Smaller Films Hit April Doldrums – Specialty Box Office
deadline.comThis weekend was the first in some time without a specialty film in the top ten as wide releases ramp up from Civil War to Abigail and hang in theaters as per Kung Fu Panda 4 and Dune: Part Two — in weeks 7 and 8, respectively.
One distributor calls late April a bit of a dumping ground for indies – no judgement on the films but in the sense that there are a bunch of them and they can sometimes struggle to find audiences — calling this an anomalous weekend after a spring dotted with breakout titles.
IFC’s Late Night With The Devil ($9.7 million cume); A24’s Love Lives Bleeding ($7.8 million); Bleecker Street’s One Life ($4.5 million); Sony Pictures Classics’ Wicked Little Letters ($3.6 million) all did great and indies overall are taking bigger swings – with Civil War (A24) one of the biggest.
Comscore’s April sked shows a flood of limited releases in theaters before the start of the blockbuster summer movie season, which kicks off with The Fall Guy on May 3. “The home stretch of April this year is as expected a rather quiet corridor for sheer box office revenue, but a crowded one for limited releases,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, noting another 18 limited release titles set for next weekend.
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