{"id":1033919,"date":"2026-08-31T00:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T00:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1033919\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T00:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T00:17:20","slug":"indie-film-box-office-buddy-busts-out-sets-records-for-roadside-attractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1033919\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie Film Box Office: \u2018Buddy\u2019 Busts Out, Sets Records For Roadside Attractions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDark comedy Buddy<\/a><\/strong> from Roadside Attractions<\/a> and Saban Films blew past expectations to set a few records for Roadside Attractions as its top opening since Covid and second-best ever after I Can Only Imagine (2018, $17 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom the producers of Weapons, the feature directorial debut of Casper Kelly scared up a no. 6 spot at the domestic box office with $5.36 million on 1,258 screens after tracking had it at about $2.5 million. Roadside said its first major horror film also marks the highest opening weekend of 2026 for films released on under 1,800 screens. <\/p>\n

\n\tBuddy is Saban Films\u2019 highest opening in its 12-year history.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe R-rated parody is set in a surreal \u201990s kids\u2019 television series whose giant, orange unicorn host Buddy, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, turns bad. It world premiered at the Sundance Midnight Section to an underwhelming \u00a0response and no buyers. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe expected the film to sell immediately to a major studio at Sundance, so when it didn\u2019t it presented an amazing opportunity for Roadside and Saban to pick it up,\u201d said Howard Cohen and Eric d\u2019Arbeloff of Roadside, and Jonathan Saba and Shanan Becker of Saban. They found it \u201can unusual mixture of horror, comedy and emotion taking place in different realities that was both delightfully unique and marketable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith our partners at producers BoulderLight Pictures<\/a> and Low Spark Films, we devised an online campaign that was unprecedented for us.\u00a0It helps to have a naughty orange unicorn named Buddy who is destined to be a major star,\u201d they said. It\u2019s connecting with young audiences, which are skewing 83% under 35. It\u2019s over-indexing with Hispanic audiences at 37%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMarketing included a Buddy persona who responded on text and social creating a bond with fans and now has over 450k followers and over 150 million views. The Buddy Fan Club quickly amassed 25k members signing up via text. The campaign included three viral teasers but no full trailer. He was seen dancing at San Diego Comic Con, getting arrested in Times Square, giving out free hugs on the Santa Monica Pier, and tussling with an AMC employee over a bag of popcorn.<\/p>\n

\n\tRaphael Margules<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0J.D. Lifshitz<\/a> of Boulder Light Pictures, the buzzy genre focused production label<\/a> behind Weapons and Barbarian, were recently tapped to run a new genre label at Paramount. Buddy was shot over 25 days in Cleveland last summer for a modest budget. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlso notable: A24\u2019s Anothony Bourdain biopic Tony<\/a><\/strong> by Matt Johnson starring Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas rounds out the top 10 on 1,907 screens in week 4 with $2.2 million, crossing an $11 million cume as word of mouth continues to build. And the distributor\u2019s breakout The Invite<\/a><\/strong> by Olivia Wilde, still sticking around in theaters and one of the summer\u2019s bona fide hits, added another $112k at 92 locations for a domestic gross of $26 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tMubi\u2019s Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma<\/a><\/strong> grossed $708k in week 4 on 579 screens for a cume to date of $5.4 million for the Jane Schoenbrun edgy horror starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder. It\u2019s passed the total domestic gross of Schoenbrun\u2019s popular 2024 film I Saw The TV Glow<\/p>\n

\n\tIFC Film Group is reporting a $700k opening for comedy Idiots<\/strong> at 1,110 locations, as well as a $15k debut at one theater \u00a0for The Sun Never Sets<\/strong> as it starts a platform release.<\/p>\n

\n\tFinding Emily<\/strong> from Focus Features grossed\u00a0$680k\u00a0in its opening weekend from 678 theaters in North America.\u00a0 The comedy notched an A- CinemaScore and is 87% RT Certified Will its limited theatrical run over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\n\tA cool double play from Well Go Entertainment USA saw Colony<\/a><\/strong>, the zombie thriller by Train To Busan<\/strong> director Yeon Sang-ho, open to $658k on 411 screens. The distributor\u2019s event film Legend of the White Dragon<\/a><\/strong> is eyeing $529k from limited screenings at 596 theaters.<\/p>\n

\n\tSolid limited openings <\/strong>include Kino Lorber\u2019s $25k debut of Sundance award-winning Filipi\u00f1ana<\/a>\u00a0at Film Forum in NYC.\u00a0The film has sold out seven\u00a0shows and counting at including several with no Q&As, attracting a mix of young cinephile and Filipino-American audiences.\u00a0The darkly comic class satire by director Rafael Manuel\u00a0expands to 20+ additional screens next week, including five sold-out Q&As shows in L.A. and San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKino Lorber documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World<\/a><\/strong>, which debuted earlier this summer,\u00a0crossed $715k, making it a top grossing platform doc release of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tVariance Films began its platform release of The Cycle Of Love<\/a> <\/strong>by Oscar-winner Orlando von Einsiedel (The White Helmets, Virunga) and executive producer Priyanka Chopra-Jonas at the Angelika in NYC to\u00a0$17k, with full houses both morning and evening.\u00a0The documentary is the true story of\u00a0PK, a 23-year-old Delhi street artist from an \u2018untouchable\u2019 family, who, in 1977 set off on a 6000-mile cross-continent mission on a second hand bicycle to find Lotta, a tourist who had captured his heart.\u00a0Expands to LA\u2019s Laemmle\u2019s Royal next week with 50+ more markets set in September and October.<\/p>\n

\n\tHoldovers<\/strong>: In its second weekend of release, Black Bear\u2019s Spa Weekend<\/a><\/strong> by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore grossed\u00a0$1.18 million\u00a0from 1,619 domestic locations for an estimated cume of\u00a0$5.64 million. Stars Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Michelle Buteau and Anna Faris. Matthew McConaughey-starring The Rivals Of Amziah King<\/a><\/strong> grossed\u00a0$65k\u00a0in week 3 at 103 theaters for a $2 million cume.<\/p>\n

\n\tNeon\u2019s It Ends<\/strong> is driving to a $724k weekend on 340 screens for a cume of $814k in week 2.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmerican Doctor<\/a><\/strong> from Watermelon Pictures grossed $110k on 22 screens in a week 3 rollout for a cume to date of $197k. Theaters are reporting sell-outs in Chicago, Houston and San Francisco, and the distributor said its Sunday numbers for the doc are tracking higher than Saturday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Marching Band<\/a> <\/strong>from Greenwich Entertainment<\/p>\n

\n\tis eyeing $63.7k on 49 screens in week 2 for an $80k cume.<\/p>\n

\n\tLunette Films\u2019 Dreams in Nightmares<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0expanded to 10 cinemas in week 2 for$11.2k and a cume of $24k.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dark comedy Buddy from Roadside Attractions and Saban Films blew past expectations to set a few records for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1033920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[328214,128525,55281,31085,413783,171,237885,413784,368242,134366,405693,81627,324182,413785,237987,413786,396204,15906,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1033919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-american-doctor","tag-boulderlight-pictures","tag-buddy","tag-colony","tag-dreams-in-nightmares","tag-entertainment","tag-filipiu00f1ana","tag-legend-of-the-white-dragon","tag-mary-oliver-saved-by-the-beauty-of-the-world","tag-roadside-attractions","tag-spa-weekend","tag-specialty-box-office","tag-teenage-sex-and-death-at-camp-miasma","tag-the-cycle-of-love","tag-the-invite","tag-the-marching-band","tag-the-rivals-of-amziah-king","tag-tony","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117187251202308991","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1033919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1033920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1033919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1033919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1033919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}