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The Sundance Curse

The most prestigious award at the Sundance Film Festival, which takes place in January in Park City, Utah, is the Grand Jury Prize. But in recent years, artistic recognition has led to commercial disappointment. Not since American Splendor nabbed top honors in 2003—and then went on to earn $8 million—has the big winner at America's preeminent indie-film festival raked it in at the box office.

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2007

IFC Entertainment finally bought Padre Nuestro, a Spanish-language drama, in September '07—eight months after it took Sundance's top prize. The film is not scheduled to hit North American movie theaters until this spring or summer.

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2006

Quinceañera won the Grand Jury Prize and the coveted Audience Award, but Little Miss Sunshine was the commercial breakout of Sundance '06, eventually topping $100 million worldwide. A month after the festival, Sony Pictures Classics bought Quinceañera's U.S. distribution rights. The $400,000 film grossed $2.5 million.

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2005

The same year that Hustle & Flow was the buzz of Sundance, the Grand Jury Prize went to Forty Shades of Blue, which then earned a grand total of $172,000. Hustle & Flow, meanwhile, rang up $24 million in receipts.

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2004

After Primer snagged the big prize, the movie ended up making $424,760—not as bad as it sounds, actually, given that it cost just $7,000 to make. Napoleon Dynamite (box office: $46 million) debuted the same year but left Sundance without an award.

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2003

The comic-book-inspired feature film American Splendor starred Paul Giamatti and was made by HBO Films (owned by Time Warner). Though it was nominated for an Academy Award, it pulled in just shy of $8 million at the box office.

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2002

Personal Velocity, starring Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey, and Fairuza Balk, won top honors and a distribution deal from MGM/UA in multiple territories. But it earned a mere $817,180 from its domestic-only release.

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2001

The Believer took home the Grand Jury Prize but had a hard time getting a distributor because of its controversial subject matter about an anti-Semitic Jew. It was finally picked up by IDP Distribution and saw domestic box-office revenue of $416,925—the film cost $1.5 million to produce.

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2000

You Can Count on Me earned a total of $11.4 million at the box office thanks to its two Oscar nominations, more than recouping its cost of $1.6 million to make.

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