As Sundance Winds Down, A Buyers Market For Small Distributors

You can tell that Park City is being returned to the skiers by the fact that street traffic on Main Street was as thin as the air here today. The Sundance acquisitions marketplace is winding down, and the deals dropping are the smaller ones. Most execs are back in New York and L.A, and sellers are scheduling distributor screenings for films that haven’t yet sold. Buyers told Deadline at the start that 2011′s pace of big deals has been much slower than last year. Many of the expected big movies were less commercial than buyers hoped. Though more than one buyer has labeled the festival “dismal,” sellers still feel that most of these titles will find homes. But as these press releases are dropping, we’re at the point where smaller distributors have swept in with low offers for movies they can live without. Some of these films might get a small theatrical release, but a lot of them will be released on VOD. Both buyers and sellers are still pondering the potential and pitfalls of this coming onslaught of VOD titles on cable systems. After Margin Call, will theater owners make their screens available on films playing on TV, and will they demand higher splits? Will talent and filmmakers accept having their features play on ... Read More »

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/as-sundance-winds-down-a-buyers-market-for-small-distributors/

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