Amazon and Netflix are the top movie buyers out of Sundance so far
Amazon has acquired four films and Netflix has purchased three, halfway through the 11-day Sundance Film Festival that's currently running. Most traditional distributors still haven't picked up anything.
Sian Heder, the director of Netflix-acquired "Tallulah," told the New York Times, "You always want your film to be shown on a big screen with perfect sound and the best projection, but that's not always the reality anymore. The way that people consume media is changing."
Some of the films purchased by the two companies will actually end up getting theatrical runs, such as the Amazon-purchased "Manchester by the Sea," starring Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler, and Michelle Williams, from writer/director Kenneth Lonergan.
"For every movie that we do, we want as robust a theatrical run as the film will support," Roy Price, head of Amazon Studios, told the Times.
That sentiment may come as a surprise to some, coming after Netflix failed in an Oscar bid for its film "Beasts of No Nation," which flopped in theaters with just $90,777 in box-office gross (it was released for streaming at the same time). Amazon's "Chi-Raq," which opened in theaters before arriving on the streaming platform, fared better with $2.6 million.