Specialty Box Office

With its sun-kissed energy and oasis vibes, it’s appropriate that the Max Barbakow-directed comedy Palm Springs be released during the summer. The time-hopping comedy made its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year and drops on Hulu today. The film written by Andy Siara follows carefree Nyles (Andy Samberg), who meets Sarah (Cristin Milioti) a reluctant
0 Comments
John Lewis has always been fighting for civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health-care reform and immigration. He’s been doing it for over 60 years so to say that his narrative is relevant more now than ever is a wild understatement. In the documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble, director Dawn Porter (Trapped, Gideon’s Army) chronicles
0 Comments
In what has been one hell of an election year, Jon Stewart is cutting through all of it with his biting political comedy Irresistible starring Steve Carell, Rose Byrne and Chris Cooper. The Focus Features film was originally set to hit theaters on May 29, but like all films impacted by the pandemic, it pivoted to
0 Comments
On June 19, 1865, slavery was abolished in Texas, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It is a benchmark in Black history and is more timely now than ever as it is a day to celebrate and champion Black voices. That said, it is a good day for the debut of Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss
0 Comments
We’ve seen Elisabeth Moss take on corporate male toxicity in Mad Men, a ghost of a man in The Invisible Man, Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale and punk rock in Her Smell. This weekend we’ll see her try her as a horror author who tries not unravel as she goes through her creative process in the Josephine Decker-directed Shirley. The
0 Comments
The Focus Features musical dramedy The High Note is looking to hit exactly that as it lands on-demand starting today. Directed by Late Night‘s Nisha Ganatra from a script by Flora Greeson, the film was originally set to hit theaters on May 8 but, like many films, the film adapted and shifted to a digital. However, with theaters slowly
0 Comments
Director and cinematographer Benjamin Ree injected his deep interest with art theft in his latest feature The Painter and the Thief, which drops in virtual cinemas as well as VOD platforms starting Friday. The documentary debuted at Sundance earlier this year and went on to win the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative
0 Comments
Annette Bening, Bill Nighy and Josh O’ Connor are ready to deal with some serious family issues in the drama Hope Gap. Screen Media Ventures and Roadside Attractions released the film today on digital platforms after having to pivot from their originally planned March 5 theatrical release due to the pandemic –because the show must go
0 Comments
The story of the notorious outlaw Ned Kelly is dropping on digital and on-demand today with the Justin Kurzel-directed True History of the Kelly Gang starring George MacKay (1917, Captain Fantastic), Russell Crowe (Boy Erased, The Loudest Voice) and Nicholas Hoult (The Banker, X-Men franchise). The grimy western crime drama, which was adapted by Kurzel from
0 Comments
There are more than enough streaming and VOD titles of all genres in the specialty arena making their debut this weekend as they shift from theatrical to streaming for your quarantine entertainment. For those who need to quench their thirst for a rom-com, Mike Doyle’s Almost Love is set to premiere. The Vertical Entertainment film made
0 Comments
The specialty box office space has quickly adapted to the changing film landscape as many are shifting to virtual theatrical openings. Many indie and arthouse titles do day and date releases and are VOD-only so the transition, for the most part, is familiar territory for many distributors and production companies. Written and directed by Jonathan
0 Comments
As theaters shutter and big studio films postpone wide theatrical releases, indie and arthouse films are trying their best to navigate the waters of the coronavirus outbreak. Like big banner titles, many indie films that were set to release this weekend are opting to delay their debuts, while a handful are opting for a digital
0 Comments
Despite a handful of films postponing their release dates as a precautionary measure in the wake of the coronavirus, the specialty box office is persevering and hoping that arthouse audience will come through. Last week, A24’s First Cow delivered a career-high opening for Kelly Reichardt — but that was before the coronavirus turned into a pandemic.
0 Comments
There was a stampede of new titles opening this weekend at the specialty box office, and despite coronavirus-induced fears of being in close proximity in theaters, there weren’t any glaring slumps in the indie and arthouse space. Of the films released this weekend, First Cow made some moo-ves at the box office, earning an estimated
0 Comments
A24 is ready to milk the weekend with their new film First Cow from director Kelly Reichardt. The film isn’t about a presidential cow, but it is about a special bovine creature. Set in the 19th century, the film follows a lone cook (John Magaro) as he travels west with a group of fur trappers. Out
0 Comments
Impractical Jokers: The Movie isn’t pranking us when it comes to their box office performance. After having a stellar opening last week, the big-screen adaptation of WarnerMedia’s truTV prank show expanded from 357 to nearly 1,800 theaters and earned an estimated $3,545,000, to bring its cume to $6.6 million. The movie has now cracked the top
0 Comments
The Parasite train keeps on gaining traction. The four-time Oscar-winning Bong Joon-ho dark comedy is crossing $50M right now at the domestic box office — but the real question is, can it beat Life Is Beautiful’s box office gross of $57M. If it maintains its momentum, signs are pointing to yes. As its Imax run comes to
0 Comments
Focus Features proved this weekend that Jane Austen’s classic of romantic misadventures and the humor that goes with it remains timeless. Emma, Autumn de Wilde’s visionary and fresh adaptation of the Austen novel, opened in five theaters in New York and Los Angeles to strong numbers, grossing an estimated $230,000. This brought the per-theater average
0 Comments
Filmmaker Autumn de Wilde is serving up a fresh new take on the Jane Austen novel with the film Emma., which opens in theaters this weekend. Complete with a stylized punctuated period in the title, the new version is a Focus Features co-production with Working Title and Blueprint Productions and joins the ranks of other
0 Comments
The indie distributor Neon is becoming the cool, popular kid in Hollywood and on the box office playground since they dominated the Oscars with the multiple Parasite wins. This weekend, the distributor, founded by Tim League and Tom Quinn, saw the return of Portrait of a Lady on Fire in theaters, while Parasite took a victory lap after winning
0 Comments
With the 2020 summer Olympics around the corner, the timing of the release of the IFC Films romantic comedy Olympic Dreams couldn’t be any more perfect — but this isn’t an ordinary rom-com or a film about the Olympics. Directed by Jeremy Teicher (Tracktown, Tall as the Baobab Tree, Speed Goggles), who co-wrote it with his wife
0 Comments
Neon’s latest, The Lodge scared up some solid numbers in its first weekend out, debuting on six screens in New York and Los Angeles, earning an estimated $78,104 with an impressive $13,017 per-screen average. The Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s isolated-in-a-snowed-in-cabin thriller starring Riley Keough, Richard Armitage, Jaeden Martell, and Lia McHugh is currently Certified Fresh
0 Comments
As Neon rides the awards season wave with Bong Joon Ho’s cinematic masterpiece Parasite, they aren’t stopping with delivering genre titles that speak to their brand. This weekend Neon will debut their chilling thriller The Lodge directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz. Written by Fiala, Franz, and Casci, The Lodge follows a family that decides to spend
0 Comments
The Roadside Attractions Vietnam War drama The Last Full Measure had a solid debut this weekend earning an estimated  $1,055,335 on 614 screens. Crossing the million-dollar mark on its first weekend out, the 2020 release is a decent start for Roadside after stellar box office numbers in 2019 with awards season contenders Judy and The Peanut Butter Falcon.
0 Comments
Nicolas Cage is certainly building on his resume of genre-driven films with the new sci-fi horror pic Color Out of Space, which opens in limited release January 24. The film marks the first feature from celebrated cult filmmaker Richard Stanley since Hardware.  Based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft, the film follows Nathan Gardner (Cage)
0 Comments
The GKIDS anime feature Weathering with You made its U.S. debut on over 450 screens this weekend and the forecast was very sunny, as the Makoto Shinkai pic shined with a 3-day weekend estimate of $1,701,195. It is on track or a 4-day weekend estimated gross of $2,007,523. Its two-day preview of fan screenings banked $3,046,250
0 Comments
This weekend will be a little more retro and lo-fi with the release of Oscilloscope Laboratories’ forthcoming comedy VHYes from writer and director Jack Henry Robbins. In limited release, the pic is a new take on the found footage genre — and it’s all shot entirely on VHS. For those of you who aren’t familiar, VHS
0 Comments
Amazon Studios released Les Misérables gripping police brutality drama, and despite being a Cannes Jury Prize winner, recent Golden Globe nomination, and being France’s official Oscar entry for Best International Feature, the film opened to a disappointing low, earning an estimated $24,414 in its four runs in New York and Los Angeles. It seems that the
0 Comments
Amazon is set to open Les Misérables in limited release this week, but if you’re expecting a musical based on the Victor Hugo novel, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Directed by Ladj Ly, the film only shares a name with the popular Broadway musical. The drama tackles the issue of police brutality in France, showing that
0 Comments
As the specialty box office enters 2020, but Uncut Gems continues to gain momentum for A24 as it had an incredible holdover from its third week expanding to 2,686 theaters and earning an estimated $7,826,928 for the weekend. The critically acclaimed Safdie Brothers crime thriller which stars Adam Sandler in what many are calling a career-defining
0 Comments