‘Saltburn’ in First Limited Openings of the Year, Aces Expansion ‘The Holdovers,’ ‘Stop Making Sense’ Surpasses Original 1984 Broadcast – Specialty Box Office

In a super specialty weekend, Salt burn had a large opening on seven screens and Leftovers a cool $2.7 million in a major third week expansion that puts it at number 1.6 at the domestic box office. Actors are once again promoting their films and independent/original films continue to benefit from fewer studio releases in the wake of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The specialty market has had a roller coaster ride with a box office that is difficult to predict – despite excellent reviews. So it’s nice to see Leftovers – Alexander Payne’s comedy-drama starring Paul Giamatti as a grumpy teacher at a New England prep school circa 1970, appealing to audiences, especially older demos who were hard to win over.

The photo of Focus Features launched on October 27 on six screens, grew to 64 in the second week, 778 last weekend and 1,478 on Friday in a traditional platform rollout that took a big turn in the calendar when the SAG-AFTRA strike ended on November 9. Universal-owned Focus failed to do so. I do not have a provisional agreement for Leftovers. But since then, the actors have hit the market to promote the film aggressively. A Taste screening at the London Hotel in Los Angeles on Friday hosted by Taylor Hackford featured Payne, Giamatti, Da’Vine stars Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa, writer David Hemingson and editor Kevin Tent. The theater was packed with AMPAS, guild members and others for a Q&A session moderated by Hackford. Payne and Giamatti’s second outing since Next to in 2004 will extend until Thanksgiving. Set during Christmas break, with Giamatti’s professor babysitting a struggling student, it has a holiday vibe that bodes well for continued business.

Focus Distribution President Lisa Bunnell describes the story as one that people can relate to and: “You walk out of the theater feeling good. » Giamatti is really working on it now. “He defends it so much. It’s a wonderful role for him and he’s the best defender in the film. The slow rollout was previously planned, but “the timing worked out well for us.”

The audience was 51 percent male, 49 percent female and “it’s definitely a 45-plus crowd,” Bunnell said. He has a strong word of mouth and he performs very well in classic arthouse films. “I think you’re encouraging older people to come back to the movies. They are more comfortable returning to the cinema. But I also think it’s the film – set in the 70s, in a different era where films were more human and more accessible.

Amazon Studios/MGM Studios and MRC had a weekend to be proud of with Emerald Fennell’s offbeat film Salt burn grossing $315.5K from seven theaters for a per-screen average of $45,000, putting the film in rare territory for the year ahead of most openings of similar size. Recent versions have seen Dream scenario with a PSA of $35.9k across six screens. Priscilla at six o’clock and Leftovers out of four, both brought in $33,000. Salt burn is closer to that of MGM Downwhich opened in ten theaters at $46,000 each.

A24 Past lives by Céline Song was released in June in four theaters for a price of $58,000. The distribution Beau is scared by Ari Aster reached a PTA of over $80,000 in April. That of Wes Anderson Asteroid City from Focus grossed over $100,000 in four theaters in June.

The horror comedy and satire of British upper-class privilege features a family estate called Saltburn, run by the manager of Promising young woman, premiered at Telluride, followed by the BFI London Film Festival Opening Gala, Fantastic Fest and Beyond Fest. Stars Jacob Elordi as a charming aristocrat and Barry Keogh as his Oxford University classmate and erotic hanger-on.

Campaign highlights included a strong word-of-mouth screening program for colleges, influencers, non-SAG/AFTRA talent, premieres in New York and Los Angeles and Salt burn Style dinner and Karaoke for influencers and the press. The film also debuted in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand with an estimated $1.3 million from 726 screens and a worldwide cume of $1.6 million.

Expansion: A24 Dream scenario by Kristoffer Borgli successfully extended to 25 screens for an amount of $275,514 for a PSA of $11,000 and a sum of $609,000. The comedy starring Nicolas Cage has generated some of the best reviews of the actor’s career. It will continue to expand through the Thanksgiving holiday before a national hiatus on 12/1, looking to attract the distributor’s younger loyalists and Cage’s many fans.

A24 Priscilla is now Sofia Coppola’s most successful release since Lost in translation, and who passed it Marie AntoinetteThe total gross is $2.3 million for a weekend on 1,802 screens. It’s at number. 9 this weekend and has a haul of nearly $17 million.

And Stop making sense, the remastered version of Jonathan Demme’s iconic 1984 Talking Heads concert film, grossed $14,000 from 24 screens for a gross of more than $5 million. The restoration, which was first shown at TIFF and opened shortly after, has now made more money than when it was initially released. The total then stood at $4.95 million, and the original ran for 41 weeks, beginning October 19, 1984. A24’s young demo meant the majority of audiences were seeing it 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 that with the audience again. We are very proud of this milestone, and introducing Stop Making Sense to a whole new audience has been especially meaningful for us,” the iconic band said in a statement to Deadline.

Other new openings: Dead leaves by Mubi raked in over $50,000 on two screens in New York for a nice PTA of $25.3k – making it the biggest opening and per-screen average of acclaimed director Aki Kaurismäki’s career. The film opens in Los Angeles on Wednesday and San Francisco on Friday, November 24 before expanding more widely throughout December.

Document IFC Films The disappearance of Shere Hite grossed about $17,000 also on two screens for a PSA of $17,000.