The definition of independent film at Sundance has always been fairly squirrely. It tends to mean something between “not being distributed by a studio’s biggest division” and “not based on a Nicholas Sparks novel”
It’s now evolved into a standard whereby an Andy Samberg rom-com is “indie.” I suppose, if the definition is: things Hollywood doesn’t make, any rom-com, or for that matter any comedy could be classified as indie. The Hangover would be indie today. So would Lethal Weapon.
In any event, obituaries for the acquisition market at Sundance appear to have been slightly premature. Amazon is, shockingly, sticking to its word and doubling down on its spending spree from last year. But they and much of the rest of the streaming industry seem to have stumbled upon a formula that defies what until ten minutes ago was the conventional wisdom about non-tentpole movies:
• That they were being driven off the map by streaming.
• Why would you leave your house to see a little movie when you could watch it on your 500-inch screen in your living room; that even if there was any value in these?
• How dare companies withhold them from their customers who were demanding, DEMANDING. These films be delivered to them in the comfort of their homes immediately. What do you think this is, asking customers to go someplace to get something, the Middle Ages?
• Or ultimately, as Video City Ted said about moviegoing:.”This romantic experience of sitting in a dark room with strangers and watching a movie, you’re mostly by yourself by the end of it.”
That, as I say, was yesterday’s conventional wisdom when for streamers indie acquisition were awards bait, or catalog stuffers to give the weekly dopamine hit to some niche or another.
Today however, streamers are awakening to the notion that a theatrical release and the attendant marketing around that release turns your purchase into something bigger than just another tile on your homepage; that theatrical creates a, dare I say, cultural moment around even a small to mid-sized release that a streaming service can not replicate, apart from the very rare lightning strike breakouts.
Jen Salke herself kinda half laid it out in her Deadline interview last week, groping for a marketing two-step for Amazon. On Late Night, if she had to do it again: “We would probably adjust the marketing strategy to bifurcate it more between the release and the Prime premiere to more event-ize the Prime premiere more, rather than having all of those resources directed just to the theatrical release.”
But the question is: how much can you really “event-ize” the streaming premiere of a movie no one has ever heard of before? Even with stars, and the best material on Earth? Would a straight to Amazon premiere of Late Night been an event if awareness hadn’t been created via a theatrical release? How much of an event has any other pure streaming release of a movie ever been, apart for, as I say, lightning striking on something like the Fyre Fest documentaries?
Anyway, with these output deal, tandem release plans is the new formula that is keeping the market alive, including the new record holder in Sundance history by 69 cents.
Does this new arrangement leave Netflix – with no theatrical program of its own apart from awards campaigns the odd man out? Or are they the geniuses sticking with their guns on streaming and not going chasing after these new-fangled movie theater releases?
(The Service seemed to confirm the ineffectiveness of marketing around streaming premieres today with the news that they are laying off marketing employees as part of a plan to refocus their marketing towards the app itself rather than individual pieces of content.)
What this new two-step also points out, and where the conventional wisdom was not wrong, is that while the acquisitions market may be alive and well for a handful of fairly traditional star vehicle crowdpleasers (or some awards bait) how hollowed out the indie market is below that and how grim the prospects are of ever been seen for any film that doesn’t have one of these flashy deals.
Remember the days when it was thought that good films would bubble up on VOD? On the iTunes store perhaps. It may not have ever been true for many but it happened often enough whereby filmmakers had some hope of reaching audiences elsewhere as specialty releases fizzled.
But none of this mixed news will slow down the party train, of course. Sundance may not be the bacchanal it was of the Paris Hilton era, but the amount Hollywood spends setting up Main Street lounges, flying in its stars for $5000 a night rooms at the Stein Eriksen, corralling armies of publicists and stylists for gala premieres. Not to mention the industry press spending a good slice of their fast-dwindling budgets getting blanket coverage of a story that is an indie story, at best.
Whatever state the Sundance Festival settles into, while Hollywood officialdom still has a breath left to raise a finger and press “Approve” on an expense report, no realities will ever dent the Festival’s status as the industry’s favorite January jaunt; a time to have some fun, schmooze, and recover from the two weeks of work they have done since Christmas vacation.
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