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
Indies
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
Sony Pictures Classics has set a March 25 theatrical release date for The Duke, directed by the late Roger Michell. The film starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren will open in theaters in New York and Los Angeles before expanding in the following weeks. The dramedy is currently playing at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles
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
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
Remember when New York and Los Angeles use to post big figures for the opening of a specialty film at the box office? Well, those days look to be coming back. United Artist Releasing’s MGM Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1970s teen comedy Licorice Pizza posted a huge $83,8K opening screen average from four theaters, which the
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
Adam Adler, creator of global hit format The Cube, has joined ITV Studios non-scripted label Potato as creative director, as the label is rolled in with Adler’s former employer Gameface. ITV Studios-backed Gameface’s IP including ITV format The Void and Britain’s Brightest Family will integrate with The Chase producer Potato’s roster, with Adler joining Potato creative directors Martin Scott
World Productions Boss and YouTube EMEA Head Win RTS Fellowships Line of Duty (pictured) producer World Productions CEO Simon Heath and YouTube Regional Director, EMEA, Ben McOwen Wilson are among the six winners of this year’s Royal Television Society (RTS) Fellowships. CPL Productions MD Danielle Lux, BBC News At Ten‘s Clive Myrie, ITV Continuing Drama
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
ITV Secures Adele Special Having last month unveiled a CBS special, UK megastar Adele will now perform live in her native London for an ITV show at the Palladium. An Audience With Adele will see the icon performing her current single Easy On Me from fourth album 30 as she sings in front of a special audience of friends,
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
EXCLUSIVE: A Spanish production services outfit with credits including The Crown, The Night Manager and Love Island has entered the original drama game. Palma Pictures, which has serviced more than 25 features/TV series and 2000 commercials over the past three decades, will open Palma Pictures Studios in London with immediate effect. The Studios opens with a number of
Focus Features presents Edgar Wright’s Last Night In Soho, a twisty psycho-thriller with a great soundtrack, as Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch goes wider, testing the appeal of a director whose films have been called the arthouse equivalent of Marvel. Last Night, a time-bending genre tale, unspools on just over 3,000 screens, not exactly specialty
The BBC is to spotlight Asia in a landmark natural history series and David Attenborough will join a mammoth archaeological dig, as the UK broadcaster unveils its latest factual slate. BBC Studios Natural History Unit is behind Asia (working title), the latest ambitious BBC1 blue-chip that will tell the story of the biggest continent on
EXCLUSIVE: Sir Lenny Henry’s Banijay-backed indie Douglas Road Productions is to spotlight Caribbean culture in the UK in an upcoming BBC2 arts documentary. Deadline hears production will commence next month in London on the show, which does not yet have a title. Commissioned out of Factual/Arts Director Patrick Holland’s department, the series will explore Caribbean
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
After a long Covid delay, The French Dispatch opens this weekend with distributor Searchlight Pictures and the industry hoping the whimsical Wes Anderson’s film brings a touch of Grand Budapest Hotel-ish coin to the specialty box office. Hoping, but not counting on it, as the box office take beyond studio tentpoles has been largely dour
EXCLUSIVE: Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi is launching a U.S. in-theater offering this month letting members see one film a week that it selects at participating cinemas starting in New York City. It said Mubi Go will roll out nationwide in selected markets with LA next in early 2022. Mubi Go (available in the U.K.
EXCLUSIVE: Whitney director Kevin Macdonald is to direct an ITV doc profiling the ferocious floods that have hit the UK in recent years. In It Takes A Flood, Academy Award-winning director Macdonald, who was also behind a recent ITV Coronavirus doc, will move from London, where historic levels of rain battered the capital last year,
A24’s Lamb hit the top ten for the second week running (No. 8) at the North American box office, surging past $2 million. The Rescue expanded to 552 theaters, the widest documentary screen count since Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, said distributor Greenwich Entertainment, anticipating it will ultimately top $1M. Holdovers outperformed newcomers this weekend,
IFC presents Mia Hansen-Løve’s Cannes entry Bergman Island, Film Movement brings Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy to the arthouse this weekend, as A24’s surprise hit Lamb and Greenwich Entertainment’s The Rescue go wider week two after a strong open. It’s early days but a nascent specialty revival may be in the works ahead of a stream of
EXCLUSIVE: The BBC has overhauled its guidelines for dealing with bullying and sexual harassment on set in light of “recent revelations” in the TV and film industries. Deadline has seen an email sent by BBC chief content officer Charlotte Moore to dozens of UK indies, which tasked producers on all new shows with confirming they
Mediawan takes ‘For The Record’ rights EXCLUSIVE: Canadian distributor Mediawan has taken worldwide distribution and European/LatAm format rights for For The Record, CBC Gem’s shortform comedy from Suits actor Julian De Zotti. Mediawan will take the comedy, which stars De Zotti alongside The Expanses’ Anna Hopkins, on the road following this week’s Mipcom. The show had its international premiere