Holdovers Drive My Car, Red Rocket and The Scary Of Sixty First looked good in limited runs on a weekend with few new specialty releases and even fewer numbers. Streamers – which presented The Lost Daughter (Netflix), Swan Song (Apple) and The Tender Bar (Amazon), don’t reveal them and smaller distributors often report early in
Box Office
Much-lauded The Lost Daughter, Tribeca Fest winner The Novice, George Clooney’s The Tender Bar plus Swan Song with Mahershala Ali and the doc President dip a toe in the specialty market this Spidey-centric weekend amid gathering Covid clouds. The question: how will a surging infection rate (that just closed down theaters in Denmark and is
Imax grossed $95,000 live simulcasting the Kanye West (with special guest Drake) benefit concert at the L.A. Coliseum to 35 Imax theaters — a one-night event Thursday that included seven sellouts despite being available to stream live on Amazon Prime. The show, Imax’ first live concert event, comes as the large format exhibitor experiments with
Sean Baker’s Red Rocket, the highest-profile specialty opening to report numbers this weekend (i.e. not distributed by a streamer) posted a solid $96,953 for a per screen average of $16,158 in six theaters in New York/Los Angeles. Critics are calling the film about a washed up porn star returning to his hostile Texas hometown audacious
A24 presents Red Rocket in six theaters this weekend ahead of a limited expansion in New York and LA, adding Chicago, Austin and San Francisco next weekend with a wider rollout over the holidays to several hundred screens. The dark comedy by Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine) premiered at Cannes to a five-minute standing ovation
The Alamo Drafthouse movie chain is opening its first theater in Washington, D.C. Friday. The Alamo Drafthouse D.C. Bryant Street will be the newest outpost of the cinema-eatery, which also debuted its first Manhattan location this fall. The nine-screen, 873-seat theater at 630 Rhode Island Ave NE spanning 45,000+ square feet is the Austin-based company’s
The UK Cinema Association (UKCA) has told us that new rules mandating masks in English cinemas will be seen by the public and cinema operators as “a reasonable measure given the current circumstances.” The UK government yesterday announced plans for new Covid restrictions in England due to rising numbers of the Omicron variant. The measures
Neon and Participant opened animated documentary Flee to a $25,033 debut in four locations. That makes for a strong per-theater average of $6,258 ahead of a rollout early next year for the much-decorated Danish film ahead of Academy Award nominations Feb. 8. It’s one of a few rather particular offerings, including Drive My Car, that
The arthouse is awash with well reviewed new offerings from Danish animated doc Flee to Paulo Sorrentino’s Hand of God to IFC’s Benedetta heading into awards season and amid a paucity of new wide releases. The first weekend of December following the five-day Thanksgiving frame is notoriously slow at the box office, but also a
C’mon C’mon from A24 turned in the best per-screen average for a limited platform release since Covid at five theater in New York and LA as stellar critical response was met by strong exit polls ahead of a wider rollout into top markets over Thanksgiving and continued expansion thereafter. The Mike Mills’ awards contender led
C’mon C’mon is distributor A24’s first platform release post pandemic, opening on five screens in New York (Angelika and Lincoln Square) and LA (Grove, Landmark and AMC Burbank) It’s s vote of confidence — launching in the strongest markets and letting word of mouth spread only works if there are signs of life. Specialty distributors
Belfast, Kenneth Branaugh’s intensely personal story of one boy’s childhood in tumultuous late 1960s Northern Ireland, earned an estimated $1.8M in 580 locations this weekend for a PTA of $3,111 – a solid showing for a black-and-white film in a specialty market that’s waging what one distribution exec calls an “an inch-by-inch, week-by-week recovery.” The
Sony Pictures Classics releases Telluride-darling documentary Julia with a national TV push, culinary events and virtual screenings through November hosted by famous chefs from Alice Waters (San Francisco) and Johnny Spero (Boston) to Jamie Bissonnette (Houston) and luminaries from New York, LA, Philly and Miami. Directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen talked up the film
AMC Entertainment saw revenue jump to $763 million last quarter, beating Wall Street forecasts on a strong movie slate and accelerating theatrical recovery. Adjusted EPS losses of 44 cents a share shrank from a loss of $8.41 a year ago. Analysts had anticipated sales of $708 million with an EPS loss of 53 cents. As
Neon’s Spenser with Kristin Stewart rang in an opening weekend of $2.149 million on 996 screens, a per screen average of $2,158 as the film failed to connect in a market that remains a stubbornly hard sell for specialty and independent films. The well-reviewed (with raves for Stewart as Lady Diana) reimagining by director Pablo
Neon presents Spencer on just under 1,000 screens, Pablo Larraín’s well reviewed psychological drama about the weekend Princess Diana rewrote the future of the British monarchy. The film is said to be looking at a $2-$2.5 million opening with an 84% Certified Fresh critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes but a 50% audience score (albeit from
Edgar Wright’s Last Night In Soho is an arthouse film that opened on 3,000 screens — a gamble in a theatrical market where multiplex-goers have been mostly turning out for big-budget, high-octane studio franchises. (Dune, Halloween Kills and No Time To Die took top spots this weekend, a soft one overall where Halloween parties may
Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch did what a glum arthouse market was waiting for, revved it up with a smashing three-day average. “If Wes builds it, they will come,” said an elated Searchlight Pictures after a two year wait to get the film into theaters. It opened in 14 markets and in a total of
It was a triumphant second weekend for indie Stillwater from Focus Features, which hit the $10 million mark in 2,611 theatres (up by 80) and 233 DMA’s in North America, where it was no. 5. The Matt Damon-starrer held up strongly from its debut, dipping 45% — compared with a 64% drop for The Green
After debuting at the top of the U.S. specialty box office over Memorial Day weekend, family comedy/drama Dad, I’m Sorry (Bo Gia) has now surpassed the $1M mark, becoming the first Vietnamese-produced title to reach that milestone. Starring, written and co-directed by Tran Thanh, the movie added $116K in its third frame to bring its
Exhibition ruled the stock market today after a long holiday weekend saw Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II crush it, earning $57 million over four days. That’s not far from the $60 million that the John Krasinski-directed sequel was anticipated to do in its 3-day opening pre-pandemic, according to my colleague Anthony D’Alessandro. Shares of Paramount
On Wednesday morning, studio executives and exhibitors will rally at AMC’s Century City 15 multiplex to cheer the return of movie theaters that had been closed by the pandemic. “The Big Screen Is Back,” they’ll declare. Glad to hear it. That’s great, as far as it goes. But those movers and shakers should probably charter
The Motion Picture Association released its annual report on box office and home entertainment, and the bottom line is sobering but little surprise after a year of Covid closures. The U.S./Canada box office market was down 80% in 2020, to $2.2 billion, while tickets sold were down 81% to 0.24 billion. Still, that was offset