EXCLUSIVE: Magnolia Pictures will be opening its Toronto Film Festival acquisition Normal on April 17, 2026 in 2,000 theaters, the distributor’s widest release in its 24-year history.
Normal, which we first told you about selling to Magnolia at TIFF, is directed by Ben Wheatley and written by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. The pic reps a reteam between Kolstad, producer Marc Provissiero and Bob Odenkirk, who previously worked on the Nobody franchise; those movies propelled the two-time Emmy-winning Better Call Saul star to action leading man status. The Nobody movies, the latest of which was released in August, have cleared close to $100 million at the global box office.
Normal will share the marquee on its spring weekend with Lee Cronin’s The Mummy from New Line and Blumhouse, and Amazon MGM Studios’ Liam Neeson action movie 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank.
In Normal, Odenkirk plays an unassuming substitute sheriff with a troubled past who, after moving to a small, sleepy town, responds to a bank robbery and unknowingly uncovers something far more explosive. Henry Winkler and Lena Headey also star.
Magnolia picked up Normal soon after TIFF wrapped. It’s becoming more of an anomaly for an acquisition title to be sold so quickly around its premiere at a fest. Kolstad told Deadline that a sequel to Normal is already in the works.
Previously the June Squibb caper Thelma was Magnolia Pictures’ widest release with an opening of 1,290 theaters in June 2024. That movie did close to a 4x multiple off its $2.3 million opening for a $9 million domestic take. Magnolia acquired Thelma out of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
Watch our TIFF interview with Odenkirk, Wheatley and Kolstad above.
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