Menemsha Films’ comedy Bad Shabbos passed $1 million at the U.S. box office this weekend with a $53k gross on 30 screens, the latest in a string of small often quirky indie releases that opened limited and continued a slow rollout over months, or longer.
They include Mike Cheslik’s dialogue-free supernatural winter epic Hundreds Of Beavers, which opened Stateside in January of 2024, raked up $724k domestic and $1.2 million worldwide, and was still playing some college towns until fairly recently to enthusiastic fans with beaver-tail hats.
Documentary Secret Mall Apartment from Wheelhouse Creative took in $846k starting with a launch in Providence, Rhode Island in March at Providence Place Mall, where the renegade filmmakers created a secret apartment in 2003 and kept it going for four years.
Utopia’s Pavements, a hybrid documentary by Alex Ross Perry about American indie band Pavement, debuted in theaters in early May and is at $345k and continuing its road show.
Kyra Sedgwick-starring Bad Shabbos by Daniel Robbins opened in early December in Delray Beach, Florida where it played exclusively for 16 weeks to $130k. Additional runs in South Florida brought it to $250k before it debuted iin New York on May 26 (passed $100k at the Quad Cinema entering its tenth consecutive week) and Los Angeles June 6. It’s entering its sixth consecutive week at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Boston ($80+k), and continues extended runs in LA, San Francisco, Detroit, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and more. It moves to 48 theaters next week, its highest count, adding Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, and will continue in theaters through the fall.
“Word of mouth has been and will always be the best advertising for a film,” said Menemsha Films President Neil Friedman. “The key for any distributor is to keep such a film in theaters week after week and continue to build word of mouth.”
The story follows an engaged interfaith couple are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner when an accidental death gets in the way. “The success of Bad Shabbos shows people want laugh-out-loud comedies and they’re on their way back,” said Robbins.
The ensemble cast includes Wu-Tang Clan’s Cliff “Method Man” Smith (The Wire), David Paymer (Mr. Saturday Night), Milana Vayntrub (This Is Us), Jon Bass (Miracle Workers), Meghan Leathers (For All Mankind), Catherine Curtin (Orange is the New Black, Stranger Things), John Bedford Lloyd (Ozark) and Ashley Zuckerman (Succession) and Theo Taplitz. It’s co-written by Zack Weiner and Robbins, produced by Adam Mitchell.
New indie opening: Sideshow/Janus Films’ release of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s critically-acclaimed thriller Cloud opened exclusively in NYC this weekend, grossing an estimated $27.8k at two locations.
Holdovers: Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight from Sony Pictures Classics, the feature debut of Embeth Davidtz, grossed $185.1k on 307 screens (up from 4) in week 2 for a $238.2k cume.
Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown from Watermelon Pictures grossed $18k+ at 18 location in week 2 for a cume of $32.6k. Expands to the top 35 markets next weekend.
A24’s Sorry, Baby by debut director Eva Victor also passed the $1 million mark this weekend, grossing $246.9k in week 4 at 80 locations (up from 40).