Self-employment method
Motion picture and video industries
128,289 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 128,289 people who filed under this code in 2022, 44.89% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 128,289 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 36,857 | 28.7% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 20,733 | 16.2% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 26,754 | 20.9% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 17,747 | 13.8% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 13,548 | 10.6% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 8,840 | 6.9% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 2,274 | 1.8% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 1,024 | 0.8% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 511 | 0.4% |
Who this suits
Median gross receipts of $13,675 put the typical filer somewhere between a serious side income and a failing attempt at a full-time one, and the receipts figure alone cannot tell you which.
With 128,289 filers, Motion picture and video industries is a substantial informal workforce. Enough people do it that local pricing is set by the field rather than by you.
12,700 filers cleared $100,000, which is 9.9% of everyone under this code. A share that size means Motion picture and video industries supports a genuine professional tier, and the question becomes what puts someone in it.
Independent film, video and sound work suits people who can build a client list that outlives any single production company or platform arrangement.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 128,289 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
Bottom quarter under $4,351, top quarter over $41,724: 9.6x, or $3,114 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of Motion picture and video industries earns under $4,351 — $45,669 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this on gear bought before the client list exists — the equipment does not generate the work.
44.9% of 128,289 filers in 2022 took under $10,000 across the entire year: 57,588 people. Close to half of everyone in Motion picture and video industries is in that band, and gross receipts is the generous way of counting it.
That share is a floor, not an estimate: $10,000 is revenue, not earnings. Everyone counted inside it kept less than $10,000, and an unknown number of the filers above it also finished the year with nothing after costs.
What the spread tells you
A ratio of 9.6x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $13,675 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Motion picture and video industries should plan around it.
Put in money rather than ratios: $4,351 at the 25th percentile, $13,675 at the midpoint, $41,724 at the 75th. $37,373 separates the quarter of Motion picture and video industries at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
The 75th percentile is $41,724. Reaching it from the $13,675 midpoint is $28,049 a year; reaching it from the $4,351 that the bottom quarter of Motion picture and video industries earn is $37,373.
$9,324 below the midpoint, $28,049 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Motion picture and video industries that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.
Converted to a 2,080-hour year, the receipts run $2.09 an hour at the 25th percentile, $6.57 at the midpoint and $20.05 at the 75th. Read them as revenue per hour worked; the equivalent wage is lower by whatever this work costs to do.
Straight from the Census bands for Motion picture and video industries: 36,857 filers under $5,000, 20,733 between $5,000 and $9,999, 26,754 between $10,000 and $24,999, 12,649 above $100,000 and 3,809 above $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
These are GROSS RECEIPTS: everything that came in, before expenses. Rent, stock, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax all come out of the $13,675 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $13,675 wage and should never be read as one.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Motion picture and video industries, the hourly figure is $13,675 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else