The studio deal — cash floor + equity upside
Studios that pitch on bMovies aren't working for free. Every commission carries two layers of compensation: an 80/20 cash split on the tier face price (studio gets 80%, platform 20%) plus a tier-default royalty-token equity stake in the film itself (3% pitch · 5% trailer · 10% short · 15% feature). Studios absorb their own compute. Faster, cheaper studios keep more. Films that perform keep paying out forever — through every ticket, every stream, every license.
The deal at a glance
The price ladder · cash + equity + economics
| Tier · Face price | Max length | Studio cash (80%) | Compute (Grokster) | Studio net | + Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitch$0.99 | instant | $0.79 | $0.14 | $0.65 | 3% |
| Trailer$9.99 | 45 s | $7.99 | $5.80 | $2.19 | 5% |
| Short$99 | 10 min | $79.20 | $30 | $49.20 | 10% |
| Feature$999 | 30 min | $799.20 | $89 | $710.20 | 15% |
| Blockbuster$9 999 | 60 min | $7 999.20 | $239 | $7 760.20 | tbd |
Max length is a cap, not a fixed deliverable — studios can deliver shorter.
Compute column shows the xAI Grokster baseline from the v2 margin matrix
(docs/finance/2026-04-26-margin-matrix.md); Atlas providers scale 1.5–4× higher per the matrix below.
Platform's 20% covers Stripe, infra, dispute resolution.
⚠ Studio economics warning · check before pitching
Studios absorb their own compute, so net depends on which provider you ship. The numbers above are the Grokster baseline. Two real economic gotchas in the current spec:
- Trailer is positive on Grokster ($2.19 net) but still loss-making on Atlas providers (~$3 loss on SeedDance / Wan, more on Veo). Platform's strategic position: accept Atlas trailer losses as acquisition cost. Trailers feed the funnel — at ~10% trailer→short conversion, the Atlas loss recoups against the $49 short profit.
- Veo 3.1 (full) is structurally underwater below Feature tier. Even at the revised lengths, Veo full's $0.20/sec clip rate puts Trailer / Short below break-even. Veo full studios should target Feature + Blockbuster where the price absorbs the premium. Other Atlas stacks (SeedDance, Wan, Vidu, Veo Lite) now clear positive margin from Short tier up.
All length caps revised down on 2026-04-26 — Trailer 1 min → 45 s, Short 30 min → 10 min, Feature 90 min → 30 min, Blockbuster 2.5 h → 60 min. The platform is pre-capital and experimental; length caps now match what AI can plausibly deliver coherently rather than industry runtime norms. Studio net flips strongly positive at every tier from Short up across all providers including Veo full at Feature+. Funnel conversion gets tracked via
scripts/analytics/trailer-to-short-conversion.sql — review weekly until rate stabilises.
Wall-clock by provider · trailer tier
| Provider stack | Trailer | Short | Feature | $/sec of clip | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grokster (xAI Grok) | ~10 min ✓ | ~35 min | ~2 h 30 m | $0.05 | measured on Scammer's Cartel today |
| Atlas SeedDance 2.0 | ~13 min | ~50 min | ~3 h 30 m | $0.13 | native audio · ByteDance flagship |
| Atlas Vidu Q3 Mix | ~11 min | ~40 min | ~2 h 50 m | $0.11 | smooth transitions · Kuaishou |
| Atlas Wan 2.7 | ~15 min | ~60 min | ~4 h 15 m | $0.085 | multi-shot narrative · Alibaba |
| Atlas Veo 3.1 Lite | ~13 min | ~50 min | ~3 h 30 m | $0.05 | cost-tier · Google |
| Atlas Veo 3.1 (full) | ~20 min | ~80 min | ~5 h 30 m | $0.20 | cinematic top tier · Google |
Pipeline is sequential. Music bed (~2 min, MusicGen) and title cards (2× ~55 s, xAI) are constants on top of clip generation. Add ~5 min for typical regens. Short + Feature would benefit from concurrent clip generation (parallel-N=4–8) — currently sequential to avoid provider rate limits. Studios shipping non-Grok stacks at Short tier or higher should price in the longer wall-clock when committing to deadlines.
Worked example · feature commission
Studio walks with ~$400 cash net + a perpetual 15% royalty stake. A film that does $10k in lifetime ticket revenue pays the studio another $1,500 — for delivering one feature. Studios that pick winners stack royalty income across their whole portfolio.
Cap table · full ladder won by 4 different studios
Equity allocation · post-feature
Writer keeps majority. Studios who win earlier tiers get a smaller stake — but they get paid the full cash split at every tier they win, regardless of equity %.
Why studios should pick bMovies
- Cash floor on every commission. 80% of face price, settled within 24h of pick. No 30-day terms, no escrow holdback.
- Perpetual royalty upside. Royalty token is real BSV-21 — pays out automatically on every ticket sale. Studios who pick winners stack across their portfolio.
- Compute discipline = profit. Studios that ship feature-quality at $250 compute vs $400 keep an extra $150 per project.
- No platform skim on royalties. Platform's 1% is fixed at mint, non-dilutable. Once the token is minted, the studio's 15% pays them, not us.
- On-chain audit trail. Every offer, accept, settle is BRC-116 OP_RETURN. No payment disputes — the tx IS the contract.
Two delivery modes · what the studio submits
Stitched preview only, until pick
Studio submits a complete stitched mp4 + low-res storyboard preview. Writer judges purely on the preview. Layer files (clips, VO, score) stay locked on the studio's side until pick.
On pick: full unstitched package transfers to writer. Loser studios keep their materials — they can re-pitch elsewhere. Clean IP boundary, no accidental cross-contamination.
Full layer ownership from day one
Writer creates a film themselves using the platform's tools. They own every clip, VO take, storyboard, and mixdown from creation. Library of layers per offer, alts for A/B comparison.
Writer can swap any VO into any alt. Regenerate clips. Re-stitch at will. Manual edits are flagged as locked so auto-pipelines don't stomp them.
Ready to register a studio?
Read the full integration spec, then publish your manifest.
bct_offers.commissioner_percent.