‘Nosferatu’s Bloody Good Weekend, ‘A Complete Unknown’ Sings – Specialty Box Office
Robert Eggers Nosferatu from Focus Features sank its teeth into the Christmas box office. With James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown – Searchlight Pictures’ top-grossing film since it was acquired by Disney in 2019 – they ushered in a heady post-Covid moment for indie films at no. 3 and 5 at the domestic box office. Yes, both are labels of major studios but indie labels going for something different than Mufasa: The Lion King or Wicked.
The space for grownup films, for indie fare, had been steadily improving this fall and the latest numbers are the strongest indication yet that theatrical is back for a broader range of movies – and horror for Christmas.
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A24’s Babygirl starring Nicole Kidman also grossed $4.39 million for the weekend for a cume of $7.2 million and a no. 7 spot.
Distributors have been saying for some time that a rising tide will lift all boats and with this holiday frame it finally may have happened. The overall box office is down just 3.5% vs. 2023 and indies are doing some of the lifting.
Having the holiday fall on a Wednesday is a gift, distributors say.
Focus’ gothic tale of vampiric obsession – its second fall hit after Conclave – saw $21.5 million over the three-day weekend and a $40.3 million gross over the five-day Christmas frame on 2,982 screens. Horror can certainly pop but isn’t a typical offering on Christmas, which skews family friendly. It’s always a bit risky to enter that frame but particularly so with gore. But Nosferatu battered expectations. It posted the highest Christmas Day gross and highest grossing three-day Christmas weekend ever for a genre film (The Faculty from 1998 was the previous record holder for both.)
Some 65% of the audience was between 18 and 34, nicely in the genre demo but with a broader demographic too. This is classy horror, an upscale period piece with stunning cinematography and a beloved director.
Audiences were 54% male/46% female with Caucasian at 58% followed by Latino at 22%.
A notable 40% of the audience purchased their tickets before the day they saw the movie. That’s in part due to shows in Imax and other large format screenings, often late night, when Nosferatu opened. Imax today reported $1.7 million of box office from late shows in select locations since the Christmas day domestic opening.
Eggers has a cinephile following and turnout was also heavy for screenings in 35mm at theaters from the Music Box in Chicago to Alamo Drafthouses in San Francisco and Brooklyn. New York and LA were strong but, as per the numbers, it played well across the country setting up it for a strong run.
There was big creepy marketing push and sarcophagus popcorn tins sold out fast. If you want one now, they are pushing $100 on eBay. Focus also placed actual, full-sized sarcophagi in ten theaters with lots of TikTok-able opportunities. There were big Nosferatu experiences for influencers in NY and LA.
Overall, according to exits, the genre (horror) was the top draw, followed by the subject matter, that it looked entertaining, the director, and the cast as a whole, which included Bill Skarsg?rd, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrinand Willem Dafoe.
Produced by Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Chris Columbus, Eleanor Columbus, Robert Eggers.
Production Companies are Maiden Voyage Pictures, Studio 8, Birch Hill Road Entertainment.
A Complete Unknown was also a triumph at no. 5 bringing generations of Bob Dylan fans, and with Timothée Chalamet drawing younger audiences for $11.6 million over the three days and a $23.3 million five-day holiday weekend on 2,835 screens, also far surpassing initial projections. This marked the second biggest opening in Searchlight’s history just behind 2009’s Notorious — beating Boys in the Boat, Uncut Gems, The Iron Claw and Ferrari.
The film skewed 51% female and 45% under 35. Half attended because of subject matter and 36% because of Chalamet. Beyond Dylan or Chalamet, fans of musical biopics in general also showed up.
The film was big in coastal cities New York and LA, San Francisco and West Palm Beach, as well as in key inland markets including Minneapolis, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Albuquerque, Seattle and Portland. But, like Nosferatu, it found success in suburban theaters, highlighting broad appeal.
Both films also held pretty steady day-to-day without major drop-offs.
Top-performing theaters included the AMC Lincoln Square (NYC), AMC Century City (LA), Cineplex Cinemas Varsity (Toronto), Jacob Burns Film Center (NY), Cinemark Palace (West Palm Beach), AMC Garden State (NJ), Violet Crown (Santa Fe), AMC Southdale Center (Minneapolis), AMC Grove (LA), and Nitehawk Prospect Park (Brooklyn).
Chalamet stars, with Monica Barbaro and Ed Norton, as an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arriving in Greenwich Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music.
Marketing included campaigns and giveaways with Levi’s, with Gibson, with Bob Dylan’s own whiskey brand Heaven’s Door. Searchlight absolutely hustled to get the distribution and marketing in place in just six months, in time for a holiday release.
Imax held sneak previews of the film a week early in 30+ theaters. It expands to an additional 150 Imax theaters next Friday.
Other specialty openings: Funasia’s Baby John, at 325 locations, saw a $237k weekend for a domestic cume to date of $579.8k.
Bloody Axe Wound from IFC Films opened Friday in 237 theaters to $45k.
Sideshow/Janus Films’ release of Italy’s shortlisted Oscar submission and Golden Globe nominee Vermiglio grossed an estimated $5.4k at the IFC Center in NYC for a cume of $8.45k.
Santosh from Metrograph Pictures, the Hindi-language crime drama by Sandhya Suri, debuted at $5.1k from one run in New York. This is the U.K.’s Oscar submission for Best International Feature.
Neon docudrama 2073 by Academy Award-winner Asif Kapadia grossed $5.1k on two screens in NY and LA.
Holdovers: Angel Studios’ release Homestead grossed $3.19 million at 1,769 locations in week 2 for a cume through Sunday of $12.9 million.
A24’s The Brutalist added 3 locations for a total of 7 and $203k in week 2 for a cume through Sunday of $687k.
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