Specialty Box Office: 'Boyhood' Blasts Off To Summer's Best Limited Debut (UPDATED)

Audiences flocked to Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” this weekend, giving the specialty market a much needed shot in the arm. With astounding reviews and months of anticipation following festival screenings at Sundance, Berlin and SXSW, the 12 years in the making film did not disappoint. Full report below:

The Debuts:

Debut Winner of the Weekend: “Boyhood,” obviously. Grossing a stellar $359,000 from just 5 theaters (and with a 164 minute

running time, no less), “Boyhood” found a per-theater-average of $71,800,

the highest of the summer and the second highest of 2014, after “The

Grand Budapest Hotel” (which holds the all-time record for a live action

film). It was also a record for Linklater, topping last summer’s

“Before Midnight,” which averaged $49,383 per its 5 theaters.

“We

are thrilled with the opening numbers for ‘Boyhood’ this weekend,” said

IFC Films’ SVP Sales and Distribution Mark Boxer. “The opening

numbers have surpassed our highest expectations for the weekend, as

audiences flocked to theatres for the critically acclaimed film.”

Boxer

said the film had multiple sell outs from all theatres in New York and

Los Angeles. It also played equally to an older and younger

demographic.



“Boyhood” was a shot over 12 years, following the

evolution of a family (played by Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette,

Ethan Hawke and Lorelei Linklater) over that period. It represents an

investment from IFC Films, a division of AMC Networks, over that same

period. The company had recently financed Linklater’s “Waking Life” and

“Tape” when Linklater and producer John Sloss approached IFC Films head Jonathan Sehring about

financing the “12 year project.” He in turn went to his boss, Josh

Sapan, head of AMC Networks, who he had worked for almost 30 years, who

also was into the idea.



“Back in 2002, we thought Rick’s idea

was an extraordinary notion and we believed him to be a great

filmmaker,” said Sehring and Sapan. “Putting our creative and

commercial fates in the hands of people who are brilliant has proven to

be a terrific strategy for the company and we couldn’t’ be happier to

have supported Rick’s creative vision. The result is a film for the

ages and we can’t wait to bring ‘Boyhood’ to the rest of the country in

the weeks to come.”

The film will expand to 10 markets next weekend.

This Weekend’s Debuts: (ranked in order of per-theater-average)

1. Boyhood (IFC Films)

Week: 1

Weekend Gross: $359,000

Theaters: 5

Per-Theater-Average: $71,800

Total Gross: $359,000

Criticwire Average: A

2. Land Ho (Sony Pictures Classics)

Week: 1

Weekend Gross: $37,811

Theaters: 4

Per-Theater-Average: $9,453

Total Gross: $37,811

Criticwire Average: B

3. Closed Curtain (Variance)

Week: 1

Weekend Gross: $8,500

Theaters: 1

Per-Theater-Average: $8,500

Total Gross: $8,500

Criticwire Average: A-

Head on over to the next page for holdover grosses, including “America,” “Begin Again” and “Snowpiercer”…

The Holdovers:

Holdover Winners of the Weekend (tie):

“America” Though our friends over at The Playlist questioned whether it was worst political documentary of all time,

Lionsgate found many Americans flocking to Dinesh D’Souza’s “America”

in its third weekend. Placing 12th on the overall box office chart, the

right wing doc — a follow-up of sorts to D’Souza and John Sullivan’s

hit conservative documentary “2016: Obama’s America” — grossed

$2,450,000 over the weekend, down just 11% from last weekend despite not

adding any screens. Though not numbers that put it on the same track

as “2016” (it went on to gross a pretty stunning $33.5 million), they

did take it to $8,268,000 so far, suggesting the $15 million mark is a

definite possibility.

“America loves America and I couldn’t be

more proud or happy about it,” said producer Gerald Molen. “We look

forward to another great week at the box office as Americans continue to

discover this beautiful film.”

“Begin Again.” The

Weinstein Company continued to find great numbers from John Carney’s

“Begin Again,” which they have been sitting on

since Toronto in what was obviously a smart move. Starring Keira

Knightley, Mark

Ruffalo and Adam Livine, the musical romance grossed $2,935,000 from 939

theaters to place 9th overall. Its $3,126 per-theater-average was the

fourth highest of the top 10 films, after the studio likes of “Rise of

the Planet of the Apes,” “Transformers” and “Tammy.”

Notable Milestones:

“Chef”

crossed the $24 million mark — only the second specialty release of

2014 to do so after “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” The Jon Favreau comedy

managed to rise in grosses week to week (by 1.2%) despite losing 115

theaters. That’s extremely impressive, and suggests “Chef” might have

the goods to hit the $30 million mark in the coming weeks.

crossed the $24 million mark — only the second specialty release of 2014 to do so after “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” The Jon Favreau comedy managed to rise in grosses week to week (by 1.2%) despite losing 115 theaters. That’s extremely impressive, and suggests “Chef” might have the goods to hit the $30 million mark in the coming weeks. “America” soared past $8 million in its third weekend — it’s already the highest grossing documentary of 2014, as noted above.

“Begin Again” hit $5 million in weekend #3.

“Ida” hit $3 million, a very impressive number for a foreign language film.

“Snowpiercer” crossed the $2 million mark, impressively while also being the #1 film on iTunes (read more about its VOD story here).

The Holdover Top 10: (ranked in order of per-theater-average)

1. Code Black (Long Shot)

Week: 4

Weekend Gross: $19,800

Theaters: 6 (up from 1)

Per-Theater-Average: $3,300

Total Gross: $75,400

Criticwire Average: A-

2. Begin Again (The Weinstein Company)

Week: 3

Weekend Gross: $2,935,000

Theaters: 939 (up from 175)

Per-Theater-Average: $7,520

Total Gross: $5,286,000

Criticwire Average: B

3. Le Chef (Cohen Media Group)

Week: 4

Weekend Gross: $32,100

Theaters: 12 (down from 18)

Per-Theater-Average: $2,675

Total Gross: $171,000

Criticwire Average: N/A

4. Yves Saint Laurent (The Weinstein Company)

Week: 3

Weekend Gross: $34,900

Theaters: 14 (up from 10)

Per-Theater-Average: $2,493

Total Gross: $163,300

Criticwire Average: C+

5. The Breakup Guru (China Lion)

Week: 3

Weekend Gross: $14,500

Theaters: 6 (down from 10)

Per-Theater-Average: $2,417

Total Gross: $183,800

Criticwire Average: N/A

6. A Summer’s Tale (Big Wolrd)

Week: 4

Weekend Gross: $13,800

Theaters: 6 (up from 4)

Per-Theater-Average: $2,3000

Total Gross: $79,400

Criticwire Average: N/A

7. America (Lionsgate)

Week: 3

Weekend Gross: $2,450,000

Theaters: 1,105 (even)

Per-Theater-Average: $2,217

Total Gross: $8,268,000

Criticwire Average: C-

8. Snowpiercer (RADiUS-TWC)

Week: 3

Weekend Gross: $676,863

Theaters: 356 (up from 250)

Per-Theater-Average: $1,901

Total Gross: $2,676,965

Criticwire Average: A-

9. Chef (Open Road Films)

Week: 10

Weekend Gross: $1,311,000

Theaters: 701 (down from 686)

Per-Theater-Average: $1,870

Total Gross: $24,127,000

Criticwire Average: B

10. Coherence (Oscilloscope)

Week: 4

Weekend Gross: $11,000

Theaters: 6 (up from 3)

Per-Theater-Average: $1,833

Total Gross: $54,200

Criticwire Average: B

11. Obvious Child (A24)

Week: 6

Weekend Gross: $239,000

Theaters: 134 (down from 202)

Per-Theater-Average: $1,784

Total Gross: $2,365,000

Criticwire Average: B+

12. Ida (Music Box)

Week: 11

Weekend Gross: $145,000

Theaters: 85 (down from 100)

Per-Theater-Average: $1,706

Total Gross: $3,117,000

Criticwire Average: A





Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.