‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye,’ ‘The Card Counter’ Revive Indie

After a summer season with solely sporadic main releases, the specialty field workplace can lastly start its post-shutdown rebuild in earnest as Searchlight launched its biopic “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” this weekend and Focus’ “The Card Counter” entered its second weekend.

“The Eyes of Tammy Faye” was launched on 450 screens this weekend and grossed $675,000 for a per theater common of $1,500 and a spot within the Top 10 on the weekend charts. It’s an honest end result on condition that older audiences, the cornerstone of specialty movies, have been extra reluctant to return to theaters than youthful audiences.

Directed by Michael Showalter, the movie stars Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield as Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, who rose to prominence as America’s hottest televangelist couple. But within the ’80s, Faye discovered herself in the course of a turbulent media frenzy between her husband’s conviction on fraud fees and her personal daring determination to interrupt from evangelical orthodoxy by supporting LGBT people and HIV/AIDS sufferers.

Critics had been lukewarm on “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” however praised Chastain’s efficiency, giving the movie a 65% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Madison Wells Media and Freckle Films produced the biopic.

“The Card Counter,” in the meantime, added $440,000 in its second weekend after a $1.03 million opening final weekend from 580 screens. Directed by Paul Schrader and starring Oscar Isaac and Tiffany Haddish, the movie has received over critics with an 85% Rotten Tomatoes rating however alienated audiences with a 43% RT rating.

Focus has additionally launched a brand new movie this weekend with “Blue Bayou,” which opened in 477 theaters and grossed $315,000 for a per theater common of $660. Directed by and starring Justin Chon with Alicia Vikander, the movie follows a Korean adoptee who discovers that he was by no means naturalized as a U.S. citizen and now faces deportation and separation from his household. The movie has a 73% critics RT rating and a 96% viewers rating.

In the case of all three movies, Focus and Searchlight have gone with a launch technique of placing movies instantly out in 400-600 theaters as an alternative of the standard technique of a four-screen New York/Los Angeles and a gradual nationwide rollout. This is being executed to maximise word-of-mouth and appeal to as many moviegoers as doable nationwide in a time the place older moviegoers are much less more likely to go to theaters and movies are getting buzz from movie festivals like Venice and Toronto.

Searchlight will experiment with the rollout launch technique subsequent month with Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” on Oct. 22, releasing the movie initially in Top 5 markets earlier than increasing to reap the benefits of viewers buzz and to keep away from direct competitors with “Dune,” which releases that very same weekend.