Worldwide rights to slave-rebellion drama The Birth of a Nation, which premiered Monday afternoon to multiple standing ovations, have been bought by Fox Searchlight at the Sundance Film Festival for $17.5 million. It is the biggest purchase in the history of Sundance.
Searchlight beat out escalating bids from The Weinstein Co, Netflix (which insisted on a day-and-date theatrical and streaming debut), Paramount and other suitors. Many films at the fest reached $10 million, which also includes Manchester by the Sea (bought by Amazon earlier this week) and The Way, Way Back (by Fox Searchlight in 2013).
The sales go to show how deep-pocketed streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon have altered the Sundance market. After the streamers scooped up several titles at eye-popping prices, Netflix helped bid up the price of Birth of a Nation in the auction.
Nate Parker wrote, directed and starred in the project based on the story of Nat Turner, an American-born slave who led the most successful slave rebellion in American history.
Parker quit acting for nearly two years to work on Birth of a Nation and to manage a way to finance the film, which also stars Armie Hammer, Jackie Earle Haley, Aja Naomi King and Gabrielle Union.
