Indie & Alternative Cinema Surges From ‘Stray Kids’ To ‘Heated Rivalry’ – Specialty Box Office

Specialty distributors and alternative fare from live concerts to Indian films to faith-based fare and TV series ruled the top 10 at the box office and beyond this weekend, showcasing the strength of a market that’s helped the box office weather downturns and is now fueling its resurgence.

Godzilla Minus Zero from independent distributor GKids topped the weekend. Angel Studios’ Drummer Boy banged into no. 3, followed by You Can See Everything (A24), Ramayana: Rise Of A Legend (Sony Pictures/Prime Focus Studios), Laika’ animated Wildwood (Fathom Entertainment), Wild Horse Nine (Searchlight Pictures), Stray Kids World Tour ‘RUN IT’ Live Viewing (Trafalgar Entertainment) and Wicker (Black Bear).

Jimmy Stewart biopic Jimmy from Fathom Entertainment and Burns & Co. opened at no. 12 with $2 million at 1,500 theaters.

Heated Rivalry: Regal Entertainment Distribution packaged Episodes 1 and 2 of the popular HBO Max hockey drama to a no. 14 spot with $1.4 million at 945 locations. It will be rolling out more this month.

A24’s Club Kid had one of the best limited openings of the year ($391k on 6 screens). Amazon MGM Studios’ I Play Rocky was strong ($335k from 7 screens). Sony Pictures Classics’ The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is holding really well in moderate release ($893k on 818 screens in week 2 for a $3.95 million cume).

Netflix is reporting $975k for La Bola Negra in week 4 at 473 locations, the widest point for the TIFF Audience award winner for a cume of $2.47 million. The Mosquito Bowl grossed $105k in its second week on 309 screens for a $756.4k cume.

NatGeo/Disney nature-adventure doc Everest: The Other Side grossed $320k at 515 locations for a come of $1.92 million.

Back to Godzilla, which is driving the highest opening weekend box office ever for distributor Gkids after $13 million from The Boy and the Heron. The film’s $31.6+ million domestic debut also makes it the highest grossing opening for a foreign language live action film in North American box office history.

GKids’ distribution VP Chance Huskey said the “landmark release is the result of a thoughtful campaign by GKIDS and Toho that emphasized the ‘must see’ intensity of the theatrical experience and director Takashi Yamazaki’s vision. We’re so happy to see audiences embrace Godzilla Minus Zero at an unprecedented scale for an international film.”

Ramayana, meanwhile,is the second biggest opening (and the widest release at 1,433 screens) for an Indian movie in North America at $12.2 million (including Thursday previews) behind Dhurandhar: The Revenge,which debuted to $14.5M last March. Separately, Telugu film Scene from Prime Media Pictures opened to $1.28 million at 330 locations.

American Revolution original musical Drummer Boy from Angel and 2521 Entertainment opened to $9.3 million. The film’s music hit #1 on iTunes. The better-than-anticipated take “underscores the strength of audience-driven entertainment and the growing appetite for musicals on the big screen,” the distributor said.

“It has been eight long years of failure and triumph to bring Drummer Boy to the screen,” said co-director and lead actor Joel Smallbone. “To us, this is a story of our own experiences portrayed—a story of ending up on the opposite side of life’s battle-lines, and of forgiveness and freedom and true love. This is a film that’s deeply personal to us. So as you’d imagine I find myself deeply impacted by the fact that this personal story has found its way into hundreds of thousands of your hearts,”

Wild Horse Nine, at $6 million on 1,100 screens, is the best opening weekend for a Martin McDonagh film.

Stray Kids World Tour ‘RUN IT’ Live Viewing from Trafalgar Entertainment — a special live broadcast Saturday from Tokyo Dome to movie theaters worldwide took in $3.7 million on 917 screens in North America.

Wicker, with $3.5 million on 2,085 screens in week 3, off 23% for a cume of $19.9 million.

As per Rentrak, the domestic marketplace is at an estimated $121.7 million, up 99% week-over-week and 45% year over year. Domestic YTD reaches $8.6 billion, up 21% from 2025.