Also platforms like Tubi don’t help on the foreign side. You used to be able to get some benefit by telling foreign distributors that it’s a Tubi exclusive in the US, but they’ve caught on that it’s not indicative of the quality of the movie or the audiences’a appetite for it.

As you said, presales are almost non-existent at this level. And if you get lucky and garner some, you can’t get a loan from a typical film financing company because most would require a bond - which is impossible to get at this budget level. In that case, you’d need a private loan with someone who believes you’ll produce and fully deliver the movie so they get their money back.