The indie/arthouse market is showing some breadth as Kneecap has a great debut, CatVidoFest as well, and holdovers like Didi and Sing Sing are kind of raking it in considering how few screens they’re on. As more wide releases and tentpoles show up and take flight a rising tide may be raising indie boats – maybe not as much or as many as distributors hope, but some.
Theater chain CEOs on quarterly earnings calls last week insisted they need all kinds of movies and that’s what they’re getting, including Indian specialty fare that continues to pop at the box office. Daru Na Peenda Hove, a Punjabi film from Rhythm Boyz Entertainment, is no. 9 this weekend, Comscore says, grossing $616k on 118 screens.
Kneecap from Sony Pictures Classics led new indie openings with $492.4k on 703 screens. The music biopic is playing arthouses and multiplexes, reaching younger demos, and music fans of the Belfast hip hop trio that raps in native Irish. The film stars the three members of Kneecap – Naoise Ó Cairealláin “Móglaí Bap”, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh “Mo Chara”, and JJ Ó Dochartaigh “Dj Provaí”, as themselves, with other actors (Michael Fassbender playing Cairealláin’s dad).
The group’s been hosting screenings around the country for weeks, and the social media-heavy marketing push is one of SPC’s biggest. Written and directed by Rich Peppiat.
Didi from Focus Features is looking at an estimated 3-day weekend of $440k from just 47 theaters (+42 from its debut last week). That’s a hefty cume of $728k for Sean Wang’s Sundance Award-winning coming of age film. Expands to about 150 theaters Friday,
Oscilloscope Labs’ CatVideoFest 2024 had its best opening since launching in 2019 with $281.2k on 106 screens. The distributor noted dozens of sold out screenings in New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Tucson, Rochester, Asheville and more, impressive since this is a compilation of cat videos, and is being booked as an “event,” meaning the majority of engagements are just 1 to 4 screenings in total.
A portion of all CatVideoFest proceeds go to support local animal shelters and humane societies and it’s raised nearly $30k so far this weekend. Will continue to screen at hundreds venues through September.
Sing Sing from A24 grossed $173.9k on just 18 screens this weekend for a $543k cume. Greg Kwedar’s affecting drama starring Colman Domingo added 5 new markets. Will continue to expand.
Bleecker Street’s The Fabulous Four will gross $418.4k in its second weekend on 920 screens for a cume of $2.3 million.
New limited releases: War Game from Submarine Deluxe grossed $15.3k at one location. “We are thrilled by the enthusiastic turnout to War Game this weekend with multiple sold out shows. The engagement and response to the opening confirms how timely, and increasingly relevant this film is,” said Joe Tufano, VP of Distribution. Expands to LA, Chicago, Philly, DC and other markets in coming weeks. The film by Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber followw a just reelected semi-fictional POTUS forced to manage an uprising of rogue military personal and armed insurgents on a semi-fictional January 6, 2025.
Kino Lorber opened Mikko Mäkelä’s Sebastian is looking at $12k in three locations (IFC Center, Landmark Sunset and Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco), boosted by Q&A shows in all three cities and strong engagement with the LGBTQ+ press and community, as well as partnerships with sex work organizations. The Sundance film follows Max (newcomer Ruaridh Mollica) as a 25-year-old writer living in London who moonlights as a sex worker under the pseudonym Sebastian as research for his debut novel. Expands to additional markets August 9.