Indies

BTS – specifically BTS Permission To Dance On Stage – Seoul: Live Viewing grossed $6.84 million in North America on Saturday for a per screen average of $8,500+ across 803 theaters, ranking third at the weekend box office so far after The Batman and Uncharted. Globally, it broke the event cinema record with a worldwide
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A BTS concert in Seoul this weekend will hit a milestone, with tickets for Saturday’s theatrical event in the U.S. priced at what might be a record $35 and the show poised to become the highest-grossing worldwide event-cinema release ever. Trafalgar Releasing will present two Saturday screenings of BTS Permission to Dance on Stage: Seoul
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Neon said Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria starring Tilda Swinton will begin its tour of U.S. cinemas starting April 1. The distributor announced last year that the film — which opened in late Dec. for a one-week Oscar qualifying engagement at NYC’s IFC Center — planned to pursue an unusual release strategy it calls a “cinemas only…forever”
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Mubi’s German-language, post-WWII drama Great Freedom grossed a solid $8,814 at NYC’s Film Forum this weekend, the latest in a string of foreign films to open well and with younger demos previously atypical of the genre. Austria’s shortlisted Oscar submission for Best International Feature was also Mubi’s pick of the week for its Movie One
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A4 presents Kagonada’s second feature After Yang in limited release, the latest in the distributor’s varied indie slate ahead of wide-release horror slasher X on 3/18 and sci-fi adventure Everything Everywhere All At Once on 3/25 — which is also opening SXSW Film Festival. This is a weekend where The Batman casts a long shadow,
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Banijay has paused all activity in Russia until further notice. The global producer/distributor has “long historically had deals in-place across Russia,” according to a statement this morning, and it runs a production company in the nation: WeiT Media, which was established in 2009. Weit produces a Russian/Estonian version of The Bridge and the likes of Survivor, Wife
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The cast of luminaries that first-time filmmaker Lisa Hurwitz assembles in documentary The Automat have one thing in common – extreme adoration for the famed Horn & Hardart eateries, whose soaring ceilings, famed coffee and wholesome vending-machine meals for a nickel dominated the food scene in Philadelphia and NYC through much of last century. Mel
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As Drive My Car sped from a best screenplay win and stellar reviews at Cannes to four Oscar nominations (Best Picture, International Feature, Director, Adapted Screenplay), distributor credits for the three-hour Japanese drama went to Sideshow/Janus Films – the former a little known new venture from Jonathan Sehring. The longtime head of IFC Films said
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Joe Wright’s Cyrano twirls onto 797 screens, the highest-profile specialty release in weeks (as the market awaits Focus Features The Outfit with Mark Rylance and Sony Pictures Classics Mothering Sunday). But the well reviewed period musical romance from UAR starring Peter Dinklage is landing in a tough place. Industry estimates anticipate a low single digit
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Neon’s standout romance about a young woman in Oslo churning though career choices and boyfriends passed $1 million this weekend on 265 screens, up from 49. With marketing in high gear and strong word of mouth, the Oscar Best International Feature nominee will continue to expand next week. Worst Person grossed $500,299 for three days
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As Oscar nominees circulate in theaters, exhibitors are studying where and when to play Best Picture contenders during the long run-up from nominations February 8 through the awards March 27, juggling holdovers and new releases. (See this weekend’s specialty box office offerings below). In an interview with Deadline, Zach Nix, senior film buyer at Alamo
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The BBC has struck a six-year deal for the MasterChef franchise and is moving production from London to Birmingham. MasterChef, MasterChef: The Professionals, Celebrity MasterChef and newly-announced BBC Three series Young MasterChef will air until 2028 and move to the UK’s second city’s Digbeth Loc in 2024. Produced by Banijay label Shine TV, the titles have established themselves as high-rating
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Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert is heading back to Imax after a one-day, single-show screening last Sunday — the 52nd anniversary of the band’s iconic 1969 concert. The show and live Q&A with Jackson beamed directly to theaters had its share of sellouts, with audio and visuals about as close
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Cinemas from Philly to New York State and Boston (Coolidge Corner Theatre, you were missed) shuttered all or part of Sat., rattling but not routing the specialty box office. And a shout-out to theaters in NYC proper where all stayed open – sparse by day but picking up in the evening thanks to “younger people
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Critically acclaimed specialty holdovers continued to plant their flags in theaters as awards season advances and Oscar nominations loom — and on a weekend with few new releases, most not reporting grosses today. Among the bigger indies, United Artists Releasing’s Licorice Pizza by Paul Thomas Anderson grossed an estimated $683k in week nine from 772
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A specialty market dotted by holdovers as Oscar nods approach and gripped by Sundance fever debuts a compelling handful of new openers from Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s Introduction to Bhutan’s first ever entrant on the Academy Awards International feature shortlist, to a Ukrainian coming of age story and a Queen Latifa-starrring family film Tiger Rising
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A Very British Scandal producer Blueprint Television has hired Poldark exec Karen Thrussell as Head of Television. Thrussell also exec produced a number of Sarah Phelps’ BBC One Agatha Christie adaptations including And Then There Were None, Ordeal By Innocence and Witness for the Prosecution. She will oversee the Sony-backed outfit’s development and production of all TV series, having most recently
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Belle is set to top $2 million Thurs.-Mon. on 1,326 screens, according to distributor GKIDS. With Saturday’s actuals, it said, the gross surpassed $1.2M, making it director Mamoru Hosoda’s highest grossing film in the U.S. That was previously 2018’s Mirai with $812K. Hosoda’s (The Boy and the Beast) latest film with Studio Chizu was also
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Fathom Events presents Betty White: A Celebration in 1,529 locations nationwide, a one-day-only special event on Monday honoring the actress who died Dec. 31 just a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday. The star-studded reflection on White’s life and career, which had already been set by filmmakers Steven Boettcher and Mike Trinklein to celebrate
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Sony Pictures Entertainment follows its release of Parallel Mothers last week with Jockey in three theaters in NY/LA (Film Forum, AMC Lincoln Square, Laemmle Royal) in a specialty market crowded by holdovers and wide releases, and amid a Covid-19 surge that’s particularly tough on arthouses. The frame isn’t ideal for new specialty fare in any case but
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Memoria took in $6,797 on one screen Sunday, the first day of the first week exclusive engagement for the Neon film starring Tilda Swinton. It will play the IFC Center in NYC through Sat. Jan 1. That’s the start of a cross country tour in an unusual release strategy the distributor and the film’s director
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Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers opened to an estimated $41,076 this weekend on three screens for a PSA of $13,692 over three days. Distributor Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker calls that cume conservative, anticipating $42-$43K for the Penelope Cruz-starrer that he said has been attracting a diverse new audience to Almodóvar, including younger moviegoers. “We’re thrilled
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Adult demos slow to embrace cinemas may be even slower this holiday weekend amid a barrage of breathless Omicron headlines — that aren’t all bad. It spreads fast but seems less virulent than previous strains, and may burn out faster. “I think we might get dinged a little bit,” said one distribution executive. However, “This
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