Indies Surge In Heart Of Awards Season Ahead Of Golden Globes, Oscar Nominations – Specialty Box Office
Indie coin continues to spread throughout the land for the first weekend of 2025 and in the crush of awards season with the Golden Globes just hours away and Oscar nominations coming Jan. 17, dates that have informed rather successful debuts for a number of critically acclaimed films. There are serious bucks here but also spread nicely across a diverse slate of films and from wide to limited releases with slow rollouts.
Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown and Babygirl hit nos. 3, 6 and 7 at the domestic box office. The Brutalist tops $1 million. Flow passed Drive My Car as Sideshow/Janus Films’ top grosser. Nickel Boys continues its release moving to 18 screens. From Ground Zero, Palestine’s shortlisted Oscar entry for Best International Film, opened to a solid $115k at 70 theaters. It had multiple sold-out screenings at NYC’s Quad Cinema and will end up as the theater’s third best opening over the past year.
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Period horror The Damned from Vertical was the highest grossing new film in the marketplace opening to $801k at 732 locations led by LA, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, Houston, Seattle, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, San Diego, St. Louis and Charlotte (NC).
Big guns in wide release: Robert Eggers Nosferatu from Focus Features saw $13.2 million at 3,132 locations in week 2 for a cume of $69.4 million; James Mangold’s Timothée Chalamet-starring Bob Dylan biopic from Searchlight Pictures crossed $41.7 million in week 2 adding $8.1 million on 2,835 screens; and A24’s Babygirl by Halina Reijn, starring Nicole Kidman, saw $4.5 million in week 2 on 2,164 screens for a cume of $16 million, holding steady from the three days last weekend.
A24’s decorated The Brutalist by Brady Corbet capped off a great run in limited release over the holiday with a $244k weekend on just 8 screens, passing $1 million. The epic starring Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce, nominated for seven Golden Globes including Best Picture – Drama, will have a limited rollout in top markets next weekend and continue to expand throughout awards season.
Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios’ awards contender Nickel Boys by RaMell Ross grossed $151.3k for the three-day weekend from 18 theaters (up by 13) for a cume of $413k in week 4. It will play in approximately 24 theaters next weekend, adding Austin, Nashville, Philadelphia and Atlanta, with a wider break planned for weekend of Jan. 17 for the film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead.
On Saturday, it was named Best Film by the National Society of Film Critics, as well as Best Cinematography for the work of Jomo Fray. It’s been collecting accolades including Best Film of the Year by major outlets and earning significant awards and nominations including AFI Top Ten Films of the Year, AAFCA’s Best Picture and Best Director, Gotham Awards Best Director and Best Cinematography, Golden Globes Best Motion Picture Drama nomination, and multiple honors from festivals and critics groups including NYFCC, and LAFCA.
Kevin Wilson, head of distribution for MGM/Amazon Studios said the slow rollout is proving fruitful as a young cinephile audience is starting to find the film with informal polling heavy on 18 to 30 year olds. Alamo Drafthouse San Francisco was a top theater with strong numbers in NY, LA and Chicago.
The studio followed a similar release pattern successfully with Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction last year. “It’s a playbook for us,” Wilson said. He also sees similarities to A24’s rollout of Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest. Both are by “unique filmmakers with bold visions,” he noted, and played well week over week in limited expansion.
Amazon MGM’s The Fire Inside grossed an estimated $1.2 million for the three-day weekend at 2,032 theaters for a cume to date of $7.129 million, no. 10 at the box office.
Awards contenders Neon’s Anora by Sean Baker saw $147k on 105 screes in week 12 for a $14.37 million cume; and A Real Pain from Searchlight Pictures starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin grossed $132k also at 105 theaters in week 10 for a cume of $7.87 million.
A shoutout to Sideshow/Janus Films, which is a have a nice awards season with three films in the mix.
In its second weekend, the distributor’s release of Italy’s shortlisted Oscars submission and Golden Globe nominee Vermiglio expanded to LA and Chicago grossing an estimated $17.3k on three screens and a new cume of $31.7k. The LA gross was hampered by a power outage on Saturday. Maura Delpero’s 2024 Silver Lion winner about love and family secrets uncovered during World War II will continue to roll out throughout January into February.
Animated champ Flow by Gints Zilbalodis, a Golden Globe nominee for Best Animated Film and Latvia’s shortlisted Oscar submission for Best International Film, saw $216k on 127 screens for a cume of $2.6+ million in week 7, becoming Sideshow/Janus Film’s highest-grossing release of all time, besting Drive My Car’s $2.35 million.
Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, continued its expansion in week 8 and had its biggest weekend to date, grossing an estimated $74.5k on 44 screens for a cume of $752k. The National Society of Film Critics named Kapadia Best Director and the film Best Film Not in the English Language (and runner-up for Best Picture). It’s now won Best Film Not in the English Language from all three major critics groups (NSFC, NYFCC, and LAFCA). Kapadia made history as the first Indian filmmaker nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Director, where the film is also nominated for Best Film – Not in the English Language. Sideshow and Janus are pushing the film for Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay at the Oscars.
Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door from Sony Pictures Classics starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, is at $48k in week 3 on 6 screens for a cume of $321.4k.Los Frikis from Falling Forward Entertainment is at $29.2k for the weekend on 18 screens with a cume of $144.4k heading into week 3. It’s got good word of mouth, as does Metrograph Pictures’ Santosh, which held at the IFC Center in NYC with a 3-day gross of $4.8k, about steady from opening weekend, for a cume of $14k. The Hindi film by Sandhya Suri is 100% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes (34 reviews) and shortlisted for the Oscar Best International Feature. Adds the Laemmle Royal in LA next week.
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