‘Saltburn’ in best limited openings of year, ‘The Holdovers’ Aces expansion, ‘Stop Making Sense’ surpasses original 1984 success – Box Office Special

On a great weekend for specialties, Salt burns had a sublime opening on seven screens and The survivors In a huge third-week expansion, the film took in a cool $2.7 million, landing it at No. 6 at the domestic box office. Actors are back promoting their films and indie/original films continue to benefit from fewer studio releases in the wake of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The specialty retail market is on a roller coaster ride and the box office is hard to predict despite good reviews. So it’s nice to see The remains – Alexander Payne’s 1970 comedy-drama starring Paul Giamatti as a grumpy professor at a New England prep school draws audiences, especially older demos that have been hard to retrieve.

The Focus Features picture opened on six screens on October 27 and rose to 64 in its second week, 778 last weekend and 1,478 on Friday in a traditional platform rollout that saw a major breakthrough with the timing as the SAG-AFTRA strike ended on November. 9th. Focus, which is owned by Universal, has not reached a tentative agreement The survivors. But since then the cast has been on the market aggressively promoting the film. A tastemaker screening Friday at the London Hotel in LA, hosted by Taylor Hackford, featured Payne, Giamatti, stars Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa, writer David Hemingson and editor Kevin Tent. The theater was packed with AMPAS, guild members and others for a question and answer session moderated by Hackford. Payne and Giamatti’s second appearance since then Sideways will be extended to Thanksgiving in 2004. Set during the Christmas holidays as Giamatti’s professor looks after a troubled student, the film has a festive atmosphere that bodes well for business going forward.

Lisa Bunnell, president of focus distribution, calls it a story that people can relate to and: “You leave the theater with a good feeling.” Giamatti is really working on it now. “He supports it so much. It’s a great role for him and he’s the film’s best advocate.” The slow rollout was planned in advance, but “the timing suited us well.”

The audience was 51% male and 49% female and “is definitely the over-45 demographic,” Bunnell said. It has a strong mouth to mouth and plays very well in classic art house pieces. “I really believe in bringing older people back to the cinema.” They feel more comfortable going to the cinema again. But I also think it depends on the film – set in the 1970s, another time when films were more human and relatable.”

Amazon Studios/MGM Studios and MRC had a weekend to be proud of with Emerald Fennell’s whimsical Salt burns Grossing $315.5,000 from seven theaters and a whopping $45,000 per screen average, the film is in rare territory this year, ahead of most openings of similar magnitude. See current publications Dream scenario with a PSA of $35.9K on six screens. Priscilla at six and The survivors in four cases both took $33,000. Salt burns are closer to MGMs Bottomswhich opened in ten theaters to $46,000 each.

A24s Past lives by Celine Song opened in four theaters in June and earned $58,000. The of distribution Beau is scared by Ari Aster reached a PTA of over $80,000 in April. Wes Anderson’s Asteroid city by Focus earned more than $100,000 in four theaters in June.

The director of the horror comedy satire on the privileges of the British upper class has set up a family estate called Saltburn Promising young woman, premiering in Telluride, followed by the opening gala of the BFI’s London Film Festival, Fantastic Fest and Beyond Fest. With Jacob Elordi as a charming aristocrat and Barry Keogh as his classmate and erotic follower at Oxford University.

Campaign highlights include an extensive word-of-mouth program targeting colleges, influencers, non-SAG/AFTRA talent, premieres in NYC and LA, and Salt burns Style dinner and karaoke for influencers and press. The film also opened in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand with an estimated $1.3 million in 726 theaters and a worldwide gross of $1.6 million.

Renewal: A24s Dream scenario by Kristoffer Borgli was successfully expanded to 25 screens, earning $275,514 with a PSA of $11,000 and a cue of $609,000. The comedy starring Nicolas Cage received some of the best reviews of the actor’s career. Production will continue to expand over the Thanksgiving holiday before a nationwide hiatus on Dec. 1 to attract the distributor’s dedicated young following and many Cage fans.

A24s Priscilla is now Sofia Coppola’s most successful release since lost in translation, and who passed by her Marie AntoinetteTotal weekend gross of $2.3 million on 1,802 screens. It is at No. 9 this weekend and has earned nearly $17 million.

And Stop making sense, the remastered version of Jonathan Demme’s legendary 1984 Talking Heads concert film, earned $14,000 on 24 screens, or more than $5 million. The restoration, which debuted at TIFF and opened soon after, has now made more money than it did during its entire initial release. The total at the time was $4.95 million and the original ran for 41 weeks from October 19, 1984. A24’s young demo meant that the majority of viewers saw the film in theaters for the first time.

“Jonathan Demme captured the joy we had on stage 40 years ago and it was an incredible experience to share it with the audience again.” We are so proud of this milestone and it was extremely meaningful for us, Stop Introducing Making Sense to a whole new audience,” the legendary band said in a statement to Deadline.

Other new openings: Leaves that have fallen by Mubi grossed over $50,000 on two screens in New York for a cool PTA of $25.3K – making it the highest opening and pro-screen average of famed director Aki Kaurismäki’s career. The film will be released in Los Angeles on Wednesday and in San Francisco on Friday, November 24 before a wider release in December.

IFC Films document The disappearance of Shere Hite Revenue was estimated at $17,000, also from two screens for a $17,000 PSA.