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January 28, 2008

Sundance Wrap Before Reality Returns

If you love movies and have never been to Sundance I highly recommend it. This was my first visit and I found an incredibly well organized and orchestrated festival. Pulling it off is no easy task. There are seven venues with nine screens in Park City alone plus additional showings in Salt Lake City and Ogden. In Park City, eight films are simultaneously running from 9 AM through the midnight showings. We attended 9 films total including 4 each on Friday and Saturday. Every showing was easily sold out including last minute "wait list" tickets which are available in limited quantities in the two hours prior to the start of a show. The venues are scattered over several miles of Park City so a free transportation system of buses is available. We never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a shuttle and only got caught in a really packed bus a couple of times.

The only downside is the expense but the incredibly well staffed and friendly volunteers (many standing outside directing pedestrian traffic for hours at a time) make you accept the stiff price for meals. Film tickets were $15 and available at the main box office early morning for each day's showings.

Of the nine films I saw with my 17 year old indie movie addicted daughter, we liked Anywhere USA the best. It probably doesn't have much of a commercial future but it is really well done and makes its editorial viewpoint known without being preachy. We also enjoyed Hamlet 2, the big story out of Sundance because it sold for $10 million, the second largest sale ever after Little Miss Sunshine. It is a straight out comedy and was the far and away the crowd favorite. On Friday night we had dinner with several critics, including David Poland of Movie City News, who explained that Focus Features bought the film figuring if they could get the theatrical run to $20 million the film would be nicely profitable including DVD sales. Hamlet 2 is no academy award nominee but it should be a box office success.

Sorry to have used up space to chat about movies but I hope you enjoyed the diversion from the always intense and recently often sour market commentary. It's time to get back to reality, the market, and stocks.

Posted by Steve Birenberg at January 28, 2008 10:30 AM in Media