Indie Film’s Breakout Year: Good Movies Gain Traction Amid Strikes & Superhero Fatigue
01.01.2024 - 00:49
/ deadline.com
The indie box office busted out this year, hitting is stride post-Covid with an eclectic string of releases that made a splash artistically and financially.
Independents and mini-majors saw $1.47 billion in box office receipts as of Dec. 27, up from $811.7 million in 2022, according to Comscore.
Focus Features had the biggest limited opening of the year with Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City (gross $28 million). Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers with Paul Giamatti ($17.9 million) drew older demos, picky, yes, but finally comfortable back in theaters. Ditto for MGM’s Air, a film Amazon originally slated to go directly to Prime Video, that hit a core 45+ audience and a $52 million cume.
A24’s Past Lives, the much-nominated first film by Celine Song, made $10.9 million and its low-budget horror Talk to Me cleared $48 million. Emma Seligman’s raunchy teen comedy Bottoms from MGM topped $12 million. A fall bonanza heading into awards season with Anatomy Of A Fall, Origin and Ferrari from Neon; A24’s Priscilla, Dream Scenario and The Iron Claw; Saltburn, American Fiction and The Boys In The Boat from MGM; Poor Things and All Of Us Strangers from Searchlight Pictures and Waitress: The Musical from Bleeker Street and, as per above, The Holdovers. A constellation of indie distributors from Sony Pictures Classics to Magnolia Pictures, IFC Films, Utopia, Oscilloscope, Kino Lorber, Roadside Attractions, Greenwich Entertainment, IFC Films, Sideshow/Janus, Music Box, Picturehouse, Crunchyroll, GKids, Well Go USA, Blue Fox, Mubi and dozens more had successful releases.
Sound of Freedom from Angel Studios made $184 million.
Godzilla Minus One from Toho was a sleeper hit that punched above its weight at $44 million.
And Radical from