On the fifth day of the Sundance Film Festival, a landmark deal was struck, setting the second-highest record in the festival's history. Flame Film Company purchased "Memento" from Newmarket for $8 million, securing all movie rights including theatrical distribution and DVD sales. Managers from various film companies muttered to themselves upon reading the news in the newspaper, "That young man has gone mad again."
As revealed by "The Cinema News," "Memento" wasn't exactly hot property. Nobody would call it a lousy film—in fact, there was praise all around and its script was excellent, likely to snag the Best Screenwriter award at Sundance this year. But apart from Flame Film, hardly anyone was interested in acquiring it. The labels given by film companies were "Critically acclaimed but not commercially," "Box office max of $5 million," and such. If its production cost had been $1 million, many would have bid, but with a $5 million cost, it was bound to lose money.
