‘Monos’ Debuts Mild, ‘Ms. Purple’ Grows In Second Weekend, ‘Brittany’ Continues Its Marathon – Specialty Box Office

UPDATED with adjusted weekend grosses. The specialty box office was fairly quiet this weekend, with a handful of releases and holdovers that were, at best, mild.

Neon and Participant Media‘s Monos hit theaters in New York and Los Angeles on a total of five screens. Directed by Alejandro Landes, the Red Dawn-esque dramatic thriller starring Julianne Nicholson made its debut at Sundance and won the World Cinema Dramatic Jury Prize. With that accolade under its belt, it raked in an estimated $43,285 for its opening weekend, averaging $8,657. In New York, the film opened at the Angelika and Landmark 57, while in L.A., it debuted at the Arclight Hollywood and Landmark. Even so, we hear that of all the theaters, the Angelika brought in a decent audience, while the others didn’t fare very well.

Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones in ‘The Sound of Silence’
IFC Films
The Michael Tyburski-directed drama The Sound Of Silence from IFC Films, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones, debuted quietly in two theaters to an estimated weekend $6,148. It seemed like this weekend was ideal to release films about sound, as Peabody Award-winning documentarian Irene Taylor Brodsky releases her latest film, Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements, at Abramorama. The docu, which chronicles the history of her deaf parents and follows her deaf son learning to play Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” premiered in New York at Landmark 57 to the tune of $5,424. The film will expand September 20 to L.A. at the Laemmle Royal in hopes to pad that gross.

Well Go USA‘s thriller Freaks from Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky also debuted this weekend, hoping to scare up audiences on Friday the 13th. The film has a stacked cast, with Emile Hirsch and Bruce Dern as banner names. That said, it opened in 111 theaters in 51 markets. It netted an estimated $164,000 with an average of $1,479 per screen. The film may have had star wattage, but it wasn’t necessarily enough to bring in audiences. We hear that although it had mild numbers at the Empire in New York and the Arclight Hollywood in L.A., it didn’t make a dent in other markets.

Emile Hirsch in ‘Freaks’
Well Go USA
After debuting at the NuArt in L.A. and becoming the best opening in over a year and second-best opening in five years for the theater, Oscilloscope‘s Ms. Purple from filmmaker Justin Chon expanded to three theaters and earned an estimated $13,650, with a per-theater average of $3,413. This brought its cume to $31,878. The sibling drama will add surely add to its bank, as it is slated to open in the top 10 markets the weekend of September 20.

Meanwhile, Greenwich Enterainment/1091’s documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of my Voice, sang into 220 theaters after debuting last week in seven theaters. We are hearing that the Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman feature docu about the music icon ran in 76 markets and saw a decent run in a handful of markets. It came in at #1 in 75% of its locations where it opened, including New York’s The Landmark at 57 West, L.A.’s Landmark and San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center Cinema. It also did well in DC, Minneapolis and Tucson. As for other markets, it didn’t hit that high of a note.

Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz’s The Peanut Butter Falcon continues to impress in its third weekend of wide release, sitting at #9 in the top 10 films of the week. The Huck Finn-esque adventure starring Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson and newcomer Zack Gottsagen is now in its sixth weekend run and has reached $15,043,769 on 1,490 screens. In the coming week, the Roadside Attractions pic will become the #2 most-successful limited release film of the year, surpassing Late Night ($15.5M), and could possibly surpass fellow indie hit and buzzworthy awards season title The Farewell.

Jillian Bell in ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’
Amazon Studios
Speaking of the A24 dramedy directed by Lulu Wang and starring the juggernaut that is Awkwafina, the film is now in its 10th week and has a cume of $17,145,682 on 229 screens. It should be noted that on September 8, A24 released a Mandarin version of the film in select theaters nationwide, including Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Seattle and others.

Amazon’s Brittany Runs A Marathon expanded to 757 runs in 142 markets this weekend. Now in its fourth weekend, it took in an estimated $1,550,339 with a $2,048 average with a cume of $3,805,310. We are hearing that the Paul Downs Colaizzo-directed pic is playing best in the big cities on the coast. We have learned that, according to PostTrak polling, 71% rated it as very good or excellent. Good, right? Well, not exactly. For a slow roll-out, that number needs to be higher in order to be a buzzy, word-of-mouth title. That said, Amazon picked this up at Sundance for a pretty penny ($14M) and it plans to expand even further for its widest release on September 20. We’ll just have to wait and see if the expansion will rope in and resonate with more audiences.

NEW RELEASES

Cracked Up (Abramorama) – Week 1 [1 Screen], Weekend $5,310, Average $5,310

Desolation Center (Matson Films) – Week 1 [3 Screens], Weekend $5,356, Average $1,785

Freaks (Well Go USA) – Week 1 [111 Theaters], Weekend $164,000, Average $1,479

Monos (Neon/Participant Media) – Week 1 [5 Screens], Weekend $43,285, Average $8,657

Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements (Abramorama) – Week 1 [1 Screen], Weekend $5,424, Average $5,424

One Cut of the Dead (Variance Films) – Week 1 [2 Screens], Weekend $6,200, Average $3,100

The Sound of Silence (IFC Films) – Week 1 [2 Theaters], Weekend $6,148, Average $3,074

RETURNING/SECOND WEEKEND

Chhichhore (FIP) – Week 2 [195 screens], Weekend $449,000, Average $2,302, Cume $1,348,000

Edie (Music Box Films) Week 2 [9 Theaters], Weekend $10,797, Average $1,200, Cume $26,446

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Greenwich Enterainment/1091) – Week 2 [220 Theaters], Weekend $686,370, Average $3,120, Cume $841,613

Mr. Klein (Restored) (Rialto Pictures) – Week 2 [1 Theater], Weekend $19,000, Average $19,000, Cume $35,000

Ms. Purple (Oscilloscope Laboratories) – Week 2 [4 Screens] Weekend $13,650, Average $3,413, Cume $31,878

HOLDOVERS/THIRD+ WEEKEND

After The Wedding (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 6 [96 Screens] Weekend $56,105, Average $584, Cume $1,504,748

Aquarela (Sony Pictures Classics) – Week 5 [20 screens] Weekend $14,034, Average $702, Cume $207,004

Before You Know It (1091) – Week 3 [28 Theaters] Weekend $15,892, Average $568, Cume $108,177

Brittany Runs a Marathon (Amazon Studios) – Week 4 [757 Theaters] Weekend $1,550,339, Average $2,048, Cume $3,805,310

David Crosby: Remember My Name (Sony Pictures Classics) – Week 9 [67 screens] Weekend 26,522, Average $396, Cume $646,254

The Farewell (A24) – Week 10 [229 Screens] Weekend $263,975, Average $1,153, Cume $17,145,682

Fiddler: A Miracle Of Miracles (Roadside Attractions/Samuel Goldwyn Films) – Week 4 [77 Theaters] Weekend $70,451, Average $915, Cume $413,382

Honeyland (Neon) – Week 8 [46 Screens] Weekend $32,088, Average $698, Cume $532,181

Luce (Neon) – Week 7 [115 Screens] Weekend $71,000, Average $617, Cume $1,853,182

Maiden (Sony Pictures Classics) – Week 12 [70 Screens] Weekend $44,001, Average $629, Cume $3,052,928

Midsommar (A24) – Week 11 [50 Screens] Weekend $38,113, Average $762, Cume $27,370,090

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (Abramorama) – Week 4 [24 Screens] Weekend $55,507, Average $2,312, Cume $242,686

Official Secrets (IFC Films) – Week 4 [330 Theaters] Weekend $571,560, Average $1,732, Cume $957,071

The Peanut Butter Falcon (Roadside Attractions/Armory Films) – Week 6 [1,490 Theaters] Weekend: $1,921,127, Average $1,289, Cume: $15,043,769

Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (Magnolia Pictures) – Week 3 [24 Screens] Weekend $65,327, Average $2,722
Cume $284,700

Tod@s Caen (Lionsgate) – Week 3 [211 Theaters], Weekend $174,000, Average $822, Cume $2,412,000

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