Tuesday, July 21, 2026

First Sundance Film, Starring Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg, Sells for $10 Million to Searchlight

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The first Sundance 2024 movie has reportedly sold for big bucks.

“A Real Pain,” directed by Jesse Eisenberg and starring him and Kieran Culkin, has gone to Disney’s Searchlight.

Variety reports that the sale was $10 million, which is not a record by any means but much more prudent in this tricky time.

My sources say a number of companies participated in an auction. You can only imagine how badly A24 and others wanted it.

The reviews have been raves for this warm hearted comedy. Eisenberg has a loyal fan following. and Culkin is hot from winning the Critics Choice and Emmy Awards for “Succession.”

Searchlight will probably hold this for the fall, and some awards consideration. So they’ve already got one in the bag for next year, and “Poor Things” for this one. Not bad!

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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