Specialty Box Office

Sony Pictures Classics is set to release awards contender The Father in select New York and Los Angeles theaters today before expanding nationwide March 12 before landing on PVOD on March 26. That’s quite a theater-to-digital journey for the Florian Zeller-directed drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. The film, which premiered at Sundance in 2020,
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As the weeks go by and the pandemic begins to lift at a very, very glacial pace we are hearing some more coins drop into the bank of the specialty box office space. Edward Hall’s adaptation of Noel Coward’s play Blithe Spirit is one of a handful of films that made its way to theaters and digital
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System of a Down is a renowned, Grammy-winning hard rock band, but the new Garin Hovannisian-directed documentary Truth To Power at Oscilloscope Laboratories shows a different side of them — specifically putting the spotlight on the band’s frontman, Serj Tankian. Opening in virtual theaters today, Truth to Power brings audiences into the world of Tankian. Through exclusive interviews and
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As the specialty box office space continues to navigate the digital VOD and day and date waters, numbers are trickling in but, again, they don’t necessarily give a solid reflection of a film’s box office performance as they did in the before-times (aka pre-Covid). On this President’s Day holiday weekend, award season faves like A24’s
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“My plan was to die before the money ran out” has become the anthem and tagline of the Sony Pictures Classics’ French Exit starring Michelle Pfeiffer as a 60-year-old penniless Manhattan socialite — a role that has been earning her plenty of awards season buzz. Opening in theaters today before expanding nationwide April 2, French
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Oscar-nominated actor Viggo Mortensen will make his feature directorial debut with Falling which makes its premiere in theaters, digital and on demand today. Mortensen went all-in with his feature debut because also wrote, starred in and composed the score for Falling to show us that he’s not just a one-trick pony (but was there any doubt?) Falling follows
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Harry Macqueen’s drama Supernova is one of many films this weekend that will open in theaters before hitting a digital platform — this seems to be a new trend. Written and directed by Macqueen, The Bleecker Street pic that follows Sam (Colin Firth) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci), a couple of 20 years. They are more in love
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The specialty box office found some shine this weekend with four new titles starting with the Gravitas Ventures pic Our Friend starring Jason Segel, Casey Affleck and Dakota Johnson. The Gabriela Cowperthwaite-directed drama based on Matthew Teague’s book The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word debuted at 543 locations and grossed an estimated $250K on
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If you are looking to stir emotions and grab some tissues this weekend Our Friend has got you covered. Based on Matthew Teague’s book The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word, Gabriela Cowperthwaite directs this heartfelt drama adapted by Brad Ingelsby that follows journalist Matt (Casey Affleck), his wife Nicole (Dakota Johnson) and their two
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If there are any milestones worth noting this week, it’s that the Focus Features thriller Promising Young Woman crossed the $3 million in its fourth week in theaters. This weekend the Emerald Fennell-directed pic starring Carey Mulligan played in 1,333 theaters and added an estimated $430K to its box office till this weekend and is on
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The IFC Films documentary MLK/FBI from filmmaker Sam Pollard (Two Trains Runnin’, Eyes on the Prize) makes its debut in select theaters today as well as on demand. The release aligns with Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18 and it is super relevant to America’s wild inequity and racist treatment of the Black community —
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The past year — and even the events of the past week in this country has been a struggle for a lot of people. More specifically, the pandemic and Covid-19 has claimed the lives of over 360,000 people and there are thousands of families in mourning. They are grieving — and this includes children. The
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The specialty box office space entered 2021 with two fresh titles and one under-the-radar pic with Vertical Entertainment’s Shadow In The Cloud, Netflix’s Pieces of a Woman and Amazon Studios’ Herself. In general, reporting on box office numbers has been tricky ground considering circumstances and that will continue in 2021 — especially with the specialty box
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The specialty box office and streaming space is ringing in 2021 with a peppering of new titles starting with Shadow in the Cloud starring Chloë Grace Moretz, which opens in select theaters and drops on VOD and digital starting January 1, 2021. Directed by Roseanne Liang who co-wrote the script with Max Landis, Shadow in the
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Like the title suggests, Promising Young Woman brought a glimmer of promise to the specialty box office space. The Emerald Fennell-directed dramatic thriller starring Carey Mulligan debuted in 1,310 theaters in North America on December 25 earning an estimated $680K. Since making its world premiere at Sundance, the film has been getting tons of buzz and acclaim.
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Written and directed by Emerald Fennell (Killing Eve), the Focus Features dramatic thriller Promising Young Woman has been a buzzy awards season title before its Christmas Day theatrical release. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named Carey Mulligan Best Actress for her turn as the methodical Cassie who is out for revenge while Fennell received honors
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Leading the charge this week in streaming and specialty titles is Netflix with two films that have been garnering awards season buzz with their star wattage and prestige storytelling. First up, is the highly anticipated Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom adapted from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s play of the same name. Set in 1920s
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Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari made its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year and immediately became the talk of the fest after it won Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Now, A24 is set to share this moving story with the world — well, in limited release at least. The family
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As we enter the throes of awards season more and more films are starting to make their qualifying runs in what is expected to be a very different kind of season. For starters, Searchlight Pictures is set to release Chloe Zhao’s buzzy pic of existential wanderlust Nomadland starring Frances McDormand for its virtual qualifying run
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As states and cities start new stay-at-home orders — specifically Los Angeles county — it is only expected that box office will continue to struggle. This applies even more to the specialty box office. This weekend we saw a trio of films about iconic figures in cultural history: the Gabriel Range-directed Stardust showed us the early
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As we enter the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend during an era when the box office is struggling and more weight is being placed on streamers for new product, there are still titles making theatrical debuts amid the digital film landscape as people recover from their turkey-induced tryptophan haze. It all starts with three films spotlighting
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There aren’t any huge surprises in the specialty box office as we enter what is expected to be a very different Thanksgiving holiday week. Normally, this would be the time of year where people would be participating in post-Thanksgiving dinner moviegoing but, as we know, theaters are shuttered. As the spike in COVID cases across
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Amazon is set to find the beat with the upcoming Sound of Metal starring Riz Ahmed which hits select theaters today before moving to Prime Video on December 4. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Darius Marder, who co-wrote the movie with Abraham Marder. Sound of Metal follows punk-metal drummer Ruben (Ahmed) who begins to experience intermittent hearing
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