August 20, 2017

‘Patti Cake$’ Opens Soft as ‘Ingrid Goes West’ and ‘Wind River’ Hold Strong

A slew of hit-and-miss indie films from Sundance and elsewhere continue to roll out at the specialty box office. Fox Searchlight took another blow as high-end Sundance acquisition “Patti Cake$” fell below the expectations set by its expensive $9.5 million price tag.

“Gook” (Goldwyn) and “Crown Heights” (Amazon Studios/IFC) both enjoyed respectable initial limited responses ahead of other openers. A24’s Robert Pattinson actioner “Good Time” also showed some promise in its second weekend.

The most encouraging news comes from the second weekend of Neon’s “Ingrid Goes West” and third for The Weinstein Co. breakout “Wind River.” Both look positioned to dominate the specialized scene over the next few weeks in advance of upcoming fall post-festival releases.

Opening

Patti Cake$ (Fox Searchlight) – Metacritic: 65; Festivals include: Sundance, South by Southwest, New Directors/New Films 2017

$66,000 in 14 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $4,714

Fox Searchlight won an intense Sundance acquisition battle with its reported $9.5 million offer. After disappointing results for earlier high end Park City deals for “The Birth of a Nation” and “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” this might be the most disappointing yet for the usually canny high-end specialized distributor.

While the urban/hip-hop story encouraged Searchlight to expand beyond core New York/Los Angeles arthouse theaters, those four high-end screens delivered most of the gross, while a range of others targeting younger urban audiences similar to its characters showed little initial response. The top-end figures themselves were nothing to cheer about, especially for such an expensive purchase.

What comes next: This will expand to around nine more cities this week, with a planned  expansion to hundreds of theaters on Labor Day weekend.

Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Ante Cheng

Gook (Goldwyn) – Metacritic: 68; Festivals include: Sundance, Seattle 2017

$31,100 in 2 theaters; PTA: $15,550

This drama set in the Korean community, badly hurt during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, opened in two Los Angeles theaters (including the Arclight Hollywood) to quite decent initial results. This is a rare Sundance high-end film (it won an audience award) to not open in New York as well in its first week. The result in Los Angeles is decent, with interest elsewhere yet to be determined.

What comes next: This opens in other markets and broadens in the Los Angeles area this Friday.

Crown Heights (IFC) – Metacritic: 59; Festivals include: Sundance, Seattle 2017

$27,552 in 3 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $9,184

This Amazon films released through IFC about the quest to free a wrongfully convicted man opened in three New York/Los Angeles theaters to mixed reviews and a respectable gross.

What comes next: The wider expansion starts this week.

Marjorie Prime (FilmRise) – Metacritic: 81; Festivals include: Sundance, Rotterdam, San Francisco 2017

$24,000 in 6 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $4,000

Excellent reviews and acclaim for veteran actress Lois Smith (costarring with Geena Davis, Jon Hamm and Tim Robbins) did not yield elevated results in initial multi-city dates. This Sundance premiere from veteran Michael Almereyda involves an older woman spending her dying days with a scientifically recreated version of her late husband.

What comes next: This expands to more cities starting this weekend.

Also available on Video on Demand

Dave Made a Maze (Gravitas Ventures/Slamdance 17) – $13,178 in 13 theaters

Lemon (Magnolia/Sundance 17) – (est.) $4,500 in 1 theater

Courtesy of Sundance

Week Two

Ingrid Goes West (Neon)

$265,567 in 26 theaters (+23); PTA: $10,214; Cumulative: $438,685

Excellent second weekend showing for this Sundance success now unlike some other strong Park City entries also well-received by regular audiences. It looks to be reaching its target younger audience (more interested in its social media sensation story), which could explain the disconcerting 27 per cent Saturday (the day after opening in most of these theaters) drop off. Still in a period where the majority of initially positive films had less of a response in as they played more cities this is a very positive result so far.

Good Time (A24)

$173,044 in 20 theaters (+16); PTA: $8,652; Cumulative: $349,007

The Safdie brothers well-received prison break story expanded into top markets in its second weekend with a showing ahead of two other recent A24 releases around this number of theaters (“A Ghost Story” and “The Lovers”) that didn’t realize results equal to their initial platform showings. This opened last week better than both. The Robert Pattinson starring film will need another weekend of expansion to indicate whether this has a chance to go beyond specialized theaters.

The Only Living Boy in New York (Roadside Attractions)

$84,910 in 66 theaters (+51); PTA: $1,286; Cumulative: $162,033

A rare disaster for the high-flying Amazon, Marc Webb’s saga of complicated young New York romance has found little interest in its second weekend expansion. Poor reviews killed this.

The Trip to Spain (IFC); also available on Video on Demand

$70.889 in 19 theaters (+16); PTA: $3,731; Cumulative: $129,889

VOD was added this weekend, which makes the modest results for this second week expansion for the third Steve Coogan road trip movie somewhat more credible. The previous entry, “The Trip to Italy” grossed over $100,000 its second weekend in 10 theaters.

Whose Streets? (Magnolia)

$(est.) 26,000 in 26 theaters (+2); PTA: $(est.) 1,000; Cumulative: $(est.) 70,000

This acclaimed documentary about the impact of Ferguson in its second weekend is still struggling to find an audience in theaters.

Ongoing/expanding (grosses over $50,000 in under 1,000 theaters)

Wind River (Weinstein) Week 3

$3,025,000 in 694 theaters (+649); Cumulative: $4,139,000

Writer-director Taylor Sheridan’s Western drama in its third week is performing similar to CBS Films “Hell or High Water” (for which Sheridan earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay) late last summer in its early expansion. That film was a bit wider (909 theaters) with a gross of $3.5 million and managed to get to $27 million, a goal which Weinstein will pursue along with the eventual Oscar recognition that came its way. Jeremy Renner’s marquee draw from three studio franchises (“Avengers,” “Bourne,” and “Mission: Impossible”) may be boosting interest.

The Big Sick (Lionsgate) Week 9

$1,025,000 in 618 theaters (-91); Cumulative: $38,090,000

Still going strong, Amazon’s summer specialized hit is going to nearly equal their “Manchester by the Sea” with all its Oscar-related push (Kenneth Lonergan’s film topped out at just under $48 million).

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (Paramount) Week 4

$300,000 in 514 theaters (-42); Cumulative: $2,994,000

It’s the highest-grossing specialized documentary release of the year, mainly because of Paramount’s aggressive push to hundreds of theaters. But the sequel to the Oscar winning “An Inconvenient Truth” will end up far short of its predecessor, which (adjusted) grossed $32 million in 2006.

Menashe (A24) Week 4

$230,130 in 86 theaters (+39); Cumulative: $715,312

This Yiddish-language custody dispute in a New York orthodox community expands again with continued positive results among its core audience. Though not a foreign film, it looks headed to grosses among the best arthouse subtitled films of the year.

Step (Fox Searchlight) Week 3

$205,000 in 306 theaters (+121); Cumulative: $809,253

Fox Searchlight has given this Baltimore-set feel good competition documentary full support, but with minimal response from its wider break in theaters.

Menashe (A24) Week 4

$230,130 in 86 theaters (+39); Cumulative: $715,312

This Yiddish-language custody dispute in a New York orthodox community expands again with continued positive results among its core audience. Though not a foreign film, it looks headed to grosses among the best arthouse subtitled films of the year.

The Brigsby Bear (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 4

$159,003 in 408 theaters (+371); Cumulative: $354,900

The per-theater attendance for this quirky independent comedy will be under 50 patrons each and will likely fall off quickly. This had a modest limited opening, but the broader interest seems much smaller.

Maudie (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 19

$124,541 in 124 theaters (-39); Cumulative: $5,639,000

The U.S. portion of this Canadian-Irish coproduction is now almost at $3 million, a decent mid-level result in a crowded adult market this summer.

Also noted:

Landline (Magnolia) – $43,000 in 60 theaters; Cumulative: $853,874

Columbus (Superlative) – $44,450 in 12 theaters; Cumulative: $152,761

The Midwife (Music Box) – $34,488 in 37 theaters; Cumulative: $397,886

The Little Hours (Gunpowder & Sky) – $33,290 in 39 theaters; Cumulative: $1,510,000

The Hero (The Orchard) – $17,631 in 39 theaters; Cumulative: $4,013,000

Lost in Paris (Oscilloscope) – $16,500 in 16 theaters; Cumulative: $507,778

Lady Macbeth (Roadside Attractions) – $ in 86 theaters; Cumulative: $

 

 

 

 

Source: IndieWire film

August 20, 2017

‘Mosaic’: Steven Soderbergh Reveals Plot Details About His Mysterious ‘Branching Narrative’ Project at HBO

Now that he’s returned to feature filmmaking, Steven Soderbergh already has his next project in mind. That should come as little surprise given how prolific the “Logan Lucky” director is, but “Mosaic” sounds ambitious even for him. In a new Film Comment interview, Soderbergh calls his mysterious HBO project starring Sharon Stone and Garrett Hedlund a “branching narrative” that will allow viewers to decide which character’s perspective they want to follow.

Sound confusing? Here it is from Soderbergh himself:

“It’s a branching narrative piece. Branching narratives have been around forever, but technology now allows, I hope, for a more elegant, intuitive form of engagement than used to be possible. We spent a lot of time on how you touch this thing. I wanted to make sure that it was beautiful and simple, so that when the opportunity arises for you to decide whose perspective you want to follow, it feels organic and not like an interruption — like the thing is just stopping cold. So there was just a lot trial and error about how that would work. I’m really happy with it now. The question now is if a million people log on at the same time, will it crash? It’s supposed to come out in November.”

Before it airs on HBO, “Mosaic” will first be unveiled as a free app. Despite what it sounds like, however, this isn’t a choose-your-own-adventure story; the narrative itself is set, and all that changes is how you experience it. And though it revolves around a murder, “Mosaic” is “not a murder mystery so much.” We’ll have a clearer sense of it all when, according to Soderbergh, it airs as a six-episode series on HBO next January. Read the full interview here.

Source: IndieWire film

August 19, 2017

‘Death Note’: Adam Wingard Defends Anime Adaptation Against Whitewashing Claims: ‘It Is a Whole New Thing’

Like a lot of movies made in the last year, “Death Note” has faced criticism for whitewashing its source material. The upcoming Netflix drama is based on a Japanese manga and, not unlike “Ghost in the Shell,” has changed Japanese characters into American ones: Nat Wolff plays Light Turner (the updated version of Light Yagami), while Margaret Qualley is Mia Sutton (Misa Amane).

Director Adam Wingard addressed those claims to Vulture, saying that his take on “Death Note” isn’t “just taking a character and trying to say a white kid is a Japanese kid. It is a whole new thing. The characters are all very different and it is a different kind of experience all together.”

Wingard, who also directed “You’re Next” and “Blair Witch,” got defensive about the same subject a couple months back: “Just clearing up misconceptions.No one has seen the film outside of 2 test screenings,” he tweeted. “Criticisms at this point are based on assumptions.”

Two of the film’s producers spoke up in defense of “Death Note” as well. “I think we got the right actors for the parts that were written,” said Roy Lee, whose prior credits include “The Departed” and “The Ring.” “We didn’t look at race as a factor. We just did the version that was set in the U.S. There are remakes of U.S. movies like ‘Sideways’ in Japan, but there was never a thought for them to bring in American actors to play the [characters] in the Japanese remake.”

“The whole idea of whitewashing is putting white people in roles that were meant to be a different race. But this wasn’t specifically a racially bound story, because it was set in America,” added Masi Oka, late of “Heroes.” “Anyone could have played that title role, whether it was white, African-American, Latino-American, or Asian-American. Anyone could have played that role.” Read their full comments here.

Source: IndieWire film