‘The Life Of Chuck’, ‘Dangerous Animals’

The box office has kicked into high great with a steady flow of films, studio and independent. It’s getting crowded and smaller distributors are hoping the rush will really and truly spill into indie and specialty fare. Signs are good with excellent numbers for Focus Features’ The Phoenician Scheme last weekend (the Wes Anderson film expands to 1,678 runs), for A24’s Friendship last month and Sony Pictures Classics Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.

All are solid counter-programming to big studio films. But screen-wise, “It’s always challenging when so much stuff is working,” said one distribution executive.

Now it is Neon’s turn to test the market. Fresh of its astonishing sixth consecutive Cannes Palme d’Or winner with Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, it’s out this weekend with TIFF People’s Choice Award-winner The Life Of Chuck from Mike Flanagan opening in limited release with 16 runs in 8 markets.

Based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King — one of the four in his 2020 novella If It Bleeds, the film stars Tom Hiddleston as Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz, who, as per the logline, “experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.” It’s 81% certified fresh with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Deadline’s review says the TIFF People’s Choice Award “is usually a bellwether to the Oscars, but this year the prize reflects rather more deep-seated global concerns among the voters than just the race to Best Picture. The Life of Chuck is, as might be expected from the Master of the Macabre, a story of human mortality presented as a strange, surrealist comedy … a kind of pop-culture version of Lars Von Trier’s 2011 end-of-the-world movie Melancholia. Its darkness might be an obstacle to immediate commercial success, but its underlying warmth and poignancy could well be its secret weapon on the way to cult longevity.”

The film stars Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak and Cody Flanagan as younger versions of Krantz, with Mark Hamill, Mia Sara and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Neon’s chief distribution officer Elissa Federoff said the film is seeing and should continue to enjoy sensational word of mouth, building awareness and fueling its expansion over the rest of the summer. “It’s amazing counterprogramming to what’s currently in theaters and typical studio fare, and truly a balm for the soul. People love it and are talking about it and want to share it with friends and family.”

The distributor is planning an expansion to 800-1,000 runs next weekend. Comps are tough for the unique story and its mediative, mystical quality but it recalls films like Perfect Days, Living, The Peanut Butter Falcon, The Whale and even The Banshees Of Inisherin.

Flanagan and cast have been actively supporting the film at sold-out screenings in NY and LA. And Neon created a unique giving campaign around it using Fandango and a partnerships with AMC as well that started last week. Those sites and the distributor’s landing page let you buy tickets to the film for someone else — similar to what faith-based Angel Studios does.

IFC Films opens Sean Byrne’s horror-thriller Dangerous Animals on 1,636 screens. Deadline’s review called the Cannes-premiering mashup “a deviously demented combination of shark and serial killer genre movies.” 

When Zephyr, a rebellious surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. Written by Nick Lepard, stars Hassie Harrison Jai Courtney and Josh Heuston. It’s 84% Certified Fresh with RT critics.

Vertical is out with comedy-horror I Don’t Understand You, written and directed by Brian Crano and David Joseph Craig, on 253 screens.  Stars Andrew Rannells and Nick Kroll as a couple embarking on a picture-perfect Italian vacation before their impending adoption, looking to reconnect before the new addition arrives But they find themselves lost in a foreign land amid a torrential downpour with no cell service, zero comprehension of the language, and escalating turmoil that could explode at any moment. Premiered at SXSW 2024, see Deadline Studio. Also stars Amanda Seyfried, Morgan Spector, Nunzia Schiano, Eleanora Romandini and Paolo Romano.

Produced by Joel Edgerton, Nash Edgerton, Kara Durrett, Jessamine Burgum, Jonathan Glickman.

GKIDS is releasing DAN DA DAN: Evil Eye on 1,080 screens. This is a feature-length program compiling content from the previous and upcoming seasons of popular anime series DAN DA DAN as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with directors Fuga Yamashiro and Abel Góngora. 

Utopia’s Pavements, which has grossed about $135k, is heading into a national expansion on 100 screens in week 5. The Venice-premiering satirical hybrid music doc/mockumentary has been on a roadshow across key markets. Actual archival footage and interviews alternate with a movie-within-a-movie that has actors playing band members (Joe Keery as Stephen Malkmus; Fred Hechinger as Bob Nastanovich; Natt Wolff as Scott Kannenberg) and Jason Schwartzman as Chris Lombardi, founder of the group’s label Matador Records.

Pavements is one of a handful of small indies recently with interesting, slow and highly curated rollouts that have worked from Bad Shabbos and Secret Mall Apartment to Hundreds of Beavers.

The Ritual from XYZ Films opens on 1,000+ screens. Written and directed by David Midell from a story by Midell and Enrico Natale. The film follows two priests — one questioning his faith (Dan Stevens) and one reckoning with a troubled past (Al Pacino), who must put aside their differences to save a possessed young woman through a difficult and dangerous series of exorcisms. Based on Emma Schmidt, an American woman whose case in 1928 remains the most thoroughly documented exorcism in American history.

Documentary The Last Twins from Abramorama, produced and directed by Perri Peltz and  Matthew O’neill and narrated by Liev Schreiber, opens at the Quad Cinema in NYC. Made in collaboration with Dr. Judith Richter, daughter of the film’s subject, Erno Spiegel, this is the never-before-told story of an unsung hero of the Holocaust who risked everything to save dozens of young twins from almost certain death at Auschwitz. Adds two screens in LA next week ahead of a national rollout — and is sticking to theaters and festivals only through March of next year.

Garland Jeffreys: The King Of In Between opens at the IFC in New York. Directed and produced by Jeffreys wife, Claire Jeffreys, it examines the fifty-year career of this genre-bending, biracial singer-songwriter.