Nah- it's not SO bad.... here's the thing about distribution: the person/company/group that is working with the distributor/ company generally doesn't get a lion's share of the money is residuals. One of the things that happens in contacts is that the distributor puts language in the contract agreement that puts them at a great advantage- finding ways to pay out as little residual as possible. If you have a good lawyer you can try to get some of that language changed, and that can have a great deal of impact on how much is actually made.
Often the big difference is in where the percentage of the profit is coming from. Net profit vs. gross profit. If the percentage that is being given to the licensee is from the 'net' profit, any and all expenses can be deducted from the gross profit before the residual is paid. So, let's say a disc of PD Popeye cartoons (I'm not sayin' what one) sells 12,000 copies, and the residual deal is 50% of net profit. The 'gross profit' (if not defined in the contract) could be calculated based on costs of actual goods vs. money brought in from the sale of those goods). Adjusted net profit 'could' include the salary of everyone working at the company, rent, heat, advertising, etc...) depending on how the company defined it. So, on the books, the net profit off the 12,000 copies could be, let's say, $4,000. Now, the 'true' profit based on a real percentage of what resources were used actually could of course be very different.
The movie 'Mighty Joe Young' did decent business at the box office, but because it was the only movie in release from the tiny (at this point) RKO studio, the studio calculated ALL the studio running expense to this film, making the movie (on paper) lose money- even though most of those costs were not directly related to the film at all!
That said, I think it's safe to say a disc of Cubby bear cartoons will never be a great seller, but you could say that about almost any of the titles Thunderbean has done, but working as a small company selling directly through Amazon, the business model in working much better.
The other issue with distribution ( with dvds ) is that they can be priced at any price point, so if a volume seller doesn't care if they made only a small profit, they sell the dvd at barely above their cost (sometimes making up for that by charging too much for shipping).
This is why I distribute myself right now. That may change at some point, but the model is sort of working..just taking a lot of time!
The one thing I really DO like is that it's easy now to see all the Cubby Bear cartoons.
"It's never too late for Cubby!" Cubby is 80 this year!!!
