Two days after the Cannes Marché du Film closed, the two mid-cap deals that defined the market are still the only two on the board. A24's $17 million worldwide rights deal for Jordan Firstman's Club Kid and Amazon's reported low-twenty-millions acquisition of Mimi Cave's Pumping Black are the year's receipt. [1] [2]

The paper's Thursday brief named the close as the slowest Marché in years. Friday added no new mid-cap acquisitions. Neon and Mubi and Searchlight stayed out of the bidding lane through the close; A24's Club Kid purchase — first film of the festival to sell, made on a 100-percent Rotten Tomatoes opening — was the festival's signal, not its volume. Pumping Black sold because Natalie Portman and Jonathan Bailey were on the call sheet, and because Amazon needed an awards-coded title for the fall theatrical pipeline. [1] [2]

The structural answer the paper has been waiting for is what happens to the Marché when streamer money pulls back. The slow-market frame is now a two-year pattern, not a 2026 idiosyncrasy. The studio acquisitions that did happen this year were either internal renewals (Lionsgate's Hunger Games slate) or strategic carve-outs that did not need a festival. The two checks on the Friday board are real, but the absence around them is the larger receipt. Saturday's Palme d'Or vote will write the awards line. The acquisition line is already closed. [1] [2]

-- CAMILLE BEAUMONT, Los Angeles