Fall Film Festival Acquisitions to Know

 With the traditional red carpet promenade severely limited by strike action, the fall film festival circuit gave indie movies a near-unprecedented chance to shine to buyers. While some jitteriness around the SAG-AFTRA waiver system caused slower-than-normal sales and some of the larger AMPTP distributors to opt for a ‘wait and see’ policy, there have been some strong acquisitions to keep on your radar. Entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, of Blake & Wang P.A., highlights just a few to watch.

Brandon Blake

Festival and Post-Festival Sales

Of the titles acquired during the festival itself, we see Sing Sing(to A24) headed to 2024 theatrical release in a seven-figure deal. Sorry/Not Sorry (Greenwich Entertainment) and Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Wavelengths)also attracted considerable festival attention. Despite the quiet market overall for documentaries, Netflix took home Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa alongside Women of the Hour as the first truly major deal from the Venice festival as well as His Three Daughters from TIFF.

Lionsgate pre-acquired The Crow, the remake of the cult classic from the 80s, while comedic Fackham Hall and One Life both went to Bleecker Street. Neon was another high-profile buyer, taking home the Venice competition title Origin and TIFF market title Babes. Sony Pictures Classic will be the distributor for The Peasants, the animated epic that attracted a lot of attention for its painstaking hand-painted method. They join The Beast (Sideshow/Janus), We Grown Now and Daddio(both Sony), and American Symphony and Hit Man (both Netflix).

Pre-Festival Deals

Of course, some of the most anticipated festival titles inevitably arrive with distribution in place already. We saw this for some of the hottest titles both in and out of competition, namely Ferrari (Neon), Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures), Priscilla (A24), The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Republic for Showtime), The Boy and the Heron (GKIDS), Dumb Money (Sony), and El Conde (Netflix). A24 snapped up Dicks: The Musical, while Shudder took home When Evil Lurks.

These join 24 more key festival titles with pre-festival deals in place. Evil Does Not Exist (Janus/Slideshow) and 4 more titles landed distribution after the lineups for each festival were put in place, too.

While it may not be the largest year for buying we’ve seen, there are certainly some great deals now in place thanks to the fall festival season, and doubtless more to come, too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Kung Fu Panda 4 the Key to a Reinvigorated 2024 Box Office?

Image
 With Dune: Part Two having finally powered up the 2024 box office, it's time to build on that impetus if the wider box office recovery is to continue. There could be another strong contender lurking in the wings for this weekend’s releases- but it will doubtless surprise you to learn that this hope lies with the fourth installment of the animated Kung Fu Panda saga! Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment attorney Los Angeles , Brandon Blake, has more on this ironic twist for us.                                                                          Brandon Blake Two $40M Grosses on the Cards For the first time since July 2023 and the Barbenheimer dual release, we have a chance at not one, but two, films grossing over $40M this weekend. In fact, those figures may top $50M! While Dune: Part Two has had the benefit of massive hype and anticipation, Kung Fu Panda 4 may well turn out to be the more profitable production. Dune: Part Two has already grossed over $100M globally,
Read more

Netflix Ad Tier Turns in Fantastic Growth

Image
 What a difference half a year can make! With Netflix’s ad-supported subscription tier first launched only 18 months ago, the streamer has managed to nearly double its subscriber base since the start of 2024. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake, fills in the details. Brandon Blake Impressive Subscriber Gains Netflix’s total subscribers for the ad-supported tier now number 40 million monthly active users. In January 2024, it was 23 million. The streamer was understandably gleeful to reveal this news at its first in-person Upfronts presentation in New York earlier this month. At its first-ever Upfronts presentation, which was held digitally in 2023, the ad tier had 5 million monthly active users.   Additionally, we were told that 40% of active signups now opt for the ad-supported plan, in countries where it is currently available. Of course, much of this can be attributed to a rather kind price ($7 domestically) for this tier, well below most of the other
Read more

Hulu on Disney+ is Officially Here

Image
While the Hulu on Disney+ Beta bundle has been live since last year, we have officially reached the point of full integration. Intriguingly, much of the executive focus on the new bundle has been around the technical advancements needed to unite the two platforms. You could take a look at entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., looks in more depth at the united offering.                                              Brandon Blake Technical Advancements While few viewers are likely to know (or care, frankly) about the backstage technology that powers their viewing experience, Disney executives have been keen to hammer home the potential for happier, healthier subscriber engagement and retention with the new tech shift. They have gone as far as to call it the “most extensive technical advancement” since launch. At this point, it is clear that they are also hoping a more advertiser-appealing platform with better metrics can be leveraged to boost their highly su
Read more