Beau Is Afraid posted the top per-screen average of the year so far and the best limited opening for distributor A4 since Uncut Gems, grossing an estimated $320,396 at four locations in New York and LA for a hefty per screen average of $80k+ to sold out shows on both coasts. (Uncut Gems with Adam
Box Office
Imax said today it expects to return to its pre-pandemic gross box office level of $1.1 billion in 2023, even as it reported revenue of $98 million for last year’s fourth quarter, down 10% from the year before. Earnings per share fell to 19 cents from 31 cents. CEO Rich Gelfond attributed the dip to the Chinese
Reading the tea leaves with regard to China in 2023 is even more difficult than usual. The country’s about-face on its longstanding zero-Covid policy has implications from geopolitics to economics and, closer to home for Hollywood, the state of the market after a dismal 2022. Exactly what those implications are is where the guesswork comes
Specialty film closes the book on a mixed 2022 this weekend with the limited release by Sony of Tom Hanks-starring A Man Called Otto; a literary doc by Lizzie Gottlieb from Sony Pictures Classics and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest from Neon via Cannes. Otto, by Mark Forster, is a remake of a Swedish film based on
From its triumphant world premiere (with seven-minute standing ovation) at the Venice Film Festival, A24 opens Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale in theaters this weekend amid a whirl of Oscar buzz around star Brendan Fraser. The former action star carries the psychological drama as Charlie, a reclusive and severely obese English teacher trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. Deadline critic
It was fascinating to see my good colleague Valerie Complex describe, in her review of the Antoine Fuqua/Will Smith slavery drama Emancipation, having almost walked out of the film, not because it was unworthy, but because she found the depiction of Black suffering and death almost too much to watch. In the end, Complex stuck
Laura Poitras’ Venice Golden Lion-winner All The Beauty And The Bloodshed opens in three theaters today, testing a crowded specialty market at the IFC Center, Lincoln Center & BAM in NYC. It adds LA and San Francisco (AMC Sunset 5 & AMC Kabuki) Dec. 2. Presented by Neon, this is the story of internationally renowned photographer
A new crop of prestige titles plant a flag at the arthouse in limited release this weekend from Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All to Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, to Elegance Bratton’s The Inspection. Greenwich Entertainment opens doc Love, Charlie: The Rise And Fall Of Charlie Trotter IFC Films presents Bad Axe and Cohen Media Group is
When a film as heavily promoted and well-regarded as Universal’s She Said gets body-slammed at the box office, it’s wise to pay attention. This weekend, the journalism procedural drama, about the pursuit of sexual predator Harvey Weinstein by two reporters from The New York Times, will take in perhaps $2.27 million in 2,022 theaters. That’s
Luca Guadagnino’s Timothée Chalamet-starring, edgy cannibal road trip romance Bones And All pulled in young demos (79% in the 18-34 rage) and women (54%-46% female) for an opening weekend gross of $120k, or $23.9k per screen average in five theaters. That’s respectable and in line with distributor UAR expectations although below recent debuts including Banshees
The Fabelmans grossed an estimated $160k this weekend at four theaters in NY and LA. That’s a $40K per screen average, on par with recent strong (for post-Covid) specialty openings like The Banshees Of Inisherin (at $45k PSA) and Tár (also $40k), both on four screens too, reflecting a definite pickup in the specialty space. Spielberg’s written, directed
Indie distributor Utopia, currently in theaters with Holy Spider, anticipates music documentary Meet Me In The Bathroom will be its biggest weekend opening to date. It’s holding onto numbers for Sunday from one-night premieres this past week in LA at the Fonda and in NY at Webster Hall with live performances by The Moldy Peaches,
Rock documentary Meet Me In The Bathroom grossed $85,683 in four locations for a per screen average of $21,421 in week one, a milestone for the indie distributor. Two of four screenings were one night only, sold-out events at The Fonda in LA and Webster Hall in NY (live performances by The Moldy Peaches, Adam
Three films opening this weekend highlight women’s rights, class and racism — nothing ripped from today’s headlines exactly, but features with a distinctive moment and point of view that appear particularly relevant today. Call Jane, Holy Spider and Armageddon Time join Tár, Till, The Banshees of Inisherin and others already in theaters as it gets
Searchlight Pictures’ The Banshees Of Inisherin opened to an estimated $181,000 and a raring per screen average of $45,250, beating Tár’s impressive $40,000. Both opened in four locations and now rank no. 2 and no. 3 for an indie per-theater gross this year after A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once. That film’s in a class
The Banshees of Inisherin, which won writer-director Martin McDonagh Best Screenplay and Colin Farrell the Volpi Cup for Best Actor in Venice last month, hits theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, expanding to 10 more markets/50 locations next weekend, and to 600-800 screens November 4. If standing ovations say anything, the comedy-drama had a
French director Cédric Jimenez’s thriller November has drawn 1 million spectators in France in its first two weeks of release, bucking the country’s recent lackluster box office trend, co-producer and distributor Studiocanal said today. The fast-paced drama feature, which is inspired by the five-day manhunt for the perpetrators of the November 15 terror attacks in
Specialty film rollouts continues to accelerate with Chinonye Chukwu’s Till, Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave and A24’s Stars At Noon joining releases from previous weeks to populate theaters as awards season gathers steam. Till, from United Artists Releasing, world premiered at the ongoing New York Film Festival to stellar reviews (100% on Rotten Tomatoes,
Focus Features’Tár opened in limited release to strong results with $160,000 at four locations in New York and Los Angles for a $40,000 per theater average, one of the best PTAs since Covid and not bad for a 2-hour and 38-minute arthouse film pre-pandemic. Riding strong reviews, the Cate Blanchett-starrer by Todd Field was no. 1 in three
Today Focus Features opens Tár, the strikingly original return of Todd Field, in four locations in NY and LA. The film premiered at Venice winning star Cate Blanchett Best Actress as musician and conductor Lydia Tár. Early this week, it seemed to mesmerize a sold-out Alice Tully Hall at the New York Film Festival. A 97%
Sarigama Cinemas’ Ponniyin Selvan: Part One crashed the weekend box office at no. 6, looking at $4+ million on 500 screens for a per theater average of $8,260, the biggest of the top ten. The Tamil-language historical epic being billed as India’s Game of Thrones is based on a Tamil history book series that’s read
Widespread optimism months ago that domestic box office might readily return to pre-Covid levels has given way to a new sense of pragmatism about the movie business. This year’s tally will far surpass last year’s $4.5 billion haul, but it will certainly fall billions short of 2019’s $11.4 billion in receipts, and all bets are
“People are catching up on films,” is how one arthouse executive described the current moment in specialty, which echoes the slowdown in studio wide releases. August can be slow ahead of a trio of festivals – Venice, Toronto, New York – and a ramp up to awards season. It can also offer an less obstructed
Highly anticipated Downton Abbey: A New Era made $1.050 million in Thursday previews that began at 7 p.m. at more than 3,300 theaters. It is Focus Features’ widest ever U.S. release and one that comes with a weight of responsibility as the film to finally catapult older demos back into theaters. Focus Features distribution chief
It’s a bizarre world, this (almost, more-or-less, maybe) post-Covid movie landscape. Pieces are falling into place: Production starts have been up for a year, box-office revenue continues to climb, though it’s still a long reach to pre-Covid highs. But so much is so different, and I don’t mean just the obvious shift toward streaming. Look
Roadside Attractions’ faith-based family comedy Family Camp opened to $1.42 million and is no. 9 of the top 10 ten this weekend on 854 screens. One of the strongest indie openings this year, the film saw a release campaign led by WTA Media lean heavily into the faith-based audience with strong grassroots marketing to churches
Audrey Diwan’s Happening launched New Directors/New Films in April, mesmerizing viewers with the story of a brilliant literature student from a working-class background seeking an abortion to keep her life from derailing. In 1963 France the procedure was illegal. The suspense builds with each week a new chapter title as she seeks help from doctors,
Viva Maestro, a documentary starring the charismatic music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, opened on a high note taking in $14,310 on two screens — Film Forum/NYC and The Landmark/LA. That’s a PTA of $7,155 for the film directed by Ted Braun (Darfur Now, Betting on Zero) and presented by
The face of five-year-old Aline looks weirdly mature and toothy as she crawls from under a table at a family wedding to belt out a song early in the film of the same name. French comedian and actress Valérie Lemercier, 58, wrote, directed and stars in Aline and it’s her head on a body altered
Focus Features has picked up Of An Age, the second feature by writer/director Goran Stolevski. The announcement comes as the distributor presents the helmer’s debut feature, You Won’t Be Alone — about a witch struggling for human connection in 19th century rural Macedonia — this weekend in limited release. Of An Age is set in the