THB #480: A Tale Of 2 Sundance 2024s

At the end of Sundance, I have as many questions about the future of Sundance as I did going in.

Allowed 5 days to stream the movies that were streaming (the 4 competition categories and a handful of others), I watched 21. Of those, I really liked 9 of them… 2 of which came to the festival with distribution, 2 more that were bought during the festival, and 1 more that, essentially, arrived with a parent with distribution (Sony Music… so is it really going to sell outside of the company?).

There are, by my count, 27 films are coming out of Sundance with distribution.
18 came to Sundance with distribution
9 were purchased during Sundance

The sales with prices attached were:
$10 million - A Real Pain - Searchlight
$15 million - Super/Man - WBD
$15 million - My Old Ass - MGM/Amazon
$17 million - It’s What’s Inside - Netflix

Only A Real Pain was in competition.

Also… a Midnight movie, Ghostlight, bought by IFC… and Presence, the Steven Soderbergh movie, dealt to Neon, which is a strong distributor without much cash upfront.

The other 3 buys were docs, out of the competition… Ibelin, Skywalkers: A Love Story, and Kneecap (bought by SPC before the Sundance screening).

One more film, Will & Harper, is likely to sell shortly, driven by the presence of its co-star, Will Ferrell.

As always, there will be more sales in the next 6 weeks or so as the hopes of bigger numbers are dashed from the hearts and minds of those trying to sell these films.

But the reality of Sundance in 2024 is that it has been first and foremost a cheap promotional platform for distributors on the way to release with their indie-style films.