Producer vs Funding vs New World..

In a new world of ever changing media outlets being a lone little producer of films is not getting easier and I am wondering what you all think.
I am an independent film producer who makes war and action films because that is what my distributor can sell, I have made quite a few of them and being an old soldier myself I use the logistical knowledge I have from back then to run efficient productions, and from a sober business perspective we have bought a lot of action hardware from guns, uniforms, tanks ect as opposed to renting it all. we did it right our films all have distribution before we even get to the pitch stage. and owning all of our hardware and shooting out of Ca we can blow up things, be strafed by planes, have a city shoot out for dime to the dollar of what most other producers can do and with a blank distribution deal so why am I not sitting on a beach enjoying the sun just one day a week I ask myself? - because something is not going in the favor of the independent producer and I am trying to figure out the same as many of my colleges; what do we do now?

The marked have changed, last meeting with my distributors who have over 25 years in the business the word was; make films under $250,000 or over 50 million! the sales for a 6 million dollar war film is now only a few percentage over that of a $250.000 war film so there is no way we can recuperate an investor investing a million or two in today's marked. So where do we go from here?
Just last year Red Box sales would cover my film's entire budget while the Netflix and the likes will only earn us a few thousand, I thank God they have failed their online venture and is still in the dvd game - but where do we go from there and how do we grow as a producer when the revenue is demising due to more digital media outlets that do not pay? I believe as film makers we should make films that not only entertain, we should tell moving or historic stories but we must never forget to always work to pay our investors back and make monies to our distributors otherwise we will run out of business very fast.
And on that lovely note I would love to hear investors thoughts here, obviously there is still millions of dollars invested in films constantly and I would like to grow as a producer but given the margins I know there are many investors or investment groups who continuously invest monies they will never see from film sales so why do you do it? is it a write off plain and simple? then why not do it in something that moves a cause or teaches history? I would love to hear from those who invests in the middle budget films knowing what a gamble that can be, because perhaps my old fashioned pitch strategy needs a face lift. I always just tried to appeal to the business man in my investment offerings - I need $200k and based on the past you will make $300k within x time and here is how and why and so forth - pretty straightforward thinking that the film business is just that a business.
But it is not run that way and the investors have different intentions then just money in and profit out, when I took my business degree we never covered a nonlinear industry like this, so I would like to hear your thoughts as to the motivations and honestly I would love to partner up with producers or investors who understand these changing times - in the end I am just a soldier who understands his mission I understand how to produce good films but the film business .. well you tell me:-)