Limited opening per screen averages remain challenged even as the studio wide release landscape surges, but there’s a promising new entrant this week in Friendship, the A24 comedy opening on six screens.
The directorial debut of writer-director Andrew DeYoung stars I Think You Should Leave comedian Tim Robinson in his first major on-screen appearance. Early screenings in New York and L.A. have sold out, along with thousands of hats reading ‘Male Friendship’, the latest merch to hit the distributor’s shopping vertical and sell out. The former SNL performer and writer’s cringey cult hit has had three seasons on Netflix.
Friendship, which premiered at SXSW, is at 92% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Deadline’s review calls it a hilarious and “anxiety-inducing dark bromance” where suburban dad Craig (Robinson) falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor (Paul Rudd), but Craig’s attempts to make an adult male friend threaten to ruin both of their lives.
Kate Mara and Jack Dylan Grazer also star in the ensemble cast with Conner O’Malley, Billy Bryk, Jon Glaser, Josh Segarra, Whitmer Thomas, Eric Rahill, and Carmen Christopher, among others.
Debuts at AMC Burbank, AMC The Grove, AMC Century City and Vista Theatre in 35MM in Los Angeles, and AMC Lincoln Square and Angelika Film Center in New York.
The top limited per screen average so far is 2025 is for the documentary Secret Mall Apartment, a surprise standout by Jeremy Workman and self-released by Wheelhouse Creative, that opened in late March to $40.5k at one exclusive engagement in Providence, RI and is still in theaters.
Moderate: Briarcliff Entertainment’s release of Juliet & Romeo opens at 1,350 locations in North America. Set in 1301, the story finds the star-crossed lovers turning the tides on the history Shakespeare based his own story on, to original pop music instead of iambic pentameter. Written and directed by: Timothy Scott Bogart. Starring: Clara Rugaard, Jamie Ward, Jason Isaacs, Rebel Wilson, Rupert Everett, Dan Fogler, Derek Jacobi, Rupert Graves, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Tayla Parx, Ledisi, Dennis Andres, Martina Ortiz Luis, Alex Grech & Max Parker.
Other limited releases: Sideshow/Janus Films opens its latest, Cannes-premiering Caught By The Tides from Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke starring Zhao Tao in New York at IFC Center and Film At Lincoln Center ahead of a national rollout. Features footage the director shot over 20 years, traversing all of his past films in an epic look at the romantic destiny of his perennial heroine, Qiaoqiao. The film spans two decades of a country in profound transformation with a new perspective into contemporary China and individual experience amid turbulent change.
The IFC Center is currently running a retrospective of Jia’s films. The Criterion Channel is also his features and short films and he appeared this week for screenings at L.A.’s American Cinematheque and Laemmle Theaters as well as at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Center to sold out audiences.
At 95% with RT critics. See Deadline review.
Jimmy In Saigon by Peter McDowell from Dark Star Pictures opens at the Laemmle NoHo, Laemmle Glendale and Lumiere Music Hall in L.A. A personal exploration into the mysterious death and radical life of Jimmy McDowell by the younger brother of the 24-year-old Vietnam veteran who died as a civilian in Saigon in the 1970s. Peter McDowell’s quest uncovers a hidden romance, new family ties and secrets surrounding Jimmy’s drug use and sexuality across Vietnam, France and the U.S.
Ada: My Mother The Architect debuts at Angelika Film Center in NYC. Adds the Laemmle LA May 16 with an expansion the following week. By Yael Melamede about her mother, Ada Karmi Melamede, one of the most accomplished female architects in the world who is little known outside her home country of Israel. A true pioneer who, like many successful working mothers of her time, was forced to make impossible choices, Ada’s work gave physical form to some of Israel’s key large scale projects, most notably in the acclaimed Supreme Court building in Jerusalem, the Open University, Ben Gurion airport, and numerous civic institutions around the country.
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