Q: What just happened?

May 2024 saw the highest number of new US movies announced in a single month since May of 2022. The majority of these new projects were brought to market at the Cannes Marché du Film, the annual film marketplace which runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival. 

Q: What does a busy Cannes market tell us about the state of production after the US strikes?

In 2023, US producers rushed in-development projects to market early in the run-up to the festival in an effort to beat the impending strike action, resulting in a spike in the number of movies announced that April. This year, activity in April returned to 2022 levels, but the overall number of new projects announced remained notably high into the month of the festival, with 60 new in-development US movies announced in May alone—an overall increase of some 38% on the same month's total for 2022 and on a par with 2023's strike rush. While a high number of projects coming to market might normally engender optimism about the state of the independent production sector, producers and distributors will be remaining cautious, however. 

The high number of in-development movies is partly a reflection of the long-lasting effects of the strikes, as despite many independent projects going ahead, the shutdown at the studios led to something of a market “reset,” with producers being forced to either delay or restart their search for financing, or abandon projects altogether due to the upheaval in casts’ schedules. And while there were plenty of partially- and fully-financed projects on offer for distributors to pick up, the underlying reality is that fewer US movies are currently being greenlit—56 movies from US producers moved to full production in April and May of this year, compared to 75 in the same months of 2022.

Q: Who were the biggest spenders?

In terms of individual titles, the global SVoDs were once again willing to bid big to beat rivals to high-profile projects but it was Paramount suitor Skydance that proved to have the deepest pockets, offering a reported $80-85m for a worldwide deal on Chris Pratt children's movie Way of the Warrior Kid before it even hit the market. The film will be part of the company's overall deal with Apple, which is not only linked to that acquisition but also made an 8-figure deal of its own. Apple acquired worldwide rights to Tenzing, about the eponymous climbing sherpa Tenzing Norgay and his successful 1953 summit of Everest alongside Edmund Hillary, for a reported $40m. Meanwhile, Netflix acquired worldwide on legal drama Monsanto—another film based on a true story—for a reported $34m. But as has been increasingly the case at festival markets in recent years, the big streaming players were far less active overall and those splashy worldwide deals were few and far between this year.

Unusually compared to recent years, the most active buyers of North American rights stemmed from the arthouse circuit. Most notably Mubi, which has been expanding its footprint in production and theatrical distribution, invested in US rights to films such as body horror The Substance starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and Andrea Arnold’s Bird starring Barry Keoghan for which it had already taken UK distribution. While risk-averse major studios avoided experimental fare with a high price tag such as Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, it appears smaller indie distributors are looking to capitalise on the uncertainty around the robustness of the domestic market by acquiring potential breakout films at a lower price point. 

Q: What does their more subdued presence at market indicate about the content priorities of the global SVoDs?

If anything, the rights that the global SVoDs passed on acquiring at this market were the most revealing. Both Amazon and Netflix, for example, cherry-picked rights by territory when it came to other high-profile deals. The former bought Will Smith thriller Sugar Bandits for the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and some smaller territories, while the latter picked up Jacques Audiard musical Emilia Pérez for North America and the UK. Both deals illustrate how global players might turn to more targeted acquisitions, acquiring rights piecemeal to fill gaps in their slates in more mature streaming markets as they move their original production focus to markets in Western Europe and Asia Pacific, where there are greater subscriber gains to be made. 

Netflix’s acquisition of Emilia Pérez (reported as a potential record for the most expensive domestic distribution deal on a foreign-language film to date at market) is particularly revealing. A Spanish-language musical from a French auteur director might not seem like an obvious crowd-pleaser for North American subscribers, but it ticks multiple boxes for Netflix. Chasing profitability means that the pressure is on streamers to acquire content that appeals to more than one demographic, and Emilia Pérez has dual appeal with the Hispanic and wider English-speaking audience thanks to the presence of Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana among its stars. And the fact that the film proved divisive with critics is actually a plus from a streamer’s perspective. Now more than ever, platforms are reliant on online buzz to not only attract curious subscribers but also to provide advertisers with interest-generating content to advertise against. The more conversation, or controversy, around a film the better.