Jean-Luc Godard’s “Goodbye To Language” tops specialty box office

PanARMENIAN.Net - It wasn’t a memorable weekend in the Specialty box office, except for the strong performance by the first 3D film of auteur French director Jean-Luc Godard, now 84 and nearly six decades after he shook up world cinema with Breathless, a landmark of the Nouvelle Vague, Deadline said.

In other specialty box-office news, Birdman, starring Michael Keaton, continued to fly high in its third week, but few newcomers showed much gusto out the gate.

After a rather momentous festival run, Godard’s Goodbye To Language bowed in 2 New York theaters, and took the weekend’s biggest PTA, grossing $27K, averaging $13,500 after a debut last spring at Cannes. The film easily sold out screenings at the New York Film Festival, with crowds left outside just ahead of the theatrical release. Despite all that crowd interest, Goodbye is having a hard time finding exhibitors in markets where the terms ‘art film’ and ‘3D’ don’t often go together.

“Finding ‘3D art screens’ has been a challenge for us in many major US markets,” distributor Kino Lorber said in a release. “We’re ecstatic and hoping that these ‘socko’ numbers will catch the attention of our exhibition partners –particularly at Landmark and Pacific Theaters – and lead to additional 3D playtime in major markets, especially LA, in the coming weeks.”

Despite the exhibitor complications, Goodbye To Language has already surpassed Godard’s most recent previous project, Film Socialisme, which cumed about $33K in the U.S in its 2011 release.

Fox Searchlight’s Birdman flew into an additional 181 theaters, continuing what looks like a stratospheric theatrical run in its third weekend.

The film by Alejandro González Iñárritu grossed $2.51 million, averaging $10,866 (second-highest among reporting specialty titles this week). Searchlight said the feature had a 143 percent jump Saturday night over Friday.

“We are very pleased with this weekend’s outcome as it has shown us that the film has the ability to crossover to commercial audiences,” said Searchlight in a release. “We have always known that the cinephile crowd would come out for the film but we have questioned how easily we would be able to broaden out to a mainstream audience. We have now answered that question and it seems that there is no apparent ceiling as far as our success in upscale multiplexes is concerned.”