AFM 2025: ALL Distributor Mandates (N.A.)
- Gato Scatena
- Oct 24
- 5 min read
A Full PDF Roadmap - Inside the North American Buyer Reset; What to Expect This Year.
The 2025 American Film Market isn’t shaping up to be a return to form—it’s a reality check. Buyers are still spending, but they’re spending surgically. The “spray and pray” days of content acquisition are over.
If you want to move a film right now, you need to understand one thing: almost every serious North American buyer has gone 4-Quad (old, young, male, female – nothing controversial) or bust. The shorthand is everywhere in their mandates—“4 Quad,” “Name Talent,” “Director-driven.” Translation: they’re not buying your mid-budget one-location thriller unless there’s someone recognizable on the poster.
What’s different this AFM isn’t who’s buying, it’s how narrow their lanes have become. Even the most aggressive genre and mid-tier distributors are aligning with the studio philosophy: fewer titles, higher visibility, and measurable ROI in both domestic and downstream windows.
Studio & Prestige Divisions: The Consolidation of Risk
Netflix, Apple (yes, they still have an acquisitions dept), Amazon, Paramount, Sony, and Universal are dictating tone this year. All five have reaffirmed the same mandate—4-Quad appeal and name talent attached. That doesn’t mean all-audience family fare; it means “commercial enough for theaters, prestige enough for streaming.” These companies want films that can play both at the mall and on the homepage carousel. One caveat being that Sony is gearing toward single and doubles in the box office (think 10MM BO Gross minimum). A24 remains the rare exception—still leading with artistic signature + bankable name, the new hybrid of commerce and taste. Neon, MUBI, Focus Features and Sony Pictures Classics continue to operate in that corridor too, but even they’re prioritizing recognizable faces over pure auteur branding. SPC and Searchlight love a strong director FYI. Neon, Searchlight, and Roadside Attractions are keeping the awards pipeline open but trimming annual output. The big takeaway: Name talent is no longer the bonus—it’s the barrier to entry. Meanwhile, Paramount, Warner Bros., and MGM (Amazon) are selectively chasing elevated genre again—but only if it’s cinematic enough to justify theatrical. Everyone else? They’re watching. Nobody wants to be holding the wrong inventory in Q3 2026 when the next wave of streamer consolidation hits.
That’s the top of the funnel—the same dozen buyers everyone knows. But here’s the part most filmmakers miss: beneath that studio surface are over eighty North American all-rights buyers, each driving in very specific lanes—faith, female-driven, Black-audience, LGBT, horror, indie, and AVOD originals (and we’re not even cracking the surface on the international market yet—another article). Those “secondary” mandates are where the real opportunity lies for 2025–2026 packaging and rights positioning.
🔒 Read the rest and Download the full PDF roadmap of North American buyers below.
Mapping the Buyer Ecosystem: Who’s Driving What
There are over 80 North American all-rights buyers operating with active mandates this AFM, and while most cite “4-Quad” as a priority, that phrase doesn’t mean the same thing across the board. It’s shorthand for different strategic objectives depending on the buyer’s risk appetite, platform needs, and genre lane.