The Town with Matthew Belloni Sundance ’26 Bidding Wars and ‘Melania’ Box Office Prospects
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Jan 26, 2026 
John Sloss, founder and CEO of Cinetic Media and longtime film sales expert. He reflects on Sundance’s evolution and how Harvey Weinstein reshaped awards-season films. They discuss shifting market dynamics since the pandemic, which buyers dominate today, and how sellers create urgency during the festival. The conversation closes with early box-office tracking for the Melania documentary.
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Weinstein Shaped The Sundance Awards Market
- Harvey Weinstein created the Sundance-to-awards market and shaped the awards-film genre in the late 1980s and 1990s.
- That shift turned a festival discovery pipeline into a high-stakes commercial market for prestige films.
Set Priorities And Make Buyers Sell Themselves
- Decide priorities before selling: eyeballs, marketing expertise, or money, and negotiate accordingly.
- Make buyers pitch their marketing plans to align with your film's goals and get them invested.
Demand Marketing Plans From Buyers
- Get acquisition teams to present specific marketing proposals at Sundance to test their vision for your film.
- Use detailed plans to measure which buyer will actually support and promote the movie post-sale.