Audiences are really latching onto A24’s Friendship, buoying it to no. 7 at the domestic box office on just 60 screens with a $1.4 million weekend ($23k per screen average) and a $2+ million cume.
The film by Andrew DeYoung debuted on six screens last week with a top limited opening and can now boast a hugely successful expansion. The R-rated comedy stars comedian Tim Robinson as suburban dad Craig whose life is turned upside down by the arrival of a new neighbor (Paul Rudd).
Certified Fresh RT (89% with critics, 83% audience score) and backed by excellent exit polls, the bromance is generating tremendous word-of-mouth. Expands to a limited nationwide release over Memorial Day weekend as it settles into a long theatrical run throughout the summer.
Indie grosses can trickle in through early in the week, will update with any new numbers.
Kani Releasing releases Yoko Yamanaka’s Desert of Namibia exclusively at Metrograph in New York to sold-out screenings, with an estimated opening weekend box office of $4.5k. Expands to LA next week with an exclusive engagement at Laemmle Theatres, with director Q&As hosted by fellow filmmakers India Donaldson (Good One) and Winnie Cheung (Residency). She will screen her debut film Aniko at American Cinematheque May 22, hosted by Carson Lund (Eephus). Logline: mercurial 21-year-old Kana (Yuumi Kawai), a hair-removal technician at a salon in Tokyo, who bristles against the beauty expectations placed on women her age. Her erratic moods and default to self-destruct impacts all of her relationships as moments of levity erupt into violence and optimism simmers to despair.
And Met: Live in HD’s Saturday transmission of Strauss’s Salome from Fathom grossed $622.5k in North America at about 800 cinema screens. Conducted by the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and starring soprano Elza van den Heever and baritone Peter Mattei, the title had the seventh highest per-screen average (with only one screening) of all filmed content screenings across North America and was ranked sixth in North America Saturday. Encore screenings in U.S on May 21.
An estimated 31,500 people saw Salome live (with an additional $700k across more than 800 screens internationally).
Fathom’s presentation of Kiki’s Delivery Service as part of its Studio Ghibli Fest grossed $1+ million on 1,062 screens giving the rerelease a no. 9 spot.
Sideshow/Janus Films’ release of Jia Zhangke’s Caught By The Tides grossed an estimated $45.3k on 16 screens for a week 2 cume of $89.5k.MORE
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