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January 20, 2009

Slow Sales at Sundance So Far

While you are reading this I'll be heading to O'Hare to hop a plane to Salt Lake City on my way to Park City and the Sundance Film Festival. The Festival started last weekend with many questions surrounding the market for films given the economy and major cutbacks at the Hollywood studios. As though the economy is not bad enough, over the past six months most of the major Hollywood studios have eliminated or folded in their specialty divisions that were focused on independent films. Over the past five years, these specialty studios (e.g. Warner Independent Pictures, Paramount Vantage) became dominant players in independent film as they took the lead in acquiring films at Sundance and other festivals.

Over they years, Sundance has become more and more of a buyers festival. As a result, heading into this year's festival even more than the usual number of articles have appeared about the state of film buying market. Overall, expectations were low heading into the festival. After reading many fresh reports about the festival so far, it appears that film buying got off to a slow start and has picked up slightly. There have not been any big deals (greater than $10 million so far) with the highest deal in low to mid-millions for Brooklyn's Finest, a cop drama.

I offer these comments as an insight into the economy and the thinking of companies with great exposure to consumers. Cautious spending is to be expected given the environment but it is also confirmation of what the major Hollywood studios and their parents (DIS, NWS, VIA, TWX, GE) think of the outlook.

If you are interested in following Sundance, both the films and the film buying, Movie City News is providing fantastic coverage at its 10 Days of Sundance section. Special thanks to David Poland for all his efforts on this project and at Movie City News.

Posted by Steve Birenberg at January 20, 2009 08:59 AM in Box Office