→ "The writing is beyond good. Literally the best around. I would die for Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low.” — Austin, paid subscriber Mubi’s $24M Bet Just Made Agents Bullish Again. Here's WhyCAA's Roeg Sutherland, WME's Deborah McIntosh and more on why the JLaw-Pattinson Cannes buy signals that the market 'turned a corner'
For all the pre-fest chatter about a “muted market” and vanishing buyers, the Die, My Love deal hit like a lightning bolt. Mubi’s $24 million swoop for Lynne Ramsay’s film — starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson — wasn’t just a flex, it was a signal: Risk is back on the table. And Hollywood’s agents, lawyers and dealmakers took notice. In fact, even though the U.S. teeters on the edge of a trade war with — well, pretty much everyone — and some headlines have painted a grim picture of a slow Cannes market, the conversations I had in the last few days were unusually upbeat, and not in just self-soothing happy talk. “The general mood [at Cannes] was pretty optimistic about what’s happening in movie theaters in the states,” says Deborah McIntosh, co-head of WME Independent. “Of course, there were plenty of jokes and anxious questions posed about Trump and tariffs. The general sentiment was, ‘You guys are going to figure this out, right?’” Most of the people I talked to said the topic of potential tariffs on projects filmed outside the U.S. never even came up on the Croisette. Instead, they say, everyone just seemed pretty happy to be celebrating art at the world’s most glamorous film festival. “The business has had a really challenging run,” says CAA Media Finance co-head Roeg Sutherland, citing the pandemic, dual strikes and wildfires. “It just felt relentless — and the first time it felt like we’re getting things back together was this year in Cannes, from the market perspective and from the festival perspective.” I talked with WME’s McIntosh, CAA’s Sutherland, Bleecker Street president Kent Sanderson, Sheppard Mullin’s Bob Darwell, Frankfurt Kurnit partner Hayden Goldblatt and 30West’s Dan Steinman and Micah Green about the real lessons from Cannes: Paid subscribers can learn: ✅ Why Mubi’s $24M play shook the market — and what it really signals about indie confidence and capital ✅ Why Die, My Love lit up agents’ inboxes ✅ How Mubi and Neon became power players reshaping global film sales ✅ What buyers actually want now — beyond star casts and pre-sale fluff ✅ The genre gold rush agents are whispering about ✅ The new math of movie stardom — when a hot cast can’t justify budget ✅ Why directors are the new IP that moves the market ✅ Why skipping Cannes doesn’t mean missing the deal as the post-fest deal window evolves ✅ Bleecker Street’s shift in the kinds of movies that will now be its focus 🔓 The rest of this column is for paid subscribers only. Interested in a group sub for your team or company? Click here.Follow us: Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Bluesky | TikTok | X | Threads | Facebook | WhatsApp ICYMI
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Mubi’s $24M Bet Just Made Agents Bullish Again. Here's Why
May 27, 2025
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