Everybody knows that it’s a bad time for independent film. At the same time, though, it’s been a pretty good summer for independent film.
Financing is problematic, companies are folding and it’s hard to get low-budget, non-studio productions made, much less distributed – but a fair number of the ones that have been distributed have done surprisingly well at the box office these past few months.
This has been a spring and summer where, despite the doom and gloom, one film, “The Kids Are All Right,” had the highest per-screen average ever for a specialty summer release.
A time when a feature made for $15,000 and seemingly destined for a video-only release, “Breaking Upwards,” earned its production cost back in a single weekend in a single theater.
A seven-month period when four documentaries topped the $2 million mark, one fewer than in all of 2009.
The achievements are modest, compared to the stakes for which films like “The Expendables” and “Inception” are playing. But as a number of studio films have crashed and burned, and as moviegoers complain the studios are serving up little but superheroes and remakes, a string of specialty releases – true counterprogramming this time of year – have held their own.
The biggest good news involves Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right.” The Focus Features release has the benefit of stars Annette Bening and Julianne Moore, along with mostly rave reviews and a healthy bit of Oscar buzz.
In its first weekend, it made almost $500,000 in only seven theaters, for a $70,000-plus per-screen average that is the best of the year and one of the 30 best ever. In its second weekend, it increased its number of theaters and doubled its box office take, while its per-screen average dropped significantly but remained strong.
The film is now approaching the $10 million mark, and could easily double that and nudge into "(500) Days of Summer" territory before it's through.
Coming up strong is the Swedish film "The Girl Who Played With Fire," which has passed the $5 million mark in the wake of its predecessor, the $12 million-grossing “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” Both are riding the international popularity of the books from which they came.
On the other hand, Anchor Bay’s “City Island” (with Andy Garcia, above) has been a true sleeper hit, quietly earning more than $6.5 million simply by hanging in steadily week after week.
Fox Searchlight’s “Cyrus,” meanwhile, is a rare indie that cracked the Top 10, something it did in its fourth weekend. The Duplass brothers emerged from the commercially negligible “mumblecore” genre to close in on $7 million mark, close to their film’s reported production cost but a reasonable U.S. return for a movie that appears to have legs.
(By contrast, the higher-profile Ben Stiller film “Greenberg,” which had its own ties to mumblecore via actress Greta Gerwig, topped out at $4.2 million after two months in theaters.)
Other indie high points: Magnolia’s Tilda Swinton film “I Am Love” has quietly ridden a low-key campaign past $3 million, while Roadside Attractions’ “Winter’s Bone” – an indie, like “The Kids Are All Right,” that may well figure in the awards picture – has topped $4 million.
Sony Pictures Classics, which aims for solid midlevel successes, certainly has one in “The Secret in Their Eyes” (left), which has topped $6 million on the heels of its foreign-language Oscar win over more celebrated contenders “The White Ribbon” and “A Prophet.” SPC’s “Please Give,” meanwhile, is approaching $4 million, while “Micmacs” and “Mother and Child” are around the $1 million mark.
And "Orlando," Sony's re-release of the 1992 Sally Potter film, has done remarkable, perhaps buoyed by Swinton's well-received performance in "I Am Love."
But Sony's most notable summer release may turn out to be the Robert Duvall vehicle "Get Low," which secured a hefty per-screen average in its opening weekend and has drawn awards buzz and strong reviews.
And on the documentary side, four films – “Oceans,” “Babies,” “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” and “Exit Through the Gift Shop” – have topped the $2 million mark, a level that only five films passed all of last year.
(Granted, “Oceans” is a Disneynature film with a $20 million take that falls short of the $32 million earned by the company’s “Earth” last year, while the $7.5 million for “Babies” is about half of what “Capitalism: A Love Story” made in 2009.)
Certainly, it’s easy to find indies that haven’t done particularly well, from Taylor Hackford’s “Love Ranch” to the tiny per-screen averages currently being shown by the likes of “Great Directors” and “Spring Fever.”
And the summer — or, for that matter, the year — hasn't seen a true indie breakout hit to approach the likes of "Precious" or "Little Miss Sunshine." But those films are rare, and as indieWIRE pointed out in its midyear report, the first six months of 2010 provided three times as many indies topping $5 million (six, as opposed to two last year) and almost twice as many topping $2 million (15, as opposed to eight).
At a time when things are rough for independent film, it’s encouraging that the box office is an arena where, for now, things are all right.
Top 10 independent films in current release:
1. “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”(Music Box Films) $12.4 million
2. "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features) $9.6 million
3. "Cyrus" (Fox Searchlight) $6.9 million
4. “City Island”(Anchor Bay) $6.6 million
5. “The Secret in Their Eyes”(Sony Pictures Classics) $6.2 million
6. "Orlando" (Sony Pictures Classics) $5.3 million
7. "The Girl Who Played with Fire" (Music Box Films) $5.2 million
8. “Solitary Man”(Anchor Bay) $4.1 million
9. "Winter's Bone" (Roadside Attractions) $4 million
10. “Please Give”(Sony Pictures Classics) $3.9 million
