'Buddy' Busts Out: A Sundance Reject Opens to $5.36 Million and Breaks Records for Two Indie Studios
A dark comedy nobody wanted at Sundance just delivered the best opening weekend of the year for any film on fewer than 1,800 screens. Buddy, an R-rated horror-comedy from Roadside Attractions and Saban Films, opened at no. 6 at the domestic box office — the United States and Canada — with $5.36 million across 1,258 screens, per Deadline.
That figure more than doubled the $2.5 million the film was tracking before release. It marks Roadside Attractions' best opening since Covid and the second-best in the company's history, behind only I Can Only Imagine ($17 million in 2018). For Saban Films, it is the highest opening in the distributor's 12-year existence.
The film world-premiered in the Sundance Midnight Section to an underwhelming response and walked away with no buyers. Roadside co-presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d'Arbeloff, alongside Saban executives Jonathan Saba and Shanan Becker, picked it up after the festival failed to produce a deal. North American rights were acquired in April for a wide theatrical release, according to Deadline.
Buddy is the feature directorial debut of Casper Kelly and comes from the producers of Weapons. Shot over 25 days in Cleveland in summer 2025 on a modest budget, the 95-minute film stars Delaney Quinn, Keegan-Michael Key, Cristin Milioti and Topher Grace. Key voices the title character: a giant orange unicorn and beloved children's television host whose squeaky-clean, Mr. Rogers–style persona curdles into something sinister. In the film's in-world show It's Buddy!, a group of children sing, dance and help Buddy spread happiness — until they don't.
What makes the opening stand out is the marketing. The campaign never released a full trailer. Instead, three viral teasers circulated alongside a Buddy persona that responded to fans on text and social media, accumulating over 450,000 followers and more than 150 million views. A Buddy Fan Club drew 25,000 text sign-ups. Audiences skewed 83% under 35 and over-indexed with Hispanic audiences at 37%, per Deadline.
The film earned $777,000 in previews ahead of its opening weekend, including $527,000 from Thursday nights, according to Deadline.
Elsewhere in the indie space, A24's Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony, directed by Matt Johnson and starring Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas, crossed an $11 million cume in its fourth week with $2.2 million on 1,907 screens. A24's The Invite, directed by Olivia Wilde, added $112,000 at 92 locations for a domestic gross of $26 million.
Mubi's Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun's fourth-week holdover starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, grossed $708,000 on 579 screens for a $5.4 million cume — passing the total domestic gross of Schoenbrun's previous film, I Saw The TV Glow.
IFC Film Group reported a $700,000 opening for the comedy Idiots at 1,110 locations, plus a $15,000 debut on a single screen for The Sun Never Sets, which began a platform release — a slow rollout strategy that opens in a few theatres and expands based on performance. Focus Features' Finding Emily grossed $680,000 in its opening weekend.
All figures cited are Sunday studio estimates until Monday's actuals.
