The summer movie season officially wraps with Memorial Day Weekend and most of the oxygen has been taken up by rampaging robots, superheroes and raunchy comedies. Here at Brave New Hollywood we’re much more interested in the smaller films that nevertheless managed to find an audience despite limited resources and media buzz. Here’s a look at a handful of the winners at the box office on the art-house circuit this summer.
All numbers from Box Office Mojo. Many of these films are still in release, so their final tally will change.
THE SPECTACULAR NOW
This terrific coming-of-age drama earned widespread praise for the work of its two leads—Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) and Miles Teller (Rabbit Hole). Following a 2013 Sundance Film Festival premiere, it was released to a few dozen theaters earlier this month and has racked up a tidy $1.7 million (and counting) against a $2.5 million budget. It may not sound like much, but consider that most indie features come and go without a trace.
Hitting the magical million-dollar mark despite almost no advertising support is a significant achievement. Director James Ponsoldt has parlayed the film’s buzz into a high-profile and lucrative gig writing a screen adaptation of the smash Broadway revival of Pippin.
CLICK HERE for BNH’s past coverage of James Pondsoldt.
FRUITVALE STATION
This wrenching, finely wrought slice-of-life drama features Michael B. Jordan in a starmaking performance as the real-life Oscar Grant, who was killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer in 2009. This first feature-length film by Ryan Coogler won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, screened at the Cannes Film Festival and was picked up for release by The Weinstein Company. The events depicted in the film took on added poignance and resonance as it was released to theatres just as the country awaited a verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. It’s current box office tally is more than $15 million, a substantial success given its minuscule budget. Expect its take to grow as the autumn awards season progresses.
CLICK HERE for our previous coverage of Fruitvale Station.
FRANCES HA – With her blond bombshell good looks, Greta Gerwig has had to fight a dispiriting, if depressingly typical battle to be taken seriously by Hollywood suits. She teamed up with acclaimed filmmaker Noah Baumbach—for whom she starred in the Ben Stiller drama Greenberg—to write the script for Frances Ha, which gifted her with the juicy leading role of a free-spirited dancer whose life is upended in unusual ways. “If you don’t look carefully at Frances, you might think she’s just cutesy, when in fact, she’s terrified,” notes NPR. “And terrified, of course, is much more interesting.” Audiences have agreed. Despite a very limited release pattern, Frances Ha has earned just over $4 million at the box office.
20 FEET FROM STARDOM
Every year a few documentaries break out of the pack and manage to find an enthusiastic audience amid the clash and clamor mega-budget marketing campaigns. Filmmaker Morgan Neville‘s 20 Feet from Stardom explores the experience of background singers such as Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill, Darlene Love, Tata Vega and more; trust us, you may not know their names, but you’ve heard them sing. The doc played the 2013 Sundance festival and was picked up for release by RADiUS-TWC and The Weinstein Company. It was quietly released to theatres mid-June and has since earned more than $4.2 million—despite never playing more than a handful of screens, it keeps on chugging along. (And check out that 99-percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes!)
THE WAY, WAY BACK
Writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash shared an Academy Award with Alexander Payne for The Descendants, and both also work as actors—Rash, notably, is a cast member of the cult hit Community. They made their directorial debut with this $4.6-million-budgeted slice of life picture—another sweetly nostalgic, goofy coming-of-age drama—featuring Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb, Sam Rockwell and Liam James. Faxon and Rash were able to leverage their comedy credentials and industry connections to stir up some publicity for the film, which has raked in a sizable $18 million in less than two months.
What did you think of these films? Which smaller-budget feature or documentary caught your eye this summer?