The 2023 Sundance Film Festival wrapped up in Park City, Utah this weekend. It’s the first time that one of the film industry’s biggest annual festival’s has been held in person since 2020. While there was lots of chatter about the current woeful state of “specialty films” going into the festival this year, the big questions on everyone’s mind was what would a post-pandemic Sundance be like, would anyone show up and will distributors acquire any of the more than 100 movies in the official selection?
Of course that latter question is asked before every Sundance, but this year, with streamers openly trimming their budgets and a good chunk of the programming having already been picked up by the likes of A24, Apple, Focus Features and Searchlight, there was a great deal of uncertainty around the market aspect of the festival. Thankfully, everyone’s concern was for naught since buyers did indeed show up with their checkbooks and acquired quite a few of the festival’s best titles.
We’ll be providing an update on some of the sales coming out of this year’s Sundance in an upcoming post, but just know that there were some big money sales. Nothing as big as when Apple paid USD $25 million for “CODA” in 2021, but the tech company turned film distributor was back this year ponying up a reported USD $20 million for “Flora and Son,” the latest musical film from John Carney whose earlier movie, “Once,” was a hit. Nor could Netflix let the festival go by without making at least one headline. They managed to do that by beating out seven other distributors to pay USD $20 million for the rights to “Fair Play,” an erotic psychological thriller set int he world of high finance. Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, MUBI, Magnolia and others also left the festival having picked up various titles.
The major question that hung over Sundance as it unspooled over 11 days was if any of the films being acquired would actually get a theatrical release, or instead, head straight to streaming? And of those that got a theatrical release, would anyone show up in cinemas to watch them. The main conversations after a Sundance screening ends used to be centered around whether the film was any good or not. Now, whether anyone will actually pay to see the film in a movie theatre has been added to the discussion.
“Rye Lane” managed to exemplify the conundrum. A British romantic comedy directed by Raine Allen-Miller, the movie about two two twentysomethings trying to get over recent relationships is funny, stylish and was very well received during Sundance. It came into the festival with Searchlight as its distributor and it was soon revealed that, while “Rye Lane” will get a theatrical release in the United Kingdom, it will stream on Hulu in the United States. That’s a shame because the consensus among festival goers was that it could be a big word of mouth hit in which its third and fourth week’s box office outpace the movie’s first two weeks.
Sundance ended as it does every year, without really answering the question of who will actually show up at cinemas to see some of its official selections. This year it just seems to be more of an existential question than in previous years. Especially given the lower attendance at this year’s festival. Depending on who you asked, Sundance was either back in full swing with its normal attendance (as noted by those spending most of their time trying to get into parties on Main Street) or was suffering from depressed attendance (as noted by those attending press and industry screenings). The reality is somewhere in the middle, there were fewer people in Park City for Sundance, making it way more pleasant to navigate logistically, but public screenings were sold out and there were enough parties to keep social butterflies happy.
The mistake I saw many industry attendees make was connoting a smaller Sundance attendance with a lack of interest in arthouse films, adult themed movies, etc. Given the expense of attending the festival in its small ski-town setting, the lower budgets many media companies are enforcing and the fact that most of the titles in the official selection could be screened at home made it impossible to determine the true attendance and participation in this year’s Sundance.
Rather than look for the flaws it would be more productive to point out that, once again, Sundance managed to curate some of the best independent movies we’ll see this year from interesting filmmakers, some of whose names we’ll only get to know in the coming years. Sundance somehow manages to do that consistently. Was every movie great? No. But it never is at any festival. Will every movie get a theatrical release? Sadly, probably not. But hopefully the industry will rally around the ones that make it onto cinema screens to help assure their financial success, thus ensuring more will get made in the future.
By the way, as they are with us, Dolby is a huge sponsor of Sundance and plays an integral role in making sure all the screenings sound perfect.
Film Festivals
Sundance Announces 2023 Festival Winners
The Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City, Utah in person and streamed online this year. The 2023 Sundance Film Festival jurors and audiences voted to present with the awards to official selections in all the various sections of the festival including U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Documentary, World Cinema Dramatic and World Cinema Documentary, as well as the NEXT sidebar. The awards ceremony was held on 27 January at The Ray Theatre in Park City.
The jury and audience-awarded prizes amplify the latest storytelling to come from indie filmmakers, with Grand Jury Prizes awarded to “A Thousand and One” (U.S. Dramatic), “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” (U.S. Documentary), “Scrapper” (World Cinema Dramatic), and “The Eternal Memory” (World Cinema Documentary), and the NEXT Innovator Award presented by Adobe was awarded to “KOKOMO CITY.”
Voted on by the audience, “Radical” was granted the Festival Favorite Award. Audience Awards for films in competition were presented to “The Persian Version” (U.S. Dramatic) and “Beyond Utopia” (U.S. Documentary), and presented by United Airlines to “Shayda” (World Cinema Dramatic) and “20 Days in Mariupol” (World Cinema Documentary). “KOKOMO CITY” won the audience award for NEXT.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Box Office
China Gets Spring Festival Box Office Boost
The recently concluded Chinese Spring Festival holiday saw a strong return for local movies, following a significant decline in the box office in 2022. In total 126 million tickets were sold, adding up to CNY 6.65 billion (USD $982 million) as of last Friday.
Four local titles dominated the new releases, though for the first time a Hollywood title (“Avatar: The Way of Water”) was permitted to continue screening even during China’s biggest holiday.
This year’s Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese Lunar New Year, was the second highest on record and higher than last year’s. Six new titles were released and, as well being a financial success, four of them received a score of 7.0 or higher on the review aggregation platform Douban.
Highest grossing was Zhang Yimou’s historical suspense comedy “Full River Red,” which took CNY 2.55 billion (USD $380 million) and accounted for 38% of the total box office. In second place was science fiction prequel “The Wandering Earth 2” with CNY 2.13 billion (USD $310 million), having won the top spot on the first day of release. Animated family sequel “Boogie Bears: Guardian Code” taking CNY 743 million (USD $109 million).
Source: Celluloid Junkie
People
Carol Welch Steps Down as MD of Odeon UK & IE
Carol Welch is leaving her role as Managing Director of Odeon UK and Ireland, after having served as the head of the AMC-owned cinema major for six years. Welch was also Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) for Europe. Her role will be split, while the search is on for her replacement, said to be in final stages.
Welch is leaving Odeon to become CEO of food distributor AF Blakemore, one of the largest family-owned companies in the UK. Following her departure, Chris Bates is promoted to the role of chief commercial officer, being already UK-European commercial director for Odeon Cinemas Group. He will also join Odeon’s executive committee.
“I would like to congratulate her for everything she has achieved at ODEON over the last six years and thank her for her passion, dedication, and commitment to our colleagues and guests… [She] has made a significant difference to our business.”
Mark Way, MD of Odeon Cinema Group
Welch steps down after an intensive period that has seen AMC-acquired Odeon heading up the European operations that encompasses Scandinavia, Germany, Spain and other markets. In total it encompasses over 290 cinemas in nine territories, with over 2,500 screens. Following consolidation and re-organisation into Northern and Southern European operations, with lots of personell changes, Odeon Cinema Group emerged from Covid battered, while the parent company AMC was swept up in the meme stock craze. Carol Welch was named in the Top Women in Global Cinema list for many years running.
Box Office
Bollywood Bounces Back with Shah Rukh Khan Blockbuster
Hindi-language hit “Pathaan” has broken several box office records, marking a strong return for Bollywood after a long period lacking hits, as well as being overshadowed by regional South Indian films such as “RRR.” The release marks the return to the big screen of India’s arguably biggest star, Shah Rukh Khan, since 2018.
The Yash Raj Film (YRF) produced blockbuster took INR 679 million (USD $8.32 million) in India on its first day of release, with a further USD $4.5 million overseas, giving it a total of USD $12.7 million. The film was released simultaneously in over 100 countries, with around 5,500 screens in India and 2,500 screen in the rest of the world.
According to YRF the film scored the highest grossing opening day for any Hindi film. It is also said to have scored the highest score for a non-holiday release, as well as highest opening day score for Shah Rukh Khan and his two co-stars (Deepika Padukone and John Abraham), as well as for Dash Raj Films.
On a regional basis the film opened to USD $1.6 million in the Middle East, USD $1.5 million in North America, USD $650,000 in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, with a further USD $750,000 in the rest of the world. The film had sparked some protests ahead of its release in response to a video of a song from the film. However, this does not appear to have dented its popularity of box office potential.
Source: Variety
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