A record-breaking Thanksgiving frame is lifting all boats, tentpoles the most evident, with boom, boom, boom for Moana 2, Wicked and Gladiator II. Some 30 million moviegoers went to see one of these. In the weird post-Covid shift, tentpoles can slay, and indies can disappear. This weekend, however, they didn’t. Audiences showed decent specialty support for films from Heretic and A Real Pain, to Conclave and even Latvian animated Flow. Anora is still in theaters. Three indies graced the top ten.
“It kind of seems like the first time that people go to the theater to see one film and then say, ‘let’s see that’” [too], says one indie distributor. “Not to mention the overall box office being huge … What worries me is that there are not enough screens to hold things. But I guess that’s a good problem.”
Luca Guadagnino’s love story Queer with Daniel Craig launched in New and Los Angeles this weekend grossing $188.8k on 7 screens for the three-day weekend, a PSA of about $27k. For the five-days, the A24 film saw $295.5k. Queer, which premiered at Venice, sees Craig shedding any remnants of James Bond in a lauded performance as a gay expat in Mexico City based on the semi-autobiographical novel by beat writer William S. Burroughs. Will have a limited expansion this coming weekend in advance of a moderate nationwide break Dec. 13.
A24 also has holdover Heretic starring Hugh Grant still on 660 screens with a $957k for the three days and an estimated cume of $26.8 million in week 4. The breakout horror is no. 8 at the box office. The distributor’s We Live In Time starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh is winding down with $40k at 72 theaters for a cume of $24.6 million.
Cannes award-winning drama-thriller The Seed Of The Sacred Fig from Neon, filmed in secret by dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, opened to $33k for the three-day weekend on 3 screens and $50k for the five-day Thanksgiving frame.
Neon’s Cannes Palm d’Or-winner Anora is still kicking with $360k for the three-day weekend and $502k for the five days on 230 screens for a cume of $12.7 million in week 7.
Music Box Films’ heavy metal parody sequel Heavier Trip from Norway opened to $10k at 15 locations.
Holdovers: Indie Angel Studios’ Bonhoffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin was the weekend’s no. 6 with $2.4 million on 1,800 screens in week 2 for a cume of $4.7 million.
Searchlight Pictures’ A Real Pain by Jesse Eisenberg earned an estimated $665k 3-day cume in week 5 on 505 screens, dropping only 39% on the year’s record-breaking weekend. It was no. 10 and passed $6.1 million. The film stars Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin in his first role since winning the Lead Actor Primetime Emmy Award for Succession earlier this year. He’s up for a Gotham Award for Supporting Actor tomorrow. Eisenberg took the Best Screenplay award at Sundance where the film premiered.
Conclave from Focus Features starring Ralph Fiennes saw $580k for the three days and $800k for the five in week 6 at 423 theaters for a great cume of $30.1 million.
And Sideshow/Janus Films’ release of animated Flow grossed an estimated $28.9k for the 3-day weekend and $39.2k for the 5-day in week 2 with a cume of $98.9k on two screens – NYC’s Angelika and LA’s AMC Burbank — in its second weekend. Expands to several hundred theaters Friday.
Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, also from Sideshow/Janus Films, saw $65.6k on 26 screens for 3 days and $84k for five with a new cume of $237.7k in week 3. Expands through the holiday season and into 2025.
Porcelain War from Picturehouse moved from 1 to 3 theaters as the Sundance-winning documentary had filmmakers in Los Angeles for Q&As. It saw a $9.9k weekend for a cume of $24.6k with good word of mouth for the doc about artists in Ukraine finding a voice amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
