Box Office Analysis: Small But Mighty! The Status of Indie Movies This Summer

Jon Favreaus film Chef has been one of the many indie movies this summer
to drum up big business

 It's actually been a pretty great summer for movies. 22 Jump Street was hilarious, Godzilla lived up to expectations and them some, and Dawn of The Planet of The Apes somehow improved on its predecessor to create one of the best movies in recent years. There's also been several movies debuting in art house cinemas that the major moviegoing public might not be aware of, but definitely deserve some recognition for their box office achievements. Without further ado, let's take a look at how the numerous smaller releases have done so far this summer.

Kicking off the summer moviegoing season (along with some small release called The Amazing Spider-Man 2) was Belle, a FOX Searchlight release that received mixed reviews from critics, but at least it did OK at the box office. It never went into wide release (came close though with 525 theaters), but Fox Searchlight still managed to get it across $10 million. I didn't care for the movie at all, but I do admire how Searchlight at least kept the movie around as good counter programming to bigger releases.

The biggest independent movie this summer has been, of all things, Chef. Coming out a week after Belle, it was one of the first movies released this summer, yet has managed to stick around for seven prosperous weeks in wide release. It's  actually the first time Open Road Films (the movies distributor) has done a platform release like this, but you wouldn't be able to tell due to the masterful way they've pulled off releasing this movie. It's made $24 million so fat, and I could easily see it making as much as $5 million more, making for one of the summers more impressive box office runs.

Several other high-profile indies opened at the end of May, including one of my favorite movies of the year so far, The Immigrant. The Weinstein Company dumped the critically raved movie, leaving it to struggle to hit $2 million, a sum Transformers: Age of Extinction quadrupled in it's midnight release. Night Moves and The Grand Seduction closed up May, with Moves making a pitiful $256,000, though The Grand Seduction at least got $2.5 million.

June started things off with a release from A24, one of the more reliable distributors in Hollywood. That release, Obvious Child, is one release I'm extremely disappointing I missed, especially after a pal of mine raved about it. It's managed $2.5 million so far, though I doubt any further expansion in theaters is coming, so there's likely to very little expansion in terms of financials. One week later, A24 also released The Rover, a movie they put out in two wide release only in it's second week of release. The big names leading it (Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson) meant it may have stood a chance, but it wound up flopping in wide release. It vanished immediately afterwards and only barely passed $1 million over the 4th of July weekend. That same week A24 went wide with The Rover, Sony Pictures Classics debuted the extremely divided critcally film Third Person, which stars Liam Neeson and James Franco. To my surprise, the movies done okay so far, though it didn't do so hot this past weekend in it's widest frame (227 theaters), so I doubt it'll have that large of a presence going forward.

Chris Evans looks good with a beard. That is all I have to say.

On June 27, The Weinstein Company released two films; Snowpiercer and Begin Again. Because of a feud Harvey Weinstein (the head of The Weinstein Company) had with the director of Snowpiercer, that movie was relegated to a smaller release and VOD treatment, which guaranteed it would never enter wide release (most heaters don't support releasing movies in theaters and on VOD simultaneously). This means Snowpiercer done's pretty good so far, getting $2.6 million, though it's already slipping enough at the box office to indicate it won't go too much further. Begin Again, an extremely lacking film, has done alright at the box office, making $5.2 million so far, which includes this past weekends haul of $2.9 million in its first frame in wide release. And as for Magnolia Pictures rave reviewed Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself, it'll be lucky to hit $200,000 at the box office, since, like Snowpiercer, it's also getting the VOD treatment, which severely limits the theaters it can play in.

Overall, good stuff financially, though I'm kind of disappointed in myself considering how many of these I haven't seen yet! The only one that's really broken out is Chef, though Belle, despite its middling quality, made $10 million, which is way higher than the likes of Night Moves. Begin Again should join Chef and Belle in that $10 million club, and it'll be interesting to see if any of the indie films coming out for the rest of the summer manage to hit that mark. Boyhood, which had the second best per-theater average of the year this weekend, might be able to, depending on IFC Films release plan for it. And I'd say Magic In The Moonlight, with Woody Allens name behind it as well as Collin Firth and Emma Stone in it, should go past $10 million with ease. Ah, how I love the box office. So much to look at in the present, and yet so much to look forward to!