Indies held their own on super start-of-summer weekend as Jane Austen, the late 18th century British novelist and early feminist continued her box office run in Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. Faith-based Angel Studios takes audiences to The Last Rodeo, and Tim Robinson fans, who helped open Friendship with a bang, are driving strong word of mouth for the comedian’s first leading film role.
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life from Sony Pictures Classics opened to a terrific $291k on 61 screens with Austen’s star power undimmed, good reviews (87% Rotten Tomatoes Certified) and strong word of mouth. This homage is the latest of many screen outings for the beloved Regency author whose novels satirizing the British landed gentry of the late 18th and early 19th century. Her fandom is global and continues to draw audiences to numerous big and small screen adaptations of her novels — Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey — to modern day retellings from Clueless to Bridget Jones’s Diary to biopic Becoming Jane to Austenland to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, based on the parody novel.
In the latest, a clumsy but charming young woman in Paris, struggling to become a writer and longing for Jane Austen-style romance, finally has her moment at a Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England.
Jumping wide, indie Angel Studios’ The Last Rodeo by Jon Avnet is estimating a 3-day weekend of $5.26 million and a four-day holiday cume of $6.27 million on 2,205 screens for a no. 6 spot at the domestic box office Memorial Day weekend. The film Stars Neal McDonough as a retired rodeo legend who risks it all to save his grandson. The film is at 73% with RT critics (26 reviews). Audiences love at a RT 94% certified.
And A24’s comedy Friendship starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd is on a tear with an estimated $4.6 million for the three-day and $5.7 million for the four-day weekend in a national expansion to 1,055 screens (up from 60) in week 3. The film by Andrew DeYoung, financed and produced by Fifth Season, ranked no. 7 at the domestic box office with exit polls continuing to show excellent word-of-mouth across the country with fans of Robinson and his Netflix sketch comedy series I Think You Should Leave turning out. The directorial debut of Andrew DeYoung follows a bromance gone bad between two suburban dads.
Daniel Robbins-directed comedy Bad Shabbos from Menemsha Films is looking at about $20K or thereabouts for its NYC debut holiday weekend at the Quad in NYC.
Noting the Rialto Pictures’ remastered release of RAN for the 40th anniversary of Akira Kurosawa’s iconic film is estimated to gross $40k at 15 locations Friday through Sunday, including a three-day estimate of $11k at IFC Center in New York City.
Will update as indie numbers for the long weekend come in.
The post The Ongoing Allure Of A British Literary Star In ‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life’ — Specialty Box Office appeared first on Deadline.
