Everest Doc And ‘Breeder’ Anchor Indie Frame With Few New Releases – Specialty Preview

NatGeo’s Everest: The Other Side by Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi and Independent Film Company’s psychological horror Breeder are specialty debuts, along with with docs Paging Hezbollah (by the director of Am I A Racist?) and Heathens. Briarcliff’s holiday horror-comedy Christmas At The Kringles and Sight & Sound Presents: Joshua Live! from Roadside Attractions are the indie – and the only – new wide releases with Halloween falling on a Saturday this year.

Following La Bola Negra, Netflix debuts its second official box office entry, Peter Berg’s war drama The Mosquito Bowl (see Deadline review). Sony Pictures Classics jumps to 1,112 screens with The Only Living Pickpocket in New York starring Gotham Award-nominated John Turturro. And coming off two Gotham nominations of its own this week, Mubi’s Fatherland expands to 45 screens. The Gothams (ceremony Nov. 30 in NYC) kick off awards seasons.

Wide release indies A24’s You Can See Everything, Black Bear’s Wicker and Laika’s Wildwood from Fathom Entertainment are still making a splash in theaters.

Everest: The Other Side, the latest epic documentary from NatGeo and Oscar-winning filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi (Free Solo, Meru), which just made the rounds at the fall festivals — Venice, Telluride and TIFF — follows elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson as they attempt a shared dream: to climb and ski the direct North Face of Everest, the most difficult climb on the mountain. While thousands have summited via Nepal’s southeast ridge, only a handful have ever reached the top by this route, and no one had successfully skied down before. That doc has stunning visuals, and a story of passion, grief and determination. Chin and Vasarhelyi told Deadline recently it was the most difficult film they’ve ever made. In theaters and Imax.

Breeder by Alex Goyette, an Independent Film Company and Shudder release, opened at 777 theaters Wednesday and is sticking there, heading into the weekend with about $275k. Daniel Doheny stars as Russell, a dedicated researcher who has spent years developing a solution to save the endangered bee population. Struggling with limited funding, his prospects brighten when an eccentric poodle breeder, Patti (Dot-Marie Jones), offers to sponsor his work. Drawn to her isolated ranch, Russell soon realizes that Patti’s ambitions extend far beyond saving bees. With Maddie Phillips and Paige McGarvin.

It world premiered at Tribeca Festival and sits at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes off 37 reviews.

Briarcliff Entertainment is out with holiday horror-comedy Christmas At The Kringles on 1,825 screens. Directed by Kevin Lewis, written by Jack Imbrogno. The Severson family are starting fresh in a quiet suburban neighborhood with next-door neighbors, the Kringles, who celebrate Christmas year-round. What begins as charming quickly turns unsettling as Mark (Ron Livingston) and Julie (Rachel Bilson) grow concerned about their son’s growing attachment to the family, with good reason. Mark teams up with a badass Santa (Rob Riggle) in a high-stakes fight.

Roadside Attractions launches faith-based family musical Sight & Sound Presents: Joshua Live! on 1,230 screens. A production of Lancaster, Pa.-based Sight & Sound Theatres, the faith-based entertainment company that partners with distributors to bring its live stage productions to screen. Previous films include Noah — Live! (2025) and Daniel – Live!. This is story of Joshua, the successor of Moses, who led the Israelites to the promised land.

Heathens by David Cowan and Shawn Hardin, debuting at the Laemmle Noho in Los Angeles, explores the situation of American adults who hide religious doubts or exaggerate how religious they are due to pressure they feel from those around them to conform. The doc follows five individuals over three years: a professional stuntwoman, two former preachers, the frontwoman of alt-pop band Transviolet, and a Christian musician, who first meet at a retreat in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Each has quietly left the religion that raised them. Over a cathartic weekend, they resolve to reclaim their lives, taking back the slur “heathen” as a proud new identity. Then they return home to learn how much the truth will cost them. Self-distributed by producer Pale Blue Dot Films. Expands to San Francisco, New York and other markets next week.

Paging Hezbollah by Justin Folk launches on 250+ screens. Part history, part real-life espionage thriller, the documentary goes inside Israel’s September 2024 pager operation against Hezbollah, revealing how the devices were engineered, marketed and smuggled into Hezbollah’s communications network without detection. It traces the decades-long conflict between the two, from Mossad’s origins to the 2024 operation. Folk interviews Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad Director David Barnea and General David Petraeus, alongside intelligence operatives, engineers and historians.

Produced and distributed by Aveiled Productions. The conservative filmmaker’s previous docs include 2024’s DEI takedown Am I Racist? (which grossed $12 million at the domestic box office) and What Is A Woman? from 2022, both produced and released by right-wing media outlet The Daily Wire. Paging Hezbollah comes after inconclusive results in Israel’s national election, where neither Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition nor the opposition alliance received enough votes to govern.