Moviegoing is definitely back with viewers flocking to franchise films that 1) continue to roll out in the first sustained barrage of big new titles since Covid, and 2) continue to do huge business as they stick around in theaters. They’re sucking up screens and exacerbating a release-pattern quandary for independent distributors seeking signs that
Independent
The Forgiven with Jessica Chastain opens in 122 theaters this weekend as the flow of indie films continues to build with well-reviewed, festival-pedigreed product including Mr. Malcom’s List and Clara Sola. Meanwhile, producers and most other U.S. businesses are hoping economic storm clouds won’t ding their industry’s nascent revival. “I think we have seen a
The big screen debut of Marcel The Shell With Shoes On opened at $170K on six screens in New York and LA, the highest PSA of the weekend at $28,267 for the iconic lonely snail voiced by Jenny Slate. The mock documentary about the loveable anthropomorphic mollusk hails from distributor A24, a distributor that manages
A24 is going animated whimsical with Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Neon opens Beba, Cohen Media Group presents Apples, IFC Midnight Flux Gourmet and Abramorama a documentary The Human Trial in limited release at arthouse cinemas. These venues have been doing a bit better, slowly luring Covid-spooked key older demos back into the theater-going
Mubi Go, which has helped buoy NYC’s arthouse market by offering members a free movie ticket a week at participating theaters, expands to LA today where the biz could really use a boost. The films are curated and the first is Apple’s Cha Cha Real Smooth. Mubi, a global streaming service, production company and film
Focus Features has set a limited theatrical release for Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco on December 2, 2022. The film, directed by Michael Showalter from a screenplay by David Marshall Grant and Dan Savage based on Michael Ausiello’s best-selling memoir, will expand domestically on December 9 and
Following its Venice Film Festival bow and seven César Awards including for Best Film, Lost Illusions was the top weekend title at two core NYC arthouses — taking $10,850 of its estimated $13,579 three-day gross from Film Forum and Film at Lincoln Center. The period piece based on the Honoré de Balzac novel about greed
Chloe Okuno’s feature debut Watcher recorded the biggest opening weekend grosses ever for IFC Films and its IFC Midnight/Shudder label on 764 U.S. screens — also one of the distributor’s widest ever releases. The genre thriller that world premiered at Sundance then SXSW reported an estimated weekend gross of $815,000 and a PSA of $1,067.
Indie distributors, grabbing a frame between Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion, are out with a handful of decently wide releases for the specialty space including Neon’s Cannes title Crimes of the Future (127 screes), IFC Midnight thriller Watcher (764) and Roadside Attractions’ WWI period piece Benediction (87). Sony Pictures Classics launches Phantom of
Two premiere screenings of rock documentary Freakscene: The Story Of Dinosaur JR grossed over $19K this weekend with a single Saturday show at iconic music venue The Opera House in Williamsburg, Brooklyn taking in north of $17K. Independent distributor Utopia worked with Murmrr, which produces live music events, and art shingle Mondo, which created a
“I have very little to say except that I think it very charming and kind of you all to give us your Sunday night,” said a disarming Julian Fellowes at the NYC premiere of Downton Abbey: A New Era last Sunday. Distributor Focus Features – and the broader industry — hopes audiences will give the
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
The Innocents, set in a semi-deserted, nondescript high-rise apartment, follows four lonely kids who find each other as well as mind-bending powers one summer, to lethal effect. The horror pic launched at Cannes last year and arrived Stateside last weekend via IFC Midnight in a limited theatrical plus digital release after playing New Directors/New Films.
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
It’s one of busiest opening weeks in some time for indie releases with Neon (Pleasure), Bleecker Street (Montana Story), IFC Midnight (The Innocents) and Roadside Attractions (Family Camp) in theaters — even as the imminent closure of the Landmark Pico underscores just how arthouses are struggling to win back core demos. Also out, Grasshopper Films
Audrey Diwan’s Happening opened to an estimated $34k on four screens in NY and LA this weekend for a PTA of $8,500. The locations on both coasts — IFC Center/AMC Lincoln Square and The Landmark/AMC The Grove — while limited showed the abortion drama set in 1968 France competing successfully in commercial crossover multiplexes as
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,
Vortex — which opened this weekend to a full house at NYC’s IFC Center — has an unusual star, Dario Argento. Here’s how the film’s helmer Gaspar Noe convinced the iconic Italian horror movie director into his first lead acting role. “There were three reasons” he said yes, Noe told Deadline. “The first one, he