Revenue — the kind that’s visible to the naked eye — is another matter. All Sundance 2019 films that received a theatrical release totaled $125 million in domestic gross. Although pandemic delays mean multiple titles have yet to be released, the total box office for Sundance 2020 is a little over $18 million. That drop mirrors the overall box-office decline. This is where we’d like to compare and contrast box-office figures, and make predictions about the current Sundance market, but the revenue or value generated by VOD, Premium VOD, or streaming — platforms where they (presumably) made the most money — are unknown. However, that alone speaks volumes.
At Sundance 2020, it was shocking when two of the year’s biggest sales went to Hulu with “Palm Springs” and “Bad Hair.” At Sundance 2021, with the world groomed by a year’s worth of home-first entertainment, the handwringing over Sundance streamer buys and the loss of big-screen debuts will decline. Potentially, so could prices: While the pandemic production delays and home-platform competition will fuel the market, streamers will no longer be forced to pay a premium to prove their worth. At Sundance — if not everywhere else — they are the new normal. At the theatrical box office, Searchlight title “Downhill” accounted for nearly half of the Sundance total with $8.3 million. The Will Ferrell-Julia Louis-Dreyfuss remake debuted in the Premieres section for release in mid-February, ahead of the shutdowns. Next best is another Premieres title, Focus Features’ “Promising Young Woman.” Currently in theaters, it’s earned $4 million and should reach around $6 million as it continues to run parallel to Premium VOD play. Only two other films surpassed $1 million in theaters: Premieres title “The Last Shift,” a Sony release, and Midnight selection “The Relic,” which IFC acquired from the Midnight section. That leaves under $4 million spread over the other titles that attempted some theatrical play, although few — if any — tried to play theaters alone. In 2020, nine Sundance films were acquired for $1 million or higher: Palm Springs (Neon/Hulu) $17.5M (some sources suggest higher) Boys State (A24/Apple) $15M The Night House (Searchlight) $12M (dated July 16, 2021) Bad Hair (Hulu) $8M The 40-Year-Old Version (Netflix) est. $5M-$8M Kajillionaire (Focus) $5 million Spree (RLJE) $2M
The Truffle Hunters (Sony Pictures Classics) $1.5M (dated March 12, 2021) The Fight (Magnolia) est. $1M “Palm Springs” did get a few drive-ins last July (total gross $164,000) with a day-and-date Hulu premiere. The Disney-owned service reported the highest viewing for its first three days for any title they’d ever played, with around 2.5 million views over its first month. Sundance 2021 is a virtual festival; it’s shorter and will show fewer films. Some producers held back their titles in favor of a future festival that will give them the buzz and promotional push that’s specific to a live audience. We all look forward to that time, but even when it comes the expectations of its filmmakers, distributors, executives, and audiences will be forever changed. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
