The Box Office Sees a Solid Indie Weekend
Entertainment Attorney
It’s always fantastic to see a strong box office weekend. When smaller and independent movies get their share of the on-screen limelight, that’s even more to celebrate. With a strong breakout release and some carry-overs showing real traction with audiences, we have our entertainment attorney Los Angeles, Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., to share the great news.
It’s Never Over for Jeff Buckley
While the docu-drama category has had a renaissance of sorts in recent years, it’s still rare to see feature-length documentaries make any kind of impact at the box office. However, this week we see It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley. While it may be modest takings when compared to some of the bigger-ticket launches we also saw (namely, Weapons and Freakier Friday), it’s the underlying trend that is most exciting, showing that moviegoer appetite is still strong across the board, and that’s the best news of all. The film took an impressive $400k over 120 theaters, with several sold-out screenings to boost its profile. Magnolia Pictures also had limited edition posters on offer to lure in fans, which was generally well-received. It saw its strongest grosses in Orlando, Houston, and Sacramento, and social media word of mouth seems to imply many repeat viewers.
Neon Stays on Top
At the top of the indie ranks, we still have Neon’s Together, which brought in another $2.6M over 2,225 screens in its second week. This brings its cume to $17.2M, which was enough to keep it at the No. 9 spot on the general box office lists as well.
We also saw Angel Studio’s Sketch debut at $2.5M over 2,157 screens, for a cume of $5M and the No. 10 spot. Boys Go To Jupiter, a first on the theatrical release front for indie newcomer Cartuna, managed a healthy $15K, and the best opening weekend for an animated film in 2025. The film first premiered at this year’s TIFF and was a selection at the Tribeca Festival. The film is set for a wider release to 15 cities over the next week and will continue expansion into early fall.
My Mother’s Wedding, meanwhile, saw a $432K weekend debut over just 402 screens. While it played its best in more upscale markets, it also saw strong success in other non-coastal markets, again suggesting that the average moviegoer is hungry for a variety of films and genres to shape their theatrical experience.
Last, but certainly not least, we have Roadside Attraction’s Strange Harvest to kick off the spooky season. The film opened with $214K at 770 locations. And those with fond nostalgia of the early days of the internet will be thrilled to know that CatVideoFest 2025, perhaps the oddest entry in this season’s theatrical release list, saw a further $143K over just 78 screens, taking its cume to a respectable $680K. The rise of these “movie alternates” at the box office, which has been trending since the concert-film release from Taylor Swift in late 2023, is another interesting twist in the road to full box office recovery.
It is encouraging to see theaters exploring these “social event” releases as another part of their arsenal, helping to bring in further fans and new storytelling genres through the door. In turn, this helps to attract audiences who may otherwise not consider cinemas among their entertainment choices, and offers theater-goers a great chance to relax and enjoy the cinema as a social gathering spot, not just a place to see movies.
All in all, it was wonderful to see these smaller budget films also thrive at the box office, and we hope to see the trend continue.