Independent Film Company’s Faces Of Death Neon’s Exit 8 and A Great Awakening from Roadside Attractions all popped in the top ten –- at nos. 6, 7 and 8 respectively — making for an upbeat specialty weekend.
Faces of Death is at $1.7 million on 1,600 screens and Japanese hit Exit 8 at $1.4 million on 495 screens – both are new releases. Faith-based historical film A Great Awakening pulled in $1.27 million at 1,274 locations in week 2, for a $4.9 million cume.
The movies couldn’t be more difference. Genki Kawarmura’s Cannes-premiering Exit 8 had an especially strong showing for a non-English language film with a moderate footprint. Based on the eponymous hit video game created by Kotake Create, it stars Yamato Kôchi as a man trapped in an endless sterile subway passage, looking for — you know what.
Faces of Death is director Daniel Goldhaber’s reimagining of the controversial 1978 cult horror with box office propelled by a viral marketing and PR campaign and strong word of mouth. Barbie Ferreira stars as a young woman working as a content moderator for a TikTok-like video platform, discovers what appears to be re-enactments of murders from the original film. In an online world where nothing can be trusted, she must determine whether the violence is fiction or unfolding in real time.
A Great Awakening follows the unusual friendship between eventual founding father Benjamin Franklin, usually a pretty popular character, and Reverend George Whitefield. Producer Sight & Sound has a strong faith-based following.
Vertical is slinging $190k for the weekend on Hamlet, starring and produced by Riz Ahmed, on 325 screens. The film by Aneil Karia, which sets Shakespeare’s enduring tragedy in London’s elite South Asian community, played well on the coasts (NY, LA, San Francisco) and Chicago, with AMC Lincoln Square, Angelika Film Center and Alamo Brooklyn among top grossers.
In limited release: Steven Soderbergh’s art world forgery-comedy The Christophers, from Neon debuted to $80k on four screens in NY and LA. Stars Jessica Gunning and James Corden as siblings desperate for an inheritance who conspire (with Michaela Coel) to forge unfinished paintings by their reclusive artist father (Ian McKellen) so they become valuable after his death.
Documentary Steal This Story, Please! on progressive journalist and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, from Oscar-nominated Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, opened exclusively at the IFC Center in New York to a super $33k. Most screenings sold out with additional showtimes — including morning matinees — nearing capacity. It achieved the gross playing just one of the five screens at the theater. Opens in LA and San Francisco next week and will continue rolling out with Goodman and the filmmakers crisscrossing the country to support it.
Jane Fonda, Rosario Dawson, Tom Morello, Caren Spruch and Diana Cohn are EPs. The Xceptional Communications release is self distributing with booking support from mTuckman media.
Music Box Film’s well reviewed The Stranger by François Ozon from the iconic novel by Albert Camus grossed $40k at 16 screens for a $75k cume in week 2.
Action thriller Dhurandhar: The Revenge is spying another $685k at 320 locations for a cume of $27.4 million as the Bollywood hit from Moviegoers Entertainment barrels ahead in week 3. This is rare staying power for the highest grossing Indian film ever in North America.