Reality Bites: AFM Eerily Quiet On The Dealmaking Front At Halfway

Despite a slew of packages being announced for this year’s AFM, at the halfway mark significant dealmaking has been in painfully short supply.

With the key first four days of the market behind us, a stark reality is being confirmed. “Quiet would be an understatement,” said an acquisitions executive. “It’s tough out there,” one usually sanguine market veteran admitted.

So far, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years Of Longing is the only project known to have drawn multiple multi-million dollar deals from international buyers. The U.S. acquisitions front has been equally quiet, though admittedly AFM is not traditionally a hot-bed of domestic dealmaking.

There’s time for things to improve — and a small collection of projects are garnering attention — but as it stands, those challenging market conditions we touched on in our AFM preview are really ringing true. Notable dealmaking is as rare as last year if not more so.