IFC’s canine-starring supernatural thriller Good Boy wagged its way to a $2.25+ million opening, the label’s second-best debut after 2024 hit Late Night With The Devil ($2.8 million).
At no. 9 this weekend, it will be parent IFC Entertainment Group’s third best opening weekend ever including RLJE’s topper Clown In A Cornfield. IFC acquired Good Boy for Shudder and planned a more modest release but pivoted after the trailer and poster out in July went viral, racking up over 100 million views across the web – the largest reach for any film in company history. IFC took it wider and ramped up marketing. On 1,650 screens, it’s the second biggest opening theater count for the company to date.
The low-budget feature, the directorial debut of film professor Ben Leonberg, premiered at SXSW and is a haunted house horror told through the eyes of a family dog. It stars the director’s own pooch, Indy, who nabbed the fest’s Howl of Fame” award for Best Canine Performance.
“He had a unique perspective, he uses a dog as his main chacaterter … This dog emotes fear and supense in a way that many actors are unsuccessful at doing,” says Scott Shooman, head of IFC Entertainment Group.
The Saturday gross of $777.7k reps a 23% increase from Friday’s organic gross, as per IFC, and Sat. had a more substantial increases hour to hour than on Friday, playing consistently across the morning and matinees and starting to over-index with the 8-11 pm showtimes, which aligns with the audience demographics.
LA has the largest market share, followed by New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Houston. Phoenix, Denver, Seattle and Washington D.C., but the film is playing well throughout the country. AMC Burbank and the AMC Empire in NY are nos. 1 and 2.
When Indy’s owner Todd (Shane Jensen) leaves city life for a long vacant family home in the country, the pup’s new world is immediately filled with unease as he senses invisible presences, follows phantom tracks, receives chilling warnings from a ghostly dog and is haunted by glimpses of the previous resident’s gruesome demise. When a dark influence begins to grip Todd, Indy must fight a malevolent force.
“I think everybody who has had a pet has wondered or maybe worried why their dog was barking at nothing or staring at empty corners. We kind of wanted to explore that as just a core engine of the movie and spin it into a haunted house movie,” Leonberg told Deadline at SXSW Studio. He and his wife Kari Fischer, who also served as producer, adapted their own home and acted as stand-ins for three years to acclimate Indy, who is not a trained animal actor, to the role.
“It’s a true indie in every way,” Shooman tells Deadline. “A guy who lived anad breathed this movie for three years…. These are the stories that we love. And he made a good movie and people went to see it. This makes us really happy.”
Written by Leonberg and Alex Cannon. Other human stars include Larry Fessenden, Arielle Friedman, Anya Krawcheck and Stuart Rudin.
Another nice performance this weekend came from Neon documentary Orwell: 2+2=5, which grossed circa $27k exclusively at the IFC Center in NYC. Director Raoul Peck was on hand for Q&As to sold-out screenings with an engaged and diverse audience. Walk-up business was strong and the film saw a 50% increase from Friday to Saturday.
The documentary about the perils of authoritarianism from the author of iconic 1984 and Animal Farm premiered at Cannes. The author’s works foretold a chilling future and Orwell weaves together clips, readings from his diaries (by an excellent Damian Lewis), cinematic references and modern-day footage. It crafts a portrait of the writer and a fresh take on how prophetic his work has become, in the U.S. today but also across decades and countries.
This is a top per theater documentary debut for 2025, a year that’s seen avid interested in select titles. The Encampments, which opened to $77k in March at the Angelika passed $500k domestic. Secret Mall Apartment debuted to $42k at the Providence Place Mall, where it’s set, ultimately grossing $850k. Oscar-winner No Other Land opened at $26.1k at the Film Forum, going on to a hefty $2.5 million cume. October 8 launched at $234k on over 100 screens and has a $1.37 million cume. Recently, The Last Class started at $10.6k and is still going, passing $650k this weekend.
Orwell expends to LA’s Nuart and other top ten markets next Friday
Documentary Roads Of Fire from new indie distributor New Mountain Films opened to $9.8k at the IFC Center for a weekend cume of $11.3k. Director Nathaniel Lezra confronts the global migration crisis through the personal narratives of a human smuggler guiding refugees through the treacherous Darién Gap land route connecting North and South America, an asylum seeker rebuilding her life in New York City, and volunteers working on the frontlines of a mounting humanitarian emergency.
Also limited, Yellow Veil Pictures’ The Ice Tower is looking at $8k on 3 screens, with a majority of that being from IFC Center in NYC. Written and directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic and starring Marion Cotillard.
In wider release, Anemone from Focus Features opened in 865 theaters to a three-day estimate of $700k. Directed by Ronan Day-Lewis, it stars his father Daniel Day-Lewis, in the actor’s return to film after eight years, and Sean Bean.
Bleecker Street’s Bone Lake by Mercedes Bryce Morgan opened to $828k at 1,059 locations.
GKids re-release of the classic 1997 anime thriller Perfect Blue in a new 4K restoration grossed $718k on 471 screens. Originally released by Manga Entertainment in 1999 (grossing about $112k), GKids had previously re-released the film in 2018 ($446k) and 2023 ($580k).
Kantara A Legend: Chapter 1 from Prathyangira Cinemas opened to $1.7 million on 689 screens, rounding out the weekend top 10 and with a cume of $2.5 million.
Sony Pictures’ Classics’ holdover Eleanor The Great, the directorial debut of Scarlett Johansson, starring June Squibb, grossed $298.4k on 461 screens (down from 892) for a cume of $1.7 million.