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Wildfires rampaging through Los Angeles means moviegoing won’t be top of mind for Angelenos. Some top indies are opening or holding over in L.A. theaters, one of the nation’s key movie markets, amid uneven fire patterns that have scorched and flattened huge areas of the city but left others untouched.
“In West Hollywood, the sun is shining. You can’t really tell. Except for some ash that falls on your car, you can’t really tell what’s happening,” says Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions, which is releasing Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl starring Pamela Anderson in moderate release on 870 screens nationwide, including 20+ L.A. theaters.
“I have mixed emotions opening in the middle of all this. It’s been such a great run with Pamela and Gia and Jamie Lee [Curtis] and the whole group. It’s hard to celebrate. We canceled the premiere on Thursday. But the movie is great and the performance is great. So we’re celebrating it at the same time as we are horrified by what’s happening. It’s the definition of mixed emotions.”
Watch on Deadline
Cohen thinks the fires are, of course, hurting L.A. moviegoing. “Is this the moment people want to see a movie? Hopefully, we will get through this, and the movie will last beyond it and live to find another day,” he said, noting strong pre-sales in other parts of the country.
Anderson was Golden Globe nominated and is a strong Oscar nom contender. Miley Cyrus’ “Beautiful That Way” from The Last Showgirl also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song. Anderson and Curtis nabbed acting noms from the SAG Awards this week.
RELATED: ‘The Last Showgirl’: Read The Screenplay That Pamela Anderson Waited Her Entire Career For
As Deadline reported earlier this week, some theaters in affected areas of L.A. had closed.
Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, another buzzy indie, is opening today. Both are well-reviewed and both had nice-grossing and buzzy Oscar-qualifying runs in the fall.
Hard Truths opens at 22 theaters in 11 major markets including Los Angeles at the Century City and Burbank AMCs, and Alamo Downtown, as well as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and a few more.
RELATED: ‘Hard Truths’: Read The Screenplay That Returns Seven-Time Oscar Nominee Mike Leigh To Modern London
It’s coming off a nice week as the iconic filmmaker accepted the National Board of Review’s Best Original Screenplay award Tuesday and, on Wednesday, presented his star Marianne Jean-Baptiste with the nod for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role from the New York Film Critics Circle, fueling Oscar buzz in a crowded field.
L.A. this weekend is difficult to predict. “It’s so hard to say. Sales at some theaters in some areas seem normal, good even. But how do you know? The fire can change from hour to hour,” says Kyle Davies, president of distribution for Bleecker Street. “The critics are behind this excellent film and we think we’re going to do well as the movie rolls out.”
It will expand to about 100 screens next week.
Distributors also noted just a weird weekend with snowstorms in Atlanta and Dallas.
Hard Truths is currently 96% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Other wins for Jean-Baptiste include Los Angeles Film Critics Association – Best Leading Performance; British Independent Film Awards – Best Lead Performance; San Diego Film Critics Society – Best Actress; Chicago Film Critics Association – Best Actress; African American Film Critics Association – Best Actress; Boston Online Film Critics Association – Best Actress; San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle – Best Actress; Toronto Film Critics Association – Outstanding Lead Performance; Denver Film Festival – Excellence in Acting Award’ and Newport Beach Film Festival – Artist of Distinction Award.
Hard Truths trailer:
The Last Showgirl:
Other new openings: Extremely Unique Dynamic, a self-described “Meta-Asian-Queer-Stoner-Coming-of-Age-Bromantic-Dramedy” that’s 100% with RT critics, opens at the Laemmle NoHo in L.A. The film from Strand Releasing had a sold-out week of preview screenings at Vidiots and will expand January 17 ahead of a January 29 digital/VOD release. It had a nice $20,000 in pre-sales as of a few days ago (so not clear how many people will show) on a big grass roots marketing campaign and may end up as Strand’s biggest per-theater opening ever. The film is from writers, directors and producers Ivan Leung and Harrison Xu, who also star. The two started working together as the social media managers for the slasher film Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood & Honey, which helped inspire the two to make their first feature film about their extremely unique friendship.
Well Go USA’s The Prosecutor, at RT 93%, opens on 42 screens in 20+ markets with five confirmed LA locations. Action icon Donnie Yen (John Wick: Chapter 4) directs and stars in this brutal revenge story about a former prosecutor determined to exact justice. With explosive martial arts reminiscent of Yen’s work in John Wick and Ip Man. Deadline’s review here.
Dark Sky Films opens Birdeater on 18 screens. Ten are Alamo Drafthouses including downtown Los Angeles and Glendale. In the psychological thriller by Aussie directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir stars Shabana Azeeza as a bride-to-be is invited to join her own fiancé’s bachelor party on a remote property in the Australian outback. As the festivities spiral into beer-soaked chaos, uncomfortable details about their relationship are exposed, and the celebration soon becomes a feral nightmare.
Kino Lorber opens the Sundance-premiering documentary Every Little Thing, written and directed by Sally Aitken (Playing With Sharks, A Cinematic Life) in New York at IFC Center. Adds the Laemmle Monica in L.A. next week, expanding thereafter. The doc follows the healing journey of a specialist hummingbird rehabilitator, Terry Masear, as she cares for her tiny winged patients in Los Angeles. The film has charmed audiences at film festivals worldwide including, SXSW, CPH:DOX, Full Frame and the Palm Springs Film Festival.
Putin opens January on 200 screens in the U.S. (and in 64 countries total). The chilling biopic by Petryk Vega follows the Russian despot’s climb from a child to the ultimate power player. Stars Tomasz Dedek, Justyna Karlowska, Thomas Kretschmann. The film has made headlines as the first to use AI technology to generate Putin’s face.