The Indie Month That Was

By Tom Houseman

May 5, 2010

You simply cannot imagine how much this dude is going to come to regret copping this particular feel

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La Mission: A very personal film from the Bratt brothers (Peter wrote and directed, Benjamin stars), it’s done a decent job of raking in a few bucks, and is still trying to expand. So far, it’s expanded its reach to 27 theaters and has made $359,469, which isn’t much, but is better than nothing for a film that’s had virtually no marketing.

The Secret in Their Eyes: Every year the Foreign Language Film Oscar winner manages to make in a couple million dollars, and this Argentinean crime drama looks like it won’t be the exception to that rule. Still, it will be on the low side of the trend, closer to The Barbarian Invasions and Departures than Life is Beautiful and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It will probably continue to expand throughout May, and so far it has made just over $1 million. We’ll check back next month to see how it ends up doing.

Exit Through The Gift Shop: I’ve already talked some about this wonderful documentary, so I’ll keep the gushing brief. Banksy’s directorial debut is still expanding, managing to make the jump from micro to limited release as it cracked 11 theaters. How far it will go depends on word-of-mouth, so go see it and then tell your friends. So far it’s made about $400,000, a pretty solid amount for a documentary not made by Michael Moore.

The City Of Your Final Destination: This is James Ivory’s second film since the death of his long-time producing partner Ismael Merchant. Not surprisingly, it’s a sweeping costume drama, but it doesn’t look like it’ll do anything close to Remains of the Day money. It’s struggling to expand, jumping up to 22 theaters its second weekend and making $69,000. However, against a budget of $8.3 million, this Anthony Hopkins starrer is going to lose money.

Micro Indies (<10 Theaters):



Breaking Upwards: This tiny film got a decent amount of press for its minuscule budget, and used that attention to its benefit. It did solid business for a couple of weekends, platforming on three theaters before the bottom dropped out and it dropped 70% in a week. Not including the money its made through being available On Demand on Comcast, the IFC Film has made just over $60,000. Before you laugh at that low a number, consider the fact that this is four times the film’s budget. How many Hollywood movies can say that?




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Don McKay: A quirky looking neo-noir, this one was really hoping to capitalize on the name power of its star, Thomas Haden Church. It turns out that the Sandman can only do so much, though. This one opened on seven theaters and made $13,722, but its second weekend it plummeted, dropping all but one of its theaters and making a paltry $750. Hopefully DVD release will salvage this one.

The Greatest: What happened to this weepy drama? Does anybody know? Does anybody care? Word on the Internet is that it opened in eight theaters to an opening weekend of $33,616, but from there its scent vanished, and no information is available on what happened to it from there. Still, unless this Pierce Brosnan/Susan Sarandon/Carey Mulligan tear jerker suddenly started raking it in, there’s no way it will come close to approaching its $6 million budget.

Everyone Else: I take full credit for whatever success this movie has found. Since I wrote an article imploring everyone to see it, it has doubled its theater count and tripled its opening weekend gross. So far this German drama has made $35,508, not too shabby

No One Knows About Persian Cats: It’s hard to tell exactly how much this Iranian film has made. As it’s an IFC release, it’s also available On Demand to anyone with Comcast (which is how I saw it). IFC doesn’t release information about that money, so the only thing we know is that so far this musical docudrama has made $23,705 on two theaters.

Paper Man: Considering the pedigree of the cast, I’m surprised this comedy didn’t open to more than three theaters. The Jeff Daniels/Ryan Reynolds quirk-fest opened to $8,613. It’s clearly hoping to expand and make a little more dough, especially considering how much of a draw Reynolds has been of late, but without any advertising backing it up that’s going to be a tricky proposition.


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