As part of a new recurring feature, IndieWire will each week exclusively share a box office chart via Comscore (soon to be Rentrak) looking at the top 10 releases in specialized release, presented here in full with some added commentary.
After Neon released director Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love” to become a modest documentary box office hit, rising indie distributor 1-2 Special is taking out her follow-up, “Time and Water,” and is hoping to find that same level of specialized box office success, if not better.
And from just a single screen in its opening weekend, “Time and Water” is off to a good start. The film made $8,048 from just one New York theater before it expands slightly to Los Angeles and San Francisco on June 5. That single-screen gross was good enough to lead all specialized films on IndieWire’s exclusive chart, via data from Comscore, in terms of per-screen-average. It also cracked into the Top 10 of our new weekend chart at #8, which tracks specialized releases and other platform openings.
The “Time and Water” opening is actually a higher PSA than “Fire of Love” from 2022, which opened on just three screens and made $22,416 with a PSA of $7,472. That film topped out at $1.12 million domestic and $1.69 million worldwide, so “Time and Water” should be eyeing a similar outcome. And keep in mind, Dosa’s film is a ruminative and poetic love letter to a glacier, so literally and figuratively super slow moving is the perfect rollout for a film like this.
Leading the week was Black Bear’s “Tuner,” which after opening on just four screens in its first weekend now expanded to 452, which is within this chart’s threshold. The film made $1.72 million for a domestic cumulative haul of $1.87 thus far, good enough for a $3,819 PSA. 1-2 Special also had another film at #2, “Silent Friend,” now in its fourth week in theaters. After another $30,957 this weekend, Ildikó Enyedi’s ode to a tree starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leá Seydoux has made $307,142. Some of the other openings this week on the specialized end included Kino Lorber’s “The Currents” and Film Movement’s “Renoir.”
Check out Comscore’s full Top 10 Specialized Chart for the weekend of May 29 to May 31 below.
IndieWire’s criteria for inclusion on the Specialized Chart looks at independent and mini-major distributors with films that at their widest release at any point are below 500 screens, excluding event cinema, re-releases, and major Bollywood or Chinese North American releases.
Top 10 Specialized Releases 5/29-5/31 (all figures are domestic results courtesy of Comscore)
“Tuner” – $1.726M
Distributor: Black Bear
Week: 2
Screen Count: 452
Avg/Location: $3,819
Cumulative: $1.875M
“Silent Friend” – $30,957
Distributor: 1-2 Special
Week: 4
Screen Count: 57
Avg/Location: $543
Cumulative: $307,142
“Steal this Story, Please!” – $25,554
Distributor: Xceptional Communications
Week: 8
Locations: 20
Weekend Gross: $25,554
Avg/Location: $1,278
Cumulative: $508,251
“Pitfall” – $19,629
Distributor: Cineverse
Week: 1
Locations: 53
Avg/Location: $19,629
Cumulative: $19,629
“Zombeid” – $16,596
Distributor: Geo Films
Week: 1
Locations: 45
Avg/Location: $16,596
Domestic Cumulative: $16,596
“Blue Heron” – $13,468
Distributor: Janus Films
Week: 7
Locations: 30
Avg/Location: $449
Cumulative: $542,720
“Forge” – $11,477
Distributor: Utopia
Week: 3
Locations: 16
Avg/Location: $717
Cumulative: $56,964
“Time and Water” – $8,048
Distributor: 1-2 Special
Week: 1
Locations: 1
Avg/Location: $8,048
Domestic Cumulative: $8,048
“The Currents” – $8,020
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Week: 1
Locations: 1
Avg/Location: $8,020
Cumulative: $10,163
“Renoir” – $6,252
Distributor: Film Movement
Week: 1
Locations: 1
Avg/Location: $6,252
Cumulative: $19,680