Every time a filmmaker asks me this question, my answer is the same: as soon as possible.
Not when the film is finished. Not when you have a trailer. Not when you have locked picture or secured a distributor. As soon as possible means exactly that, and for some filmmakers that means before the script is even done.
The sooner you start marketing your film, the faster you can create, nurture, and grow an audience of people who actually want to watch it. People who will talk about it, share it, show up for it, and tell others to do the same. That audience does not appear on release day. It is built over time, and the earlier you start building it the stronger it is by the time your film is ready to be seen.
What Starting Early Actually Looks Like
One of our users inside Ramiro AI is still writing his script. He has not finished production, he has not started shooting, but he already knew he wanted to build his audience long before any of that happened. No rush, no last minute thinking, no scramble at the end.
With Ramiro AI he put together a complete content strategy for his film at this early stage. He knew which days to post in his main character's voice, which days to go behind the scenes, and which days to speak directly to his target audience. This is what he said about it:
"I had no idea what to post or when. Ramiro gave me a 30-day content calendar for my film and suddenly I had a blueprint. I knew which days to post in my main character's voice, which days to go behind the scenes, and which days to talk to my target audience directly. It didn't just save me time, it gave me a strategy I actually understood."
But here is the part that surprises most people when I tell them this story. By starting his marketing this early, he did not just build an audience. He attracted a producer for his film.
That is what early marketing can do that most filmmakers never consider. When you start talking about your film before it exists, when you build a presence around it, when people can see the vision and the story and the person behind it, you become visible to collaborators, investors, and industry professionals who are looking for exactly what you are making. An audience is not the only thing you build when you start early. You build credibility, momentum, and opportunity.
How Much Should You Be Spending on Marketing?
Before we talk about when to start, we need to talk about budget, because this is where most independent filmmakers get it completely wrong.
The minimum you should be allocating to marketing is 20% of your total production budget. If your film costs one million dollars to make, you need to be investing two hundred thousand dollars in marketing. That is the bare minimum.
I know what you are thinking. But consider this: blockbusters and studio films regularly spend up to 100% of their production budget on marketing. The film costs one hundred million to make and they spend another one hundred million, sometimes more, to make sure the world knows it exists. We will go deeper into film marketing budgets in another post, but the point right now is this: marketing is not an optional expense. It is not something you figure out when the money runs out. It is a line item in your budget from the very beginning, the same way you budget for your director of photography, your locations, or your post-production.
Filmmakers who arrive at the distribution stage without a marketing budget are not just unprepared. They are vulnerable. Because when you have no budget and no strategy, you become dependent on whoever is willing to help you, and that dependency is exactly how bad deals happen.
What You Can Do Right Now
If your film is in development, in pre-production, or even still at script stage, you can start today. You do not need a finished film to build an audience. You need a clear sense of who your film is for and a consistent way of talking about it.
Start by identifying your target audience. Who are the people who will genuinely connect with this story? Where do they spend their time online? What do they already watch, follow, and share? Once you know that, you can build a content strategy that speaks directly to them, long before they ever have the chance to watch your film.
Ramiro AI is built to help you do exactly this, at whatever stage you are at. Whether you are still writing or already in post-production, the earlier you start the conversation with your audience, the more you will have to show for it by the time your film is ready.
Because the filmmakers who arrive at distribution with an audience already behind them are not the ones hoping a distributor will save them. They are the ones distributors come looking for.