Anatomy of a movie market

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This is Planet Money from NPR.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (0:20)

The other night, I was sitting on my couch scrolling through all the streaming movies on offer, like you do, trying to decide between some new indie comedy and a broody documentary.

And then I started thinking about the actual selection available to me. Because I recently got a glimpse into the hidden market behind that menu. The negotiations and strategy that determine which movies make it to a screen near you. And I learned the story of how any one film gets plucked from obscurity can be just as entertaining as the movies themselves.

It began one cold bright January morning in a movie theater parking lot in Park City, Utah. I'd arrived just before the start of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival to meet up with a guy named John Sloss. Has anybody ever called you Mr. Sundance?

John Sloss (1:11)

Uh, I've been, yeah, the King of Sundance. Yeah, in 2006, I think I was on page A1 of the New York Times. And I think that article referred to me as the King of Sundance.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (1:23)

Okay.

John Sloss (1:23)

Which is not a title people want these days. Kings are out of fashion. That's true.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (1:28)

They're parades against that sort of thing these days.

John Sloss (1:30)

Exactly.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (1:31)

John is the founder of a company called Sennetic Media, which does all sorts of things in the world of independent movies, from fundraising to PR. But the thing that John is most known for is his work as a sales agent for films. John's job is to turn unique pieces of cinematic art into saleable commodities. Over the next week or so, his mission will be to get a handful of buyers representing some of the biggest companies in entertainment, to see the films in his slate, and convince them to make a series of multi-million dollar bets.

John's partner in this endeavor, the sort of hand of the king, is actually his nephew, Eric Sloss. The three of us are standing in front of a huge crowd of people lining up for the first screening of the festival. It's for a documentary about mountaineering called The Last First, Winter K2.

But Eric has his eyes peeled for a very particular handful of people.

Eric Sloss (2:23)

The real audience for our purposes at this festival specifically is very small, and that is about 10 people who can buy a documentary at the level that we're interested in. It's Netflix, Apple, Amazon, places like that.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (2:35)

Do you get like butterflies before the festival opens?

Eric Sloss (2:38)

Yeah, it's like the minutes before the big game. This is sort of the only wild west environment left in the entertainment industry, and that is inherently exciting.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (2:47)

One big part of John and Eric's job is to push for their films to play at the best possible time and venue. For this documentary, they had managed to get a theater with one of the bigger screens and better sound systems in Park City, which is perfect for an epic outdoor film. But getting the first time slot of the whole festival, Eric says that was a bit of a tough draw.

Eric Sloss (3:08)

We were really nervous that because it's the first screening in the festival, that people wouldn't be in town.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (3:12)

Were you like looking around and just double checking that the people you wanted to see in the room were here?

Eric Sloss (3:16)

We are tracking buyers as they're coming in.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (3:19)

Do you know all the buyers by face?

Eric Sloss (3:21)

More or less, we actually have trading cards that we've created.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (3:25)

Okay, have we got most of them? Have we collected them all?

Eric Sloss (3:27)

I think we've done a pretty good job here. We've had people from Apple, Amazon, Disney.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (3:31)

Just then, John waves to a guy with salt and pepper hair and thick black frame glasses.

John Sloss (3:36)

Eugene!

Eugene Hernandez (3:37)

The first screening. Oh my God.

John Sloss (3:41)

Thanks buddy boy.

Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi (3:42)

Eugene Hernandez is the head of the Sundance Film Festival. Every year, he and his team winnow down thousands of submissions just around a hundred. But making it into the festival does not guarantee that a film will actually sell.

How are we feeling about the market this year?

Eugene Hernandez (3:58)