Specialty Box Office: ‘Obvious Child’ a Hit For A24; ‘Chef’ Hits $10 Million

Here’s a rundown of the specialty box office this weekend, which saw Gillian Robespierre’s “Obvious Child” show signs of another hit for A24, while Open Road went wide with “Chef” and saw it become the 2nd highest grossing indie of 2014, after “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (which notably is still trucking along itself).

The Debuts:

Debut Winner of the Weekend: “Obvious Child.” Making good on its Sundance promise, A24 brought Gillian Robespierre’s “abortion rom com”
to three theaters this weekend and saw very promising numbers.  Reviews were exceptional — particularly for
Jenny Slate’s star-making lead performance — which clearly aided in bringing sell out audiences to the film and helping it average a pretty stellar $27,000. That’s the best per-theater-average for an indie so far this summer, and bodes well as A24 rolls the film out over the next three weeks, heading into a nationwide release on June 27th.

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This Weekend’s Debuts:

1. Obvious Child (A24)
Week: 1
Weekend Gross: $81,000
Theaters: 3
Per-Theater-Average: $27,000
Total Gross: $81,000
Criticwire Average: B+

2. Citizen Koch (Variance)
Week: 1
Weekend Gross: $10,200
Theaters: 1
Per-Theater-Average: $10,200
Total Gross: $10,200
Criticwire Average: B

3. 2 Autumns, 3 Winters   (Film Movement)
Week: 1
Weekend Gross: $2,000
Theaters: 1
Per-Theater-Average: $2,000
Total Gross: $2,000
Criticwire Average: A

4. Ping Pong Summer (Gravitas)
Week: 1
Weekend Gross: $31,900
Theaters: 17
Per-Theater-Average: $1,876
Total Gross: $31,900
Criticwire Average: B+

Head over to the next page for a rundown of holdover grosses…

The Holdovers:

Holdover Winners of the Weekend: “Chef.” In its sixth weekend, Open Road brought the Jon Favreau comedy to 1,298 screens and saw it become the first big breakout specialty film of the summer.  Placing 9th overall against films on twice its screens, “Chef” grossed $2,600,000,   averaging a strong $2,003 in the process. That brought its total to $10,362,000 with more where that came from in the coming week or two.

Notable Milestones:

• As noted, “Chef” crossed the $10 million mark — only the second specialty release of 2014 to do so after “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
• “The Lunchbox” managed $4 million after 15 weeks in release. It is the highest grossing foreign language film of the year.
• “Ida” hit the $1 million with the chances of doubling that seeming very strong at this point.
• “Words and Pictures” hit $500,000 after a solid third weekend.

The Holdover Top 10:

1. Words and Pictures (Roadside Attractions)
Week: 3
Weekend Gross: $294,350
Theaters: 98 (up from 13)
Per-Theater-Average: $3,004
Total Gross: $548,414
Criticwire Average: C+

2. Ida (Music Box)
Week: 6
Weekend Gross: $227,000
Theaters: 87 (up from 58)
Per-Theater-Average: $2,609
Total Gross: $1,287,000
Criticwire Average: A

3. Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia (IFC Films)
Week: 3
Weekend Gross: $16,100
Theaters: 7 (up from 2)
Per-Theater-Average: $2,300
Total Gross: $54,700
Criticwire Average: B+

4. The Dance of Reality (ABKCO Films)
Week: 3
Weekend Gross: $30,128
Theaters: 15 (up from 6)
Per-Theater-Average: $2,009
Total Gross: $128,637
Criticwire Average: B

5. Chef (Open Road Films)
Week: 5
Weekend Gross: $2,600,000
Theaters: 1,298 (up from 624)
Per-Theater-Average: $2,003
Total Gross: $10,361,695
Criticwire Average: B

6. Night Moves (Cinedigm)
Week: 1
Weekend Gross: $24,100
Theaters: 2
Per-Theater-Average: $12,050
Total Gross: $24,100
Criticwire Average: B

7. Belle (Fox Searchlight)
Week: 6
Weekend Gross: $765,000
Theaters: 476 (down from 525)
Per-Theater-Average: $2,438
Total Gross: $6,209,933
Criticwire Average: B

8. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox Searchlight)
Week: 14
Weekend Gross: $240,000
Theaters: 185 (down from 249)
Per-Theater-Average: $1,297
Total Gross: $57,774,000
Criticwire Average: A-

9. Chinese Puzzle (Cohen Media Group)
Week: 4
Weekend Gross: $31,700
Theaters: 27 (down from 29)
Per-Theater-Average: $1,174
Total Gross: $230,200
Criticwire Average: B+

10. The Lunchbox (Sony Pictures Classics)
Week: 15
Weekend Gross: $52,600
Theaters: 46 (down from 54)
Per-Theater-Average: $1,143
Total Gross: $4,052,700
Criticwire Average: B+