Sundance Group Makes Foray into Exhibition Business
According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, The Sundance Group, parent company of the Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Channel, has announced their intentions of creating a chain of specialty cinemas.
The circuit, which has been in the works for numerous years, will be headed by Paul Richardson and Bert Manzari, the pair who started Landmark back in the '70s. Programming looks like it will be similar to the Landmark/Laemmle paradigm:
The theaters will show in independent, documentary, and foreign language film, as well as quality studio films and original programming, which will include shorts, filmmaker interviews and forums.
This move will greatly enhance the Sundance Group's vertical marketing abilities, and will help to secure valuable publicity for their home entertainment releases. It now looks like 2929 Entertainment isn't the only integrated company in town...
[Via the Los Angeles Business Journal]
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In a time where Summer Blockbusters and Star Warring worn-out epochs threaten the quality of filmmaking, indy films are the few sources of legitmiate art that rescue film from indignation and content starvation. Aiding the indy movement, traditions, such as Sundance emerged to salvage film from the humdrum archetypes which overwhelmingly populate the industry, today. Given, Sundance should be praised for their contributions, but they have increasingly become corporately run by studio money and influence. And now that Sundance is 'throwing their hat into the ring' of cineplexes and theater conglomerates (ie AMC, MANN, LOEWS) is their hope for the indy tradtion? Theater companies are 100% controlled by corporate dollars, and by Sundance entangling itself with this financial bizarre, the company reduces the likliehood that indy films will continue to proliferate--that is unless another company picks up Sundance's past indy reigns. My imperative, where are the companies that still celebrate indy art?!