Benh Zeitlin’s “Wendy” took the lead among indie films struggling to find footing for their limited release openings this weekend, with the grittier take on “Peter Pan” only grossing $30,000 from its four-screen New York/Los Angeles release for a $7,500 average.
It’s a far cry from Zeitlin’s Oscar-nominated “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” which had an opening average of $42,425 in the summer of 2012 and went on to gross $21 million worldwide. Starring Devin France as a girl who follows a reckless boy into a world where time is twisted, “Wendy” premiered at Sundance and received mixed reviews with a 40% Rotten Tomatoes score. It will expand to 10 more cities next weekend.
Sony Pictures Classics’ “Greed” opened this weekend to $28,496 from four screens for an average of $7,124. From the actor-director team of Steve Coogan and Michael Winterbottom, this satire of the fashion world and the ultra-rich has a 59% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The weakest platform opening was 101 Studios’ “Burden,” which won the audience award at Sundance in 2018. Despite that honor, the film starring Forest Whitaker as a pastor who takes in a reformed former Ku Klux Klan member only received a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score and $20,142 from five screens for a $4,028 average.
The box office was better for holdovers like Focus Features “Emma.,” which expanded to 97 screens this weekend and grossed $1.17 million for a total of $1.47 million. NEON’s “Parasite” is starting to wind down its theatrical run, but still took in $1.5 million this weekend to reach a total of $51.5 million, becoming the fourth non-English film to gross over $50 million in North America. Finally, NEON’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” added $730,000 this weekend to bring is total to $2.45 million.