Differences between mainstream and independent films

Mainstream vs Independent
Independent and mainstream films are the two opposites in film making, mainly due to the defining factors that separate them from one another. These are:

Budget:
The budget of a movie is huge in regards to the production value, as well as the market for such a film so profit can be made out of it. Box office films films such as Spectre (2015) can be considered mainstream films alone just by their budget, with Spectre having a budget of nearly $300.000.000. Budgeting such as this would not exist with an independent film, as Sony funded Spectre in all categories as the franchise is also owned by Sony, part of the big six, something Independent films
aren't a part of usually. Independent films such as "A Field in England" (2013) only had about a tenth of what the spectre budget saw, averaging at only £300.000, and it didn't make that money back either. Independent films are usually independently funded, or funded by small industries instead, looking to make profit.

Release:

The release date is huge for any film alike, be it mainstream or independent, however, how it is released is a different question.This is another time where spectre becomes a prime example, as it had a blanket release date worldwide (meaning it released on the same day everywhere). This meant that viewers from all over the globe could see the next instalment of the franchise. It did not release on DVD and blu-ray with that release though, as they could make more money if they sold them on a separate date, and seems spectres release was near the Christmas holidays, this would be a prime time
to make money from gifts, and there is no doubt that this wasn't thought through by the distribution team. Comparing this to A Field in England again, they released everything on one day, that included the full movie, streaming, independent cinema release, DVD, etc. and even though this was blanket release too, it didn't do as well because the marketing for the film wasn't good enough, therefore it did not make a huge profit like Spectre did

Equipment and technologies:
The equipment at hand to these production teams will be so much different as well. For example, Gravity was mostly created by extremely realistic looking animation, and the actors were put in the film with help of "Sandy's Cage". This was a light-box that consisted of thousands of LED's. it acted like a green screen as well as set lighting, to make sure the lighting on the actors fitted that within the
film. This made the actors inside the film look extremely realistic with the dynamic, animated landscape that they were surrounded by in the film. All the animation costs a lot, too. All of this would have probably costed at least half of the overall budget that was needed for the film.

Quality:

A lot of films nowadays depend on quality to be viewed as a good film. With technological advancements within film and camera quality, this has given way to such developments as IMAX and IMAX 3D, as well as 4K and 6K recording quality. The only drawback though, is that it's mainly only
available to the productions that have a lot of funding, as these cameras cost a lot to hire for the entire process.

These are some main points on the differences between the two categories, but there are more that contribute to this, such as:
Cast
Advertising
Marketing
Exhibitions
What sort of cinema the film is exhibited to (Multiplex or independent?)
Effects
Subject matter
Director
Production company

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Conclusion:
The can all be applied to the film opening production, and what sort of production team we want to be, Mainstream or Independent, we chose independent as a group in the end.  The factors here were the things we took in to consideration before ultimately choosing what sort of production company we wanted to be, so research was also required.