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
Indies
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
Studio brass wowed theater owners this week with Maverick: Top Gun, Avatar: The Way of Water and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse among other tentpoles. But they were also clear at the just-wrapped CinemaCon that a reviving box office requires a wide breadth of content. “If we narrow what we bring to theaters, our audience will get
Sony Pictures Classics art heist caper The Duke, Neon’s tender Petite Maman, and Charlotte from Good Deed Films, an animated biopic with mature themes, open an eclectic specialty weekend ready to draw older crowds if they’re ready to return. Younger demos are back when they like the pic, as per A24s Everything Everywhere All At
The Tale Of King Crab, a cinematically striking fable shot in rural Italy and Argentina, opened to a three-day gross of $5,120 at Film at Lincoln Center this weekend — the first in a string of Italian offerings set to arrive on the specialty scene through the summer. “In today’s challenging arthouse market, we count
“I see nothing happening on a major scale to try to get the older audiences back to theaters,” griped Sony Pictures Classics’ co-president Tom Bernard. Ideally, Bernard wants NATO to trumpet cinema safety in a big public campaign. (A NATO rep says not in the cards.) He’d like that campaign alongside a creative marketing push
Indie distributor Kino Lorber has hired Kate Patterson as its new Director of Press & Publicity. She joins from Metrograph, where she headed publicity and communications. Patterson will lead multi-pronged PR efforts to support Kino Lorber’s continued growth in the digital space and manage campaigns for its 25+ yearly theatrical releases. She reports jointly to
Angelika Film Center and Sony Pictures Classics unveiled a “Bring A Friend Back To The Movies” initiative timed to the April 22 release of dramatic comedy The Duke. The arthouse cinema and specialty distributor are offering a complimentary second ticket to anyone who buys a first directly from the Angelika’s website, app or in the
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
The heroine of Goran Stolevski’s You Won’t Be Alone is a witch, with echoes of vampire and zombie, yes, but mostly with a haunting desire for human connection in 19th century rural Macedonia. The film’s Sundance premiere got great reviews (see Deadline’s here). It’s 94% Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh with critics as Focus Features opens
EXCLUSIVE: PAW Patrol and Bob the Builder creator Keith Chapman has partnered with London indie Snipple Originals to co-create and develop ground-breaking animated kids TV shows. Under his Keith Chapman Productions banner, Chapman and Snipple will create character-driven animated IP for the upper pre-school market. The veteran UK kids TV exec is already developing Paco & the
Everything Everywhere All At Once grossed over half a million dollars on 10 screens in NYC, LA and San Francisco for a hefty $50,965 per-screen-average — a number rarely seen since the pre-Covid old days of theatrical releases and the biggest of the year so far. The mind-melding Michelle Yeoh-starrer directed by the Daniels (Dan
A24’s SXSW opener Everything Everywhere All At Once, Bleecker Street’s Infinite Storm and Sony Pictures Classics’ Mothering Sunday offer something that’s been rare of late at the specialty box office, fresh content and choice. They’re in a market with only one new studio wide release, Paramount’s The Lost City with Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock.
A24’s smart slasher/horror X grossed over $4.4M on 2,865 screens to take fourth place at the weekend box office, topping expectations for writer/director Ti West’s return after a six-year absence from film. His first ever wide release, a cross between the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Boogie Nights, is currently Certified Fresh at 96% and has a prequel nearly