IFC Films opened Official Competition starring Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez at four theaters in NYC and LA for an estimated three-day gross of $34,000 and per-theater-averages of $8,500 for the comedy directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat following it U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Festival last week.
The film, world premiered in competition at Venice. It expands to Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. next week before breaking nationwide on July 1. “We’re so thrilled this comedic gem connected with U.S. audiences and we look forward to its continued successful rollout,” said IFC Films president Arianna Bocco.
Focus Features released its 2022 Sundance Film Festival pickup Brian And Charles in a wide for specialty opening of 279 theaters for a three-day estimated gross of $198,000, or $711 PTA. It is no. 10 this weekend at the North American box office, which is increasingly crowded with tentpoles.
Jim Archer’s quirky British feature about a down-and-out inventor who builds and befriends a robot at Sundance had its UK premiere as the closing night film of the Sundance Film Festival: London last weekend where it received the festival’s Audience Award. (The four-day Sundance London event showcased U.K. premieres of 12 films from the January fest.) Backed by Universal Pictures International’s global theatrical reach, it moves to the U.K. on July 8.
“The film will continue to find its audience in the coming weeks,” said Lisa Bunnell, Focus Feature’s President of Domestic Distribution.
Distributors have been experimenting with releases patterns, continuing to balance slower-build platform releases to garner word of mouth, with opening wider when theaters are available and they can digitally target an audience and get them in without too much cost.
Indian film Virata Parvam opened in 260 locations to a debut weekend of $117k for a PTA of $425 and a cume of $174k through Sunday.
Apple’s Sundance sensation Cha Cha Real Smooth by Cooper Raiff opened in select theaters but the streamer doesn’t release grosses.
A holdover, Oscilloscope’s Poser, reported an estimated total cume near $30K in week 3 on three screens. That’s $12K estimated this weekend for a PSA of over $4,000. The sendup of the Columbus indie music scene by Noah Dixon and Ori Segev moved from one screen in Ohio to the Quad Cinema and the Landmark Westwood in NY and LA with sold out shows at each. Poser’s performance at the Landmark Westwood was the theater‘s best weekend gross year-to-date. The film will expand to the top 20 markets and beyond in the coming weeks.
Lost Illusions from Music Box Films grossed a near estimated $16k in weekend 2 in nine theaters for a PSA of $1,776 and a cume of $41,091.
And worth noting now and again, A24 Everything Everywhere All At Once, by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the film that’s credited with launching an indie/arthouse revival, is No. 7 at the box office in week 13 with an estimated cume of $65 million.