- Title: Netflix brings change to Sundance
- Date: 21st January 2017
- Summary: PARK CITY, UTAH, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** ARRIVAL OF ACTOR ELIJAH WOOD AT PREMIERE FOR 'I DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE' WOOD WRITER DIRECTOR MACON BLAIR BEING INTERVIEWED WOOD BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, ELIJAH WOOD, SAYING: "The beautiful thing about streaming on a platform like Netflix is that sometimes these films would only get to major cities and not be available for smaller countries or middle America or territories that wouldn't necessarily have an art house cinema or a cinema that would carry this kind of film so the fact it can be on Netflix and ultimately go worldwide we have an audience that we could never have in a traditional sense." ACTRESS MELANIE LYNSKEY ACTRESSES CHRISTINE WOODS AND JANE LEVY WITH ACTOR DEVON GRAYE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS, MELANIE LYNSKEY, SAYING: "Some friends of mine who have had films on Netflix have said that the audience that the one film I had on Netflix is bigger than all the other films put together for their theatrical releases and their DVD, you know. It's amazing how many people it can reach."
- Embargoed: 4th February 2017 00:07
- Keywords: Sundance film festival Netflix streaming film market Elijah Wood Melanie Lynskey
- Location: PARK CITY, UTAH, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: PARK CITY, UTAH, UNITED STATES; UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0035ZW12TP
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDIT CONTAINS PROFANITY IN SHOT 5
The Sundance film festival in recent years has been a fertile market for streaming services like Amazon, Netflix and Hulu, where they can acquire the films creating a buzz at the festival.
2017 has seen a few changes in the way that streaming companies work, most specifically with Netflix.
"Netflix has a number of movies at Sundance this year including a fairly big release - Charlie McDowell's 'Discovery' which they purchased before the festival as well as the opening night movie 'I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore' and a few others so they already have a footprint here without making any purchases," explained vulture.com and New York Magazine's senior editor Kevin Lincoln.
"What the streaming companies have been doing in the past few years and probably will continue to do this year is drive up the prices of certain movies. Last year, Netflix bid $20 million on 'The Birth of a Nation' and we all know how that turned out, which is not well for Fox Searchlight."
The opening film of the dramatic section of the festival was 'I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore'. The film, which is about two neighbors who go on a revenge mission against burglars with unexpected consequences, isn't receiving a theatrical release but will be airing on Netflix in February.
'Lord of the Rings' actor Elijah Wood who is one of the two leads in the film alongside Melanie Lynskey, explained "The beautiful thing about streaming on a platform like Netflix is that sometimes these films would only get to major cities and not be available for smaller countries or middle America or territories that wouldn't necessarily have an art house cinema or a cinema that would carry this kind of film so the fact it can be on Netflix and ultimately go worldwide we have an audience that we could never have in a traditional sense."
Lynskey also believed that this new way of watching movies brings the film greater attention because of Netflix's 94 million users.
"Some friends of mine who have had films on Netflix have said that the audience that the one film I had on Netflix is bigger than all the other films put together for their theatrical releases and their DVD, you know. It's amazing how many people it can reach," she explained.
'I Don't Want to Live in This World Anymore', which is directed by 'Green Room''s Macon Blair, goes on release on February 24 on Netflix. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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