‘The Brutalist’ Nails Limited Expansion As A24 Turns Brady Corbet’s Epic Into Event Cinema – Specialty Box Office

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A24’s The Brutalist busted out in limited expansion this weekend with close to $1.39 million on just 68 screens, a $20.4k per screen average, excellent for a period film with a three hour and 35-minute run time about a Hungarian architect in 1950s Doylestown, Pa.

It won multiple Golden Globes — for Best Picture – Drama, Best Actor for Adrien Brody and Best Director — last Sunday. This is another fine indie weekend as Hard Truths by iconic filmmaker Mike Leigh saw $165k at 22 theaters, a strong opening, despite severe weather in the south and the ongoing fire crisis in LA. The Last Showgirl rounded out the top 10 on its debut weekend.

Holdovers Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown and Babygirl are at nos. 4, 6 and 8 respectively. Indie distributors wondering if arthouses that gravitated to wide-release studios films since Covid may want to rethink. The Brutalist: Another example of A24’s creative thinking included opening weekend perks at select screenings.

Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, the nation’s top performer for the film on Saturday — and probably today as well given that its 700+ seat auditorium is pretty much mostly sold out– offered moviegoers at “premium” 70mm showtimes an exclusive poster commemorating the presentation, format and run of engagement at the Music Box and a limited-edition brochure and postcard celebrating the life and work of lead character, the fictional Lazlo Toth, played by Brody.