Emma Seligman’s Bottoms is taking a look at an estimated weekend gross of $516k on ten screens with a doable main $51,625 per-theater common for the raunchy, teenage highschool woman tackle Fight Club.
That’s a win for MGM, its Orion Pictures label and Brownstone Productions, producers on the modestly budgeted ($11.3 million) movie written by Seligman and Rachel Sennott. The movie skews younger and was backed by edgy advertising — substances, though by no means surefire, behind the largest post-Covid indie movie breakouts.
Sunday’s remaining tally will decide if Bottoms nabs the best per-screen common post-pandemic on ten or extra screens. A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Opened to $50,131 at 10 places in March of 2022. National Cinema Day, unspooling at this time, is a wildcard with attendance up however field workplace {dollars} restricted by $4 tickets and seats obtainable.
Bottoms is enjoying New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin at Alamo Drafthouse cinemas, arthouses together with the Angelika and a handful of multiplexes. The Alamo runs are a partnership launched after the movie’s buzzy premiere at SXSW. “We fit their profile,” stated Kevin Wilson, head of distribution for MGM/Amazon Studios. He sees robust opening numbers at AMC Lincoln Square, Burbank and the Grove boding effectively because the movie expands to 700 screens subsequent week.
Bottoms stars Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as PJ and Josie, queer highschool pals who begin a struggle membership as a method to lose their virginities to cheerleaders. Their weird plan works. The struggle membership positive factors traction and shortly the most well-liked ladies in class are beating one another up within the identify of self-defense. But the duo discover themselves in over their heads and in want of a manner out earlier than their plan is uncovered.
Sennott starred in Seligman’s 2020 indie hit Shiva Baby. Edebiri broke out in The Bear.
“It’s so nice to see these little movies, especially post-pandemic, do well,” stated Wilson. “It feels like the marketplace is coming back.” There have been vivid spots for positive, he stated, however now “you have multiple titles on screens doing business” — from extensive releases to smaller indies.
He gave a shoutout to producer and Orion President Alana Mayo for Bottoms, which at present charges a 95% with critics and 100% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Exit polls are above the norm, with ladies underneath 25 particularly enthusiastic. The opening night time viewers for this twist on a highschool coming of age drama was younger, with 86% between 18-34, and 59% LGBTQ+.
Female auds (57%) have pushed essentially the most social mentions, and social dialog is indexing highest with LGBTQ+, Millennial, and Gen Z moviegoers. Bottoms has generated over 175K home social conversations and 45M+ international video views so far, MGM stated. The studio’s theatrical advertising, PR and distribution crew sought to match the movie’s irreverent tone with digital activations beginning with a red-band trailer that rapidly generated over 25 million natural views, a media marketing campaign that blended status editorial with digital, lgbtq+ and faculty press outreach, and aggressive screening program that began throughout Pride month and included a promotion with Letterbox’d referred to as Fight For Your City (requested followers on the positioning, in three rounds, which of six cities they’d like for early screenings of Bottoms). The marketing campaign included inventive social content material on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter in addition to sturdy GIF/Stickers hub pages on Giphy and Tenor.
Other specialty openings: Golda from Bleecker Street, by Guy Nativ and starring Helen Mirren as the long-lasting Israeli prime minister, is taking a look at an estimated $1.72 million opening on 883 screens, for a weekend PSA of $1,951. Breakdown: Friday – $782,519; Saturday – $522,677; Sunday – $418,141.
Briarcliff Releasing will see an estimated $2.5+ million for Dennis Quaid-starrer The Hill, by Jeff Celentano, in 1,570 places for a PTA of $1,602. The true story of baseball phenomenon Rickey Hill, who overcomes his bodily disabilities and pastor father’s opposition to satisfy his dream of enjoying skilled baseball, is not any. 9 on the home field workplace as per Comscore. The Hill grossed an estimated $830,000 on Saturday, up 3% from $805k Friday (which included $110k from Thursday previews). The distributor is projecting National Cinema Day will present a 6% bump at this time.
Music Box Films’ Fremont grossed $16k from restricted showtimes at 4 unbiased theaters within the San Francisco Bay space. None of the 4 — the Roxie in San Francisco, the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, the Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley, and the CineLounge in Fremont — are conventional websites for high-end platform openings, the distributor famous. Fremont, which debuted at Sundance, grossed almost $10k on the Roxie from solely 4 showtimes. The movie by Babak Jalali opens in New York (IFC Center) and Los Angeles (Nuart) subsequent weekend, with a nationwide enlargement to comply with on Sept. 8.
Greenwich Entertainment doc The Elephant 6 Recording Co. debuted in 5 theaters together with a number of bought out exhibits at NYC’s IFC Center, and restricted screenings in LA, New Orleans, Portland and Dallas, for a weekend gross of $10k and a cume of $14k. Additional regional restricted engagements start subsequent week together with TVOD and DVD.