$1B of movie sales expected at American Film Market debut in Las Vegas

Las Vegas should add to its reputation as a top destination for high-end shopping this week with an additional billion dollars in sales.

That’s the amount of distribution and financing deals that are expected to close during the American Film Market, which had called Santa Monica, California, home since 1991. For its Las Vegas debut, the market is connecting participants from 80 countries, including 286 sales, production and distribution companies, Tuesday through Sunday at the Palms.

Now in its 45th year, AFM attracts films in every stage of development, from basic ideas to packages with scripts and actors attached to finished products. The one thing they have in common is their need for money.

AFM has hosted dozens of iconic movies, ranging from “Pulp Fiction” to “The Passion of the Christ” as well as the “Hunger Games” and “Twilight” franchises. It’s also been the home of hundreds if not thousands of movies of the kind that used to be known as direct-to-video, in which actors who could charitably be described as “less discerning” were surrounded by an Eastern European cast and plenty of shootouts.

Jean Prewitt, president and CEO of the Independent Film & Television Alliance which puts on AFM, said the market is still a mix of prestige films and movies that aim significantly lower, although the quality of the latter has improved.

“I don’t think anyone believes now that you can just make shlock and there’s a marketplace for it,” she said.

That’s a far cry from the early days of AFM, when movies could be sold just based on a poster. “And I was around when people were making up their posters two days before the show,” Prewitt said.

She recalled one company whose chief salesperson thought of as many natural disasters as he could, then “made up a set of pretty generic posters.” He sold all those movies by the second day of the market. Then the company had to go out and make them.

“That era is no longer here,” she explained.

Keeping a low profile

Notable movies at this year’s AFM include:

• “Assasination” from director Barry Levinson and writer David Mamet. Jessica Chastain portrays pioneering journalist Dorothy Kilgallen as she investigates the murder of John F. Kennedy. Al Pacino, Brendan Fraser and Bryan Cranston also star.

• “By Any Means,” which is also based on a true story. Mark Wahlberg stars as a mob hitman hired by the FBI to help a special agent, played by Sterling K. Brown, find the people behind the killings of civil rights leaders in Mississippi in 1966.

• “Day Drinker,” a thriller reuniting Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz that’s directed by Marc Webb (“The Amazing Spider-Man”).

• “Paper Tiger,” a crime drama starring Adam Driver, Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway from writer-director James Gray, a five-time nominee for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

• and “In Whose Name?,” a documentary about Kanye West that began filming in 2018.

Not that you’d know any of this from walking into the Palms. Aside from a rotating spot on the resort’s digital marquee, there’s no signage or anything else to indicate something so prestigious is taking place.

Instead of traditional trade show booths, most of the deals this week will be made in the rooms on the 11 floors of the Fantasy Tower that have been taken over as offices. All of the beds, bedside tables and anything else not conducive to sales have been removed and will be stored through the end of the market on Sunday. Then the rooms will be put back together in time for guests to check in on Monday.

Choosing Las Vegas

Santa Monica “had become relatively inconvenient for the buyers,” Prewitt said.

Attendees were heading out to meetings, leaving the site for screenings and wasting valuable time. After looking at eight or nine cities, Prewitt said, the Palms was the only location they found that could host everything under one roof. (More than 200 screenings are scheduled this week at the resort’s Brenden Theatres.)

The proximity of Las Vegas to Los Angeles was an added benefit. Attendees can tack on a day or two for meetings there before or after the market.

“It takes less time for me to get here from L.A.,” Prewitt said at the Palms, “than it does for me to get from my home to my office in L.A.”

The move from Southern California also proved to be a boon for students in UNLV Film. Fifty of them will work as AFM interns and receive school credit, Prewitt said.

“It’s the first time for most students going through a film program where they actually see the business side,” she said, noting that they’ll learn about such things as sales, distribution and financing.

A location for next year’s American Film Market hasn’t been announced, but Prewitt wants to keep it in Las Vegas for the foreseeable future.

“At this point,” she said, “we’re hoping that it all plays out and this becomes the permanent November stop for the industry.”

Some of the notable movies that have been represented at the American Film Market:

"Bridget Jones's Diary"

"Brokeback Mountain"

"Dallas Buyers Club"

"Dances With Wolves"

"The Expendables franchise

"Good Will Hunting"

"The Hunger Games" franchise

"The Hurt Locker"

"Inglourious Basterds"

"Juno"

"La La Land"

"The Lincoln Lawyer"

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"

"Million Dollar Baby"

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding"

"The Passion of the Christ"

"Pulp Fiction"

"Room"

"The Silence of the Lambs"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Taken"

"The Terminator"

"The Wolf of Wall Street"

"Trainspotting"

"Twilight" franchise

"Wedding Crashers"