“Love & Friendship” tops summer season at specialty box office

PanARMENIAN.Net - With a diverse line-up from Love & Friendship and Cafe Society to Hillary’s America and Swiss Army Man, Specialty films made small gains overall this summer compared to last year’s hot-weather season, grossing more at the box office fewer titles, Deadline reports.

As a whole, summer Specialties grossed about $120 million through last weekend, while last year, the total through Labor Day weekend came to about $111 million. For the purposes of analyzing the Specialty box office, films falling in that category are those released by studio specialty labels such as Fox Searchlight or Sony Pictures Classics as well as established indie distributor such as an IFC Films or Magnolia Pictures in addition to the array of smaller and boutique companies. Additionally, there were a number of Bollywood/Indian releases stateside this year, including three summer bows landing in the top 20.

Through the end of August, 27 titles took in seven or eight figures in the Specialty box office, edging out last year’s 25. Last year, however, there were five films that broke eight figures vs. three as of the last week for 2016 (a fourth, Hell or High Water, could join the group once final numbers are tallied).

Figures for this summer round-up were provided by comScore. Some titles included here may have opened ahead of the traditional summer window (May through Labor Day weekend), but reflect the “date range” gross within the period. While most people in the industry might agree on what constitutes a summer studio release, some measure of subjectivity trails the Specialties.

“In a summer that was loaded with high profile major studio films that left many reviewers and movie-goers disappointed, the specialized film marketplace provided many a bright spot during this all-important movie-going season,” said Rentrak’s Paul Dergarabedian. “Films as diverse as Woody Allen’s Café Society, the sports-themed documentary Gleason, A24’s fantasy/sci-fi The Lobster, the totally original and innovative Swiss Army Man and, most recently, Lionsgate/CBS Films’ acclaimed crime drama Hell Or High Water delivered some of the most satisfying, critically revered and in many instances profitable movies of the May through Labor Day period.”

There were a number of co-releases this summer, including the season’s top box office release, Love & Friendship, which opened via Amazon and Roadside Attractions May 13. The Whit Stillman directed title starring Kate Beckinsale, Steven Fry, Xavier Samuel and Chloë Sevigny bowed in four theaters its debut weekend grossing $133,513 ($33,378 average), going on to cume over $13.9 million through last weekend.

Along with the summer’s highest-grossing film, Roadside Attractions also boasts the summer’s best total at the box office among Specialty distributors, a perch it enjoyed last year. The distributor had a date range gross of nearly $26.9 million from May through the final weekend in August. The July 1 debut Our Kind of Traitor, released with Lionsgate, placed second among Roadside’s summer roster at over $3.14 million, while on its heels is last weekend’s launch of Southside With You, now about $3M.

Each Roadside summer release grossed seven figures aside from Love & Friendship’s eight figures. The company’s summer total includes spring debut-holdover Hello, My Name is Doris starring Sally Field, which grossed over $1.4 million in theaters during early summer ($14.44 million overall). Last year, Roadside had a summer cume of nearly $30.8 million, lead by Mr. Holmes (over $16.83 million cume) and Love & Mercy ($12.5 million cume).