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For the studio, everything about the situation is a win. The people who paid for the movie will receive none of the profits since that is not the way that Kickstarter works. All Warner Bros. has to do is release Veronica Mars then reap the rewards.

Such a strange new business model obviously fostered interest in other corners of the internet. Joss Whedon all but threw up his hands and ran away screaming as he fended off questions about the newfound viability of a second Serenity movie. Zach Braff, the former star of Scrubs, announced that he wanted to film a follow-up to his critical darling, Garden State. Barely two months after Veronica Mars funded, Braff’s new project, Wish I Was Here posted on Kickstarter. He needed only three days to reach his goal of $2 million, eventually receiving $3.1 million from consumers.

Since then, a few other noteworthy projects have attempted to duplicate the success of Veronica Mars. Undoubtedly the most hypocritical attempt involves the production of Atlas Shrugged Part 3. The first two movies were both total bombs. In order to end the trilogy, the film’s producers asked for help, which causes the rest of us to wonder if they understand the philosophy of objectivism at all. On the plus side, they reached their goal, even if they did leave Ayn Rand spinning in her grave.

Remarkably, Atlas Shrugged Yet Again wasn’t even the funniest usage of Kickstarter for a movie project in 2013. Melissa Joan Hart, the star of Drive Me Crazy, Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina the Teen Witch, wanted to make a movie of her own. She too asked for $2 million from her fans. Apparently, Melissa Joan Hart is no Zach Braff or Kristen Bell. Her project fell just a bit short of $2 million, by which I mean $1.95 million short. She canceled the Kickstarter after receiving a whopping $51,065 after almost a month. The key aspect of a meritocracy is that not everything has merit.

In less than a year, Kickstarter has gone from a novelty to a viable business strategy. Whether it proves to be a temporary curiosity or an industry standard in coming years remains to be seen. A lot depends upon whether the Veronica Mars and Zach Braff movies do well enough at the box office to justify their financial investments.

Obviously, nobody will lose any money on either project as the studios have invested no resources while the investors are already guaranteed what they wanted for their money. If the movies do poorly, exhibitors will not be inclined to provide screens for these projects in the future, though. So Kickstarter very well could reinvent the industry’s financing system or it could prove to be a passing fancy that quickly fades from the collective conscious. Either way, the Veronica Mars Kickstarter was a historic and fun story to track in 2013.

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