Sundance today, your TV tomorrow

Tens of thousands of people converged on Park City, Utah, over the past week and a half for the 40th annual Sundance Film Festival. So if you also happened to be there, those four loud men you saw shredding on the slopes were probably Vinnie Chase & co.

Why it matters: What happens at Sundance has a way of becoming tomorrow’s mainstream – it’s kind of like a crystal ball that provides a glimpse of the people and movies that will shape Hollywood over the next few years. Filmmakers get a chance to showcase their work, and studios come ready to write checks.

• Some of the most iconic films of the past few decades have debuted at Sundance, including Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine, Get Out, and The Blair Witch Project (which made $250+ million on a $60,000 production budget and launched with a rather ingenious marketing campaign).

Studios have cut back on content spending overall, but this year’s festival still saw some big deals. A Real Pain, a Jesse Eisenberg-directed film that also sees him starring alongside Kieran Culkin, sold to Searchlight for $10 million. It's What's Inside, a horror film from first-time filmmaker Greg Jardin, was bought by Netflix for $17 million. And Amazon's MGM Studios is reportedly in final negotiations to acquire My Old Ass, a coming of age dramedy starring Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella, for $15 million.

+Dive deeper: Some other takeaways from Sundance 2024.