‘Thelma’ Blasts Off, ‘Kinds Of Kindness’ Rocks Year’s Best Limited Opening In Big Indie Weekend – Specialty Box Office
deadline.comThe indie box office roared to life this weekend as Thelma from Magnolia Pictures saw a hefty $2.2 million on 1,280 screens and Searchlight Pictures’ Kinds of Kindness booked a stellar $70k per screen average at five theaters in LA and NY for $350k — the year’s highest per screen average and best overall limited opening. Thelma is Magnolia’s widest release and the question of whether a broad audience would turn out for a film with a 93-year-old star is a resounding yes.
It’s poignant, funny and June Squibb is so good, but this wasn’t by any means a slam dunk. Magnolia felt it was intergenerational and the audience would be as well.
Squibb plays a feisty grandma, Parker Posey her uptight daughter, and Fred Hechinger the affectionate slacker grandson. The distributor said a number of top runs are at Alamo Drafthouse theaters, indicating a younger crowd.
But the matinees, which skew older, are solid too. It’s screened for enthusiastic Letterboxd and AAPR auds alike. It played well in NY/LA and markets from Boston to Phoenix to Raleigh-Durham, and it will likely over-index midweek as older theatergoers continue to turn out.
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