The Sundance Two Biggest Deals Made My Heart Sink

Is there a pattern? Both movies won the Sundance lottery

But guess what? Both movies won the Sundance lottery, but guess what? Both movies were taken by streaming services and will likely never be shown in theaters. I have a simple question: What are these good deals? One could argue that both “Fair Play” and the “Flora and Son” films will have large audiences streaming. However, I believe it is more likely that both films won distribution but lost the war.

You’re almost right. Streaming services are a siginificant part of the present and a larger portion of the future. They aren’t necessarily bad. Look at what happened to “CODA”, two years ago. It was purchased by Apple at Sundance for $25 million. It was nominated for the Oscar for best movie. It was not just a movie about the ball, it also married Prince Charming.

But “CODA” is an excellent example of this phenomenon, precisely because it won the Academy Awards. I was a huge supporter of the film at Sundance, and it won the Oscars. To this day, however, it feels as though that victory happened in a vacuum. Outside of the context of the awards race, I haven’t heard anyone talk about CODA. It was how many people waw it? Did they get enthused? I don’t know the answer to that question.

This year, however, all the films that are competing to win best picture have been extensively discussed. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was a huge hit in theaters, and may be the most loved or hated movie of the decade. Even “Tar”, a film that was wildly popular but which had a notoriously low box office performance (it barely crossed the $6 million mark), was still one of the most talked about movies of the year. It used to be said that Velvet Underground’s original album sold only 100,000 copies, but that every person who bought it started a band. Everyone who saw “Tar,” in a movie theatre, had a passionate conversation about it. This is how movies work. Imagine “Tar” being shown on a streaming site. Although it would still be a great work of art, no one would be talking about it. This is how streaming services work. They are buzz killers.

Each of the Sundance purchases of “Fair Play”, and “Flora and Son,” are based on a wonderful and to my mind, rather tragic irony. Both films generated so much excitement at the festival because they were audience movies. It’s impossible to say it any other way. “Fair Play,” while not a glamorous Adrian Lyne mercenary, is a lively drama about corporate culture. It also examines the anxiety and high-stakes nature of the changing sexual dynamics. It’s about women and men competing in new ways. This movie is like “Promising Young Lady”, which would have been a huge hit in theaters. “Flora and Son” is a musical that’s both sweet and a bit raunchy. It can bring the audience together in a collective swoon at times. It does, at least when there is an audience.

These films can and will be enjoyed at home, but I am not saying so. The whole theaters-vs.-streaming debate can sound, at times, idiotic, since it’s not only a fact that streaming is here to stay. We’ve watched relatively recent movies at home since the 1980s. This is not a new concept.

It’s a common complaint that movies can disappear into the Bermuda Triangle when they go straight to streaming. Many believe Disney caused a damage to Pixar’s brand by releasing “Turning Red,” which was streamable. Pixar movies were always events, but Disney reduced “Turning Red” to one more piece of product you can see this week at home.

Netflix is now fighting against theatrical successes. It was reported that “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” made $15 million its first weekend. The streamer restricted the release to a week, which led to tons of media analysis about how much Netflix had left. It could have been as high as $100 million. Maybe even more. The company isn’t stupid. Netflix left all this money on the table because Ted Sarandos (the leader of Netflix) didn’ want Glass Onion to make $100,000,000 in theaters. It would be the worst advertisement for his business plan which is to keep everyone home even though the movies they are watching, like “Knives Out,” practically beg for an audience. This is the brave new world Sarandos wants to create. This is how Netflix purchased “Fair Play” in effect. They paid $20 million to remove the most popular film at Sundance from the market.

This may seem like I am ignoring the difficult economic realities facing independent film. According to reports, even distributors interested in Fair Play were concerned about the indie film’s poor track record last fall. They also had to be aware of other factors such as the shrinking number of theaters dedicated to showing these films and the huge advertising budgets required to give them a chance. These arguments are understandable. However, the growing trend of high-end dramas intended for adults who are underperforming cannot be made into an automatic death sentence or banishment from streaming. It should not be made into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sundance Film Festival is a symbol of something: an amalgamation of independence, adventure and audience. It’s the holy trinity. Although an audience at home is still an audience it is a diminished audience that also diminishes the film’s power. Deals for “Fair Play” and Flora and Son made the movies look like big fish. What good is it if those deals have the effect of shrinking the pond?