewer breakouts in theaters
1:27.3	and even a few years ago.
1:29.0	But lately, despite the risks or maybe because of those risks, we've seen a new player
1:33.8	or two pop up in that market. Black Bear is about to give it a go. If you're not familiar,
	...

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