Sundance doc Kusama – Infinity rolled out in two locations Friday, easily taking the top spot among the weekend's new Specialty films. The Magnolia Pictures feature about Japanese artist Yayoi Kusaa grossed $30,400, averaging $15,200. The total gave it the highest per theater average among all releases as of Sunday…

Weekend debuts are minimal as the film industry's gravity heads north to the Toronto International Film Festival, though some roll outs hope to fill a narrow vacuum of new specialties in the marketplace ahead of the coming fall onslaught. Sundance premiere, Hal, about Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hal Ashby boasts an…

Here comes Amy Scott's Hal, one of eight, count 'em, eight feature documentaries scheduled to open in theaters on Sept. 14. This one is about the (sometimes) brilliantly off-center film director Hal Ashby, who died at the age of 59 in 1988. Already seen at Sundance, it will make its commercial debut, as documentaries…

Hal Ashby directing a string of acclaimed movies in the 1970s, scoring an Oscar nom for Coming Home, but he’s largely overshadowed by the filmmaking kings of the Me Decade. Now a new documentary turns the lens on the iconoclast who also helmed such enduring pics as Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo and Being T…

Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to Hal, the Amy Scott documentary about iconoclast director Hal Ashby that had its world premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival. A theatrical release later this year is planned.

Ashby, whose work especially in the 1970s included Harold & Maude, The…

The Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary competition is the launch pad for Hal, Amy Scott’s feature-length docu about iconoclast director Hal Ashby. Cinetic Media is aboard to sell the title at the fest, and the film premieres Monday in Park City. Sundance kicks off Thursday and runs through January 28.

As befits …