How much are awards from Cannes and Sundance worth? Not much, if the crashing of "Slam" at the box office is any measure. A movie about an imprisoned African-American poet, "Slam" -- which cost $1.5 million to make -- was picked up by Trimark at Sundance last year for $2.5 million, but has so far grossed only $573,000 and is playing in just 55 theaters.

Although selling people on a starless film centered on prison and poetry was clearly going to be difficult, the filmmakers and Trimark believed winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Camera D’or at Cannes would make the crucial difference. Instead, says Ray Price, who ran the marketing campaign, the film "may have been a commodity that never was. If you say it’s about a drug dealer who goes to prison, it’s not art-house fare. If you say it’s about political issues, then it becomes spinach, which doesn’t sell well. And if it’s about poetry, it becomes something close to a concert film."

Director Marc Levin and producer Richard Stratton believe the film wasn’t marketed as aggressively to urban audiences as it should have been. Understandably, Price disagrees. He tells EW Online that "Slam" is missing the requisite "fast cars and beautiful women... Sometimes marketing films is like walking through a minefield. There are days when you get to the other side safely and you throw up your arms, and there are days when you don’t."

On a brighter note, "Slam"’s lack of box office success hasn’t hurt Levin and Stratton: They’ve already shot their next movie -- "White Boys" -- about a farm kid who wants to be a gangsta. Fox Searchlight will release the dramedy sometime next year.