‘Pain And Glory’ Debuts Strong, ‘Lucy In The Sky’ Struggles, ‘Judy’ Hits High Note With Expansion – Specialty Box Office

UPDATED with adjusted and additional grosses. In its first week out, Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory opened with confidence in New York and Los Angeles with $152,636. This should come as no surprise, as it is a formula for an Almodovar release that continues to work for all parties involved. The drama, which follows a film director reflecting on his life choices as he reconciles his past with his present, marks the eighth collaboration between Almodovar and Antonio Banderas, as well as the 12th collaboration between Sony Pictures Classics and auteur’s production company El Deseo.

The box office debut for Pain and Glory surpasses Almodovar’s previous film, Julieta, which netted $64,044 on its opening weekend. This strong debut builds a solid foundation for SPC to position it for awards season contention — as if it wouldn’t be in the first place. The film received rave reviews after its Cannes premiere, and Banderas won for Best Actor, while Alberto Iglesias took Best Soundtrack. It is the Spanish entry for Best International Feature Film for this year’s Academy Awards, and is currently sitting pretty at a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film will continue its roll out next week to San Francisco, Chicago and Washington DC. From there, SPC will expand it to eight to 10 more cities, and by week 4, the film will play in the top 100 cities nationwide. At this point, Pain and Glory has everything working in its favor.

Meanwhile, Fox Searchlight’s Lucy in the Sky had a little trouble with its lift-off on opening weekend. The film, starring Natalie Portman as a US astronaut going through a transcendental life change after returning from a mission to space, opened in 37 theaters on the lower end to an estimated $55,000. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Noah Hawley, and perhaps his visual style and the film’s transcendent narrative were too conceptual to bring in audiences.

Also, with Ad Astra in theaters at the same time, interested audiences may have been split on watching movies that focus on space-centered reflections on the human condition. Despite lukewarm reviews and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 27%, Fox Searchlight will still forge ahead and expand in markets across North America in the next two weeks. Perhaps the appeal of Portman and an all-star cast that includes Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens, Colman Domingo and Ellen Burstyn might give the visual space drama a boost.

Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment’s Judy went from last week’s 461 screens to a staggering 1,458 runs in 202 markets. Currently sitting at an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score and coming off of a $2.9 Million opening weekend, the Judy Garland biopic starring Renee Zellweger continues to go over the rainbow as it took in an estimated $4,445,635 this weekend, bringing its cume to $8,904,078 and keeping it at number 7 in the top 10 films of the weekend. This is up 52% from last week’s gross. If it continues its momentum, the film will hit the mid-teens and, without a doubt, remain in the awards season conversation.

Making a very impressive debut is War from Yash Raj Films. The Hindi-language action pic which follows an Indian soldier who sets out to kill his former mentor who has gone rogue, is directed by Siddharth Anand and stars Indian superstars Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. The film opened in India on October 2, earning an estimated $7.5 million (converted from 53.5 million in Indian currency) to set the record for the highest-opening day collection for a Bollywood film in the country. Stateside, the film had 305 runs in 129 markets, bringing in $1,607,627 on the weekend — a number so impressive that it is looking to land at number 9 when it comes to the top 10 movies of the weekend.

Also knocking on the door of the specialty box office is the Indian Telugu-language epic Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, which had 290 runs in 115 markets, netting a strong domestic opening with an estimated $842,410. The film, starring celebrated Indian actor Chiranjeevi, is based on the life of freedom fighter Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy. The action pic is vying to crack the top 10 movies of the weekend and is inching close to edging out Universal’s Good Boys.

SPC’s expansion of its documentary Where’s My Cohn? had an expansion in the third week, going from 12 screens to 26, taking in a noteworthy $79,777 and bringing its cume to $222,174. That continues the distributor’s impressive performance of recent docus, including Maiden, which currently is at $3,129,581, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, as well as David Crosby: Remember My Name, which has a domestic total of $697,833.

This week, we watched The Peanut Butter Falcon continue to soar. The drama, which is now only in 623 theaters, is still performing fairly well, taking in an estimated weekend gross of $495,251, bringing its cume to $18,993,180. It is on pace to net $20 million at the domestic box office

NEW RELEASES

Asuran (Independent Indian) – Week 1 [105 Theaters] – Weekend $193,511, Average $1,843, Cume $206,000

Celebration: Yves Saint Laurent (Playtime) – Week 1 [1 Theater] Weekend $7,904, Average $7,904

The Climbers (Well Go USA) – Week 1 [100 Theaters] – Weekend $162,125, Average $1,621

Lucy in the Sky  (Fox Searchlight) – Week 1 [37 Theaters]  Weekend $55,000, Average $1,500

My People, My Country  (CMC Films) – Week 1 [68 theaters], Weekend $876,001, Average $12,882, Cume $1,553,517

Pain and Glory (Sony Pictures Classics) – Week 1 [4 Screens], Weekend $152,636, Average $38,159, Cume $215,491

Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (Snowflake Cinema) – Week 1 [299 Theaters] – Weekend $842,410, Average $2,817, Cume $842,410

War (Yash Raj Films) – Week 1 [305 Theaters] – Weekend $1,607,627, Average $5,271, Cume $2,114,917

Wrinkles the Clown (Magnolia Pictures) – Week 1 [21 Screens] – Weekend $8,248, Average $393, Cume $8,248

RETURNING/SECOND WEEKEND

Judy (Roadside Attractions) – Week 2 [1,458 Screens] Weekend $4,445,635, Average $3,049, Cume $8,904,078

Nothing To Lose 2 (Nada A Perder 2) (Swen Releasing) – Week 2 [55 Theaters], Weekend $137,537, Average $2,501, Cume $983,000

Cold Case Hammarskjold Week (Magnolia Pictures) – Week 8 [2 Screens] Weekend $1,231, Average: $616, Cume $103,073

Fantastic Fungi (Area23a) – Week 3 [3 Theaters] Weeked $17,690, Average $5,897, Cume $79,068