The indie box office roared to life this weekend as Thelma from Magnolia Pictures saw a hefty $2.2 million on 1,280 screens and Searchlight Pictures’ Kinds of Kindness booked a stellar $70k per screen average at five theaters in LA and NY for $350k — the year’s highest per screen average and best overall limited
Treasure
It was an Inside Out specialty weekend, fairly quiet and with a stream of indies films and more wide releases. The schedule is starting to recover from a strike-induced slump that, however, provided oxygen to some indies. Small films have been competing for screens with majors at arthouses from Alamo Drafthouse to Landmark since theaters
. There’s been much speculation about distributors being wary about taking films critical of Donald Trump for fear he will sue – most recently Ali Abassi’s biopic The Apprentice, which premiered at Cannes to great reviews. The former president hates the movie and backer Dan Snyder has disavowed it. But if you love the guy,