‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ Crosses $20M & Puts Arthouses Back On The Rails As Daniels’ Pic Looks To Become 4th Highest For A24

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For a long time, it wasn’t uncommon for distribution bosses to throw shade on each other’s success, but in the case of A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, there’s nothing but glee emanating from Hollywood for the New York based indie studio’s success with the Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert martial arts fantasy movie.At a time when every studio executive around town is questioning what works on the big screen as the pandemic eases (outside of superhero movies), and specialty cinema slow to rebound, along comes Everything Everywhere All at Once to karate chop those doldrums away and clear $20.5M on a platform release.Yes, a platform release, you remember those?

With NYC and LA the last box office capitals to reopen in early 2021, and specialty cinema audiences skittish to return, most indie distributors sidestepped the pre-pandemic platform rollout which entails debuting in the two big box office capitals and gradually increasing a theatrical footprint, DMA market by DMA, off great reviews and fervent buzz.

Instead, most specialty distributors, including Searchlight and Focus Features, have largely opted to go wide with their arthouse fare in order to get the pics into their home ancillaries as soon as possible and make bank.Out of the gate, Everything Everywhere All at Once, after a wildly, explosive received world premiere as SXSW’s opener, debuted in ten theaters to $501K on March 25 for a $50K theater average, ranking as the best limited debut and theater average to date in 2022, and the second best opening theater average of the pandemic for a limited release after MGM/UAR’s Licorice Pizza ($86,2K).