In Laman's Terms: What Have Been The Biggest Neon Movies At The Box Office?

Everyone knows about A24 in the modern cinema landscape. That label's become the de facto champ of modern arthouse studios. Heck, when I was at a Problemista press screening a few weeks back, I overheard the guy next to me recounting how he'd previously explained Problemista to a friend of his by saying "it's the new A24 movie." But also out there pumping new oddball movies into movie theaters (like this weekend's latest evil nuns horror movie Immaculate) is Neon. Technically founded in September 2015 (though it didn't have a name when it first began acquiring movies), Neon hit the ground running in April 2017 with the criminally underrated Colossal. Since then, the studios released the Best Picture Oscar winner Parasite and a bevy of other acclaimed movies, including superb 2023 movies like Anatomy of a Fall and The Royal Hotel.

As the seventh anniversary of Neon approaches in April, it's worth asking...what does Neon's box office track record look like? What are the biggest Neon films in history? Let's take a look at those questions! To me, my box office geeks! Let's get down to some nerdy analyzing! 

Because Box Office Mojo has been reduced to a shell of its former self, The-Numbers is the only accessible place to get concrete box office data on Neon's box office track record. The numbers we'll be looking at today come from this website and only concern the North American box office hauls of these movies. Here's a helpful screengrab of the 25 highest-grossing Neon films domestically:

Unsurprisingly, the two biggest Neon movies are also two of its biggest Oscar contenders. It's also worth mentioning that only two Neon features have ever cracked $20 million domestically. Only four have exceeded $10 million in North America. Breaking things down more intricately, it's fascinating how instrumental documentaries were to the early days of Neon. I just recently wrote for Collider how A24 has a poor track record with properly handling documentaries. The studio rarely produced or distributed such titles before November 2019. Even as their documentary output has ramped up, A24 has taken to dumping these titles onto streaming with no fanfare. Meanwhile, Neon's earliest hits were documentaries like The Biggest Little Farm, Amazing Grace, Three Identical Strangers, and Apollo 11. 

Five of the 14 biggest Neon titles domestically are documentaries, a statistic that encapsulates how integral such titles have been to this studio's box office track record. In 2018 and 2019, Neon bolstered its credibility by filling a void in the theatrical marketplace. Other arthouse studios (Fox Searchlight, A24, Annapurna, etc.) weren't releasing many documentaries period. Neon delivered these titles to theaters with solid marketing campaigns, catchy hooks that grabbed the attention of audiences, and slow-burn theatrical release rollouts that allowed word-of-mouth to develop. It's a shame Neon has largely abandoned documentaries since 2022 (though the studio has documentaries like Seeking Mavis Beacon and Orwell on the horizon). They gave these titles a major boost in their theatrical presence while documentaries gave Neon some of its biggest box office success stories.

A similar phenomenon is at play with Neon's solid track record with releasing foreign-language titles. Even beyond the obvious massive success of Parasite, 20% of Neon's top 20 films are foreign-language titles. Two of the studio's ten biggest films ever in North America aren't in the English language! Again, Neon found a domain other studios weren't dabbling in (pre-2022, A24 had minimal forays into foreign-language titles, save for the occasional Menasche, Minari, and Climax). In the process, they filled a void other studios were ignoring. Heck, the studio even got a bizarre foreign-language masterpiece like Titane to a $1.44 million domestic haul, a sum that outshines more accessible English-language titles from the Neon library like Eileen and Vox Lux. Anatomy of a Fall edging out Infinity Pool for the title of highest-grossing Neon film from 2023 (despite the former title never entering wide release) should be a sign: foreign-language films need to be Neon's bread-and-butter.

The highs have been high for Neon in its first seven years of existence...so what've been the lows? Mostly just stabs at trying more mainstream fare. Initially, Neon struggled to gain any kind of momentum for movies it opened immediately in wide release. Titles like Assassination Nation and The Beach Bum just wiped out immediately on opening weekend. The studio has also demonstrated some truly baffling release decisions for titles that could've been slamdunk crowdpleaser. The 2019 charmer Wild Rose, for instance, should've been that summer's Begin Again. Instead, Neon refused to expand it beyond 195 theaters, thus ensuring its box office run would be limited. This same studio also kept excellent titles like Clemency and Little Woods in bizarrely few theaters.

Even for English-language narrative titles it's giving a greater theatrical push to, Neon stumbles. Last year's How to Blow Up a Pipeline, for instance, was advertised as being "in theaters everywhere" April 14, 2023. On that day, it only expanded into 142 locations. It ended up going into 530 nationwide theaters the following weekend. Not only was that not accurate to its marketing campaign, but that placed Pipeline directly against the wide-release expansion of Beau is Afraid. No wonder Pipeline couldn't make more than $725,655 domestically! So far, the studio's foray into wide release horror movies (like It Lives Inside and Infinity Pool) has not yielded much in the way of big box office grosses nor widespread critical acclaim. Immaculate has been advertised heavily (Sydney Sweeney even mentioned it in her SNL monologue from a few weeks back) and is anchored by a very recognizable leading lady. Maybe it'll break Neon's streak of struggles to break into a marketplace A24 has cornered for modern moviegoers.

To its credit, though, the team at Neon has done well with launching certain English-language narrative titles. Colossal did a decent $3.19 million in April 2017, while Pig was one of the first arthouse hits in the wake of theaters shutting down in March 2020 thanks to its $3.18 million gross in July 2021. Luce did solid numbers back in August 2019 with a $2.01 million haul despite never playing in more than 235 locations. Most surprisingly, Spencer did a tad better than I remembered with a $7.08 million haul in November 2021, back when the arthouse sector was still getting its sea legs back. It's one of only eight Neon titles to clear $5 million domestically, which makes that gross extra solid.

Neon's box office history is unexpectedly reassuring in terms of what moviegoers will show up for. Neon made more money from Perfect Days, The Worst Person in the World, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire than its more mainstream-skewing genre titles like In the Earth and Assassination Nation. Moviegoers will show up for new challenging things. You just have to put them into theaters! Neon's biggest box office hits come from delivering titles that no other arthouse outfit (not even A24) would touch. When it comes to launching something like Ferrari or Infinity Pool (both of which could've come from any studio), things get a little thornier financially for the studio. If there is a major bright side for the company, it's that its recent slate of titles has been among its most lucrative movies ever. 

Perfect Days is set to narrowly exceed the $3.19 million domestic haul of Colossal in its North American run. That means six of the 17 biggest Neon movies ever have been released over the last 14 months (from January 2023 to March 2024). This also means the arthouse studio has delivered six $3+ million grossers over that same period of time. For comparison's sake, Neon only had three movies in all of 2022 scoring $3+ million domestic hauls. Even in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, Neon only had four $3+ million grossing movies. It's 100% true that this increase is largely because Neon is now doing more costly immediate wide releases for its movies. Neon is trying to become a bigger mainstream studio, hence why it ponied up cash to release the costly Ferrari domestically. Heck, pre-release tracking suggests a $4-5 million domestic bow for Immaculate, which would (after just three days of release) make it one of the most lucrative Neon titles ever. 

However, Neon's box office boost isn't just due to an increase in mainstream wide releases in the studio's output. Slow-burn performing arthouse titles like Perfect Days, Origin, and Anatomy of A Fall all scoring $3+ million domestic hauls between October 2023 and March 2024 suggest this studio is ramping up its box office prowess. Who knows, maybe Neon will score enough box office hits that I'll eventually overhear people at screenings saying "oh, I told my friends this is the new Neon movie"...