IFC Film’s Werewolves Within saw the biggest debut in a weekend without many new limited releases.
Directed by Josh Ruben and written by Mishna Wolff, the comedy-horror flick stars Sam Richardson (Veep) and Milana Vayntrub. In the Ubisoft game-based film, a proposed pipeline creates divisions within the small town of Beaverfield and a snowstorm traps its wacky residents together inside the local inn. The newly arrived forest ranger Finn (Richardson) and postal worker Cecily (Vayntrub) must try to keep the peace and uncover the truth behind a mysterious creature that has begun terrorizing the community. George Basil, Sarah Burns, Michael Chernus, Catherine Curtain, Wayne Duvall, Harvey Guillén, Rebecca Henderson, Cheyenne Jackson, Michaela Watkins and Glenn Fleshler round out the cast.
Werewolves did well with critics and audience alike, garnering a 82% score on RottenTomatoes.com. Premiering at 270 locations, the feature grossed $223,000 and averaged $826 per screen, a decent feat in this period of recovery for the limited release space.
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Meet The Blacks 2, the comedy/horror romp from writer-director Deon Taylor, slowed some of its momentum from $1M+ debut two weeks prior.
The Meet The Blacks sequel is on track to gross $229,000 at 355 screens nationwide, down from the 539 screen expansion last week. This weekend pushed the Mike Epps-starring film to a $2,543,736 cumulative gross.
Gravitas Venture’s Queen Bees continued to perform well at the specialty box office.
The elder comedy featuring Ellen Burstyn, James Caan, Ann-Margret, Loretta Devine, Jane Curtin and Christopher Lloyd grossed $163K this weekend, pushing their cume to $1.3M. This gross marked the highest grossing indie day and date release of 2021 thus far.