Friday: Sundance Moves To Boulder; Salke Steps Down at Amazon MGM; Zendaya In A24's Be My Baby
Good morning, it's Friday March 28th. Here's what you need to know.
Today's Headlines
The Sundance Film Festival is moving to Boulder, Colorado, starting in 2027. "During the process, it became clear that Boulder is the ideal location in which to build our Festival’s future, marking a key strategic step in its natural evolution,” said Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute Board Chair. Our take: Perfect choice. Boulder has just the right mix of arts, culture and commerce to support the festival.
A funding shortfall has caused Simon Pegg's Angels In The Asylum to stop shooting, Deadline reports. Our take: This is a story with legs as the reasons for the shortage still seems unclear.
Moonlight director Barry Jenkins has reportedly come on board to direct the A24's upcoming Ronnie Spector biopic starring Zendaya, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Our take: If done right, this has Oscar contender potential.
OpenAI's upgraded image generator is getting heat for its ability to mimic Studio Ghibli's animation style. Variety reveals that Ghibli's North American distributor (Gkids) is meanwhile crowing over Princess Mononoke's strong performance on Imax. Our take: Hayao Miyazaki is famously opposed to AI image generation.
The Wrap reports on Jennifer Salke stepping down as head of Amazon MGM Studios. Our take: Amy Pascal and David Heyman have been brought on board to produce the Bond franchise. This looks related.
Box Office Rankings: Wednesday, March 26th
1) Snow White
2) Black Bag
3) Captain America: Brave New World
4) Mickey 17
5) Novocaine
Movers: Numbers are very low across the board. Novocaine drops from 3rd to 5th. Captain America moves from 5th to 3rd.
MNP Studio Index Fund
Current Holdings: Amazon, Comcast, Disney, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony
Big Movers: Interesting that Paramount is relatively unchanged today as others in the index are down.
Current Value: $98,074. (Today's Change: Down 2.57%. Total Loss: 1.11%)
MNP Theater Index Fund
Current Holdings: AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Cineverse, Dolby, Imax, Marcus Corporation. Investigating the possibility of adding National Cinemedia to the index.
Big Movers Today: Equities are down almost across the board today as markets assess economic worries.
Current Value: $98,317 (Today's Change: Down 2.74%. Total Loss: 1.7%)
MNP Streaming Index Fund
Current Holdings: Apple, Amazon, Comcast, Disney, Fox, Alphabet, Netflix, Paramount, Roku, Warner Brothers Discovery.
Big Movers Today: All stocks getting clobbered today on market jitters over consumer confidence.
Current Value: $100,633 (Today's Change: Down 3%. Total Gain: .6%)
Film Festivals Today
Here are the festivals that should be on your radar:
Gasparilla International Film Festival, US - March 25-30
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, UK - March 27-30
Cleveland International Film Festival, March 27-April 5
Diagonale, Austria - March 27-April 1
Garden State Film Festival, US - March 27-30
What To Watch Tonight
Out of the Past (1947), Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Lives up to the hype! A classic noir with dynamite dialogue, double dealing dames and amazing cinematography.
Disclaimer/Transparency
MovieNewsPro is a film industry news monitoring service. All stories have been previously reported elsewhere and are not exclusive stories to MNP. All information is believed to be accurate at the time of reporting. MovieNewsPro uses a full array of technology to gather information, including machine learning, automation and artificial intelligence throughout its business monitoring, editing and reporting process. MovieNewsPro sector indexes (Streaming, Studio and Theater) are virtual indexes - there are no actual funds invested. Sector index total value dollar amounts are based on an initial hypothetical investment of $100,000 on March 17th, 2025. We are not licensed investment advisors and our information should not be used as investment advice.
