Says Submarine’s Josh Braun, “The success stories are now films that sold for a lot of money and went to a streamer, so I think that is what everyone is focused on.”Īt a TIFF’s Visionaries discussion in September, former Searchlight Pictures co-chairman Steve Gilula, who stepped down along with fellow co-chairman Nancy Utley last year, offered: “Now the filmmakers can wait for the giant check that comes in from Netflix and Amazon, who will pay $20 million, $30 million for a film they think has awards potential. (Insiders note that some of the buys announced early in the fest were backstop deals.) Despite the independent theatrical marketplace still largely in a state of limbo due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic now buoyed by the omicron variant, specialty distributors, from Focus Features, Sony Pictures Classics and Bleecker Street, made a solid showing.īut the definition of Sundance success has shifted. Many of these major streaming sales happened early on in the market, with theatrical sales continuing to roll in after the festival’s conclusion.
grabbed Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne’s Am I OK?, and Searchlight took Mimi Cave’s Fresh and Emma Thompson starrer Leo Grande, planning North American streaming releases on Hulu for both, with Fresh heading to Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other territories. Apple had the priciest pick-up of the fest thus far, paying $15 million for Cooper Raiff’s Cha Cha Real Smooth, while HBO Max via Warner Bros. Still, streamers made up the fest’s biggest deals. But Netflix had one of the biggest buys out of last year’s market with Rebecca Hall’s Passing ($15 million), and Amazon has long been one of the fest’s most prominent buyers, with over $40 million reportedly spent across three movies at the 2019 festival and taking home four major titles in 2020. Both Amazon and Netflix debuted a handful of their own titles at the fest, including two in the dramatic competition for Amazon. Thus far, Netflix has only acquired one title, the documentary Descendant, which the streamer will release with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground, and Amazon has yet to buy a Sundance feature. Noticeably absent from this year’s market: Netflix and Amazon. Still, Sundance vets agree that, while the numbers are nowhere near as high, the 2022 market is shaping up to be more steady for sales. Last year saw headline-grabbing price tags for CODA ($25 million to Apple) and Summer of Soul (over $12 million to Searchlight and Hulu), but sales quickly petered out, with titles then taking months to land distribution.
0 kommentar(er)
