Anthony Bourdain Doc ‘Roadrunner’ hits $ 1.9 million at specialty box office – deadline

Arthouse bounced higher this weekend as Morgan Neville’s Roadrunner: a film about Anthony Bourdain reached $ 1.9 million – the strongest specialty opening this year and the best yet for Neville (20 feet from fame, won’t you be my neighbor?) His documentary is No. 8 at the US box office.

Pig with Nicolas Cage reached No. 10. Both films had less than 1,000 broadcasts and excellent averages per cinema.

Road runner Features played in 927 locations for an average of $ 2,050 per screen and estimated cumulative through Sunday, making it the best opening specialty film – narrative or documentary – and the best opening doc of the year. ‘year.

Pig de Neon was on 552 screens for an estimated three-day cumulative total of $ 945,000 and an average catch per cinema of $ 1,712. “Pig have a good week-end. It’s a great result and we couldn’t be happier, ”said Neon. Director Michael Sarnoski’s well-commented debut feature stars Cage as a former Michelin-starred chef turned recluse truffle hunter. He lives alone in the Oregon wilderness, but must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved forage pig after he is kidnapped. Friday saw $ 377,000; Saturday, $ 333,000; and Sunday, $ 235,000. The total estimated catch for the film for the weekend is $ 945,000 with an average per screen of $ 1,712.

Roadrunner The accruals for Friday, Saturday and Sunday were $ 780,000, $ 650,000 and $ 470,000, respectively. The film grossed nearly $ 200,000 in Thursday previews, which went into gross Friday.

“It truly is a pleasure for all of us at Focus and a testament to the legacy that Bourdain has created,” said Focus President of Distribution Lisa Bunnell. “We hope it has a great run throughout the summer and a positive sign that we are getting back to normal for our business and our show partners.”

Exhibitors were eager to show the film given Bourdain’s large and loyal fan base. Focus marketed the film to morning and late night television, CNN (a producer), with a pop-up restaurant that drew over 1,000 fans and cards of Bourdain’s favorite recipes given to exhibitors to boost sales of tickets. The late charismatic chef of French bistro Les Halles in New York has turned a best-selling book, Kitchen Confidential, into a hugely popular and long-running series on Travel Channel and CNN that has taken him around the world, eating and philosopher. He tragically committed suicide in 2018 at the age of 61.

The film will then air on CNN and air on HBO Max.

The last opening of a comparable documentary took place two years ago, before the pandemic, in August 2019 with the boy band BTS doc Bring the soul, which grossed $ 2.296 million in 873 theaters.

New York, unsurprisingly, in the lead Roadrunner Friday – run by The Angelika Film Center – with over 11% of total gross in 60 theaters. LA was solid second at 10.5% in 67 theaters with San Francisco third at 5% of gross.

Some 82% of North American theaters are open. Space Jam: a new legacy broke a new three-day post-pandemic family record in opening alongside a growing mix of studio rates, including debuts as Escape Game: Tournament of Champions and the remainders of Black Widow, F9 and The purge forever at Boss Baby: Family business and A quiet place: part II – accelerate a trend towards reopening which is spreading in arthouse. The specialty has been slow to recover, industry bosses say, but the recovery is.

Elsewhere in specialty:

A24 Zola, over Weekend 3 on 533 screens, has a three-day estimated total of $ 270,000 and cumulative gross of $ 4.275 million.

Projector Summer of Soul (… Or, when the revolution couldn’t be televised) Also on Weekend 3, in 275 theaters, grossed around $ 182,000 for the three days, amounting to just under $ 1.9 million ($ 1.866 million to be exact) and is claiming 2 million of dollars.

Sony Pictures Classics’ i carry you with me In Weekend 4, he won $ 26,752 on 111 screens (up from 57 last week) for $ 134,762. The distributor 12 powerful orphans, over Weekend 6, hit $ 94,800 on 140 screens (last week 185) for over $ 3.3 million.

Queen bees, de Gravitas, over Weekend 6, had estimated $ 49,000 over three days at 123 locations (up from 398) for a gross total of $ 1.776 million.