John Wilson's The History Of Concrete posts $90,000 debut at IFC Center
John Wilson's The History Of Concrete sold an estimated US$90,000 in tickets in three days from a single screen in New York.
The studio estimates, reported by Deadline, cover 18 to 20 September at the IFC Center. Actuals are due Monday. That is a fast start for a documentary in one room.
It is the strongest documentary opening the IFC Center has recorded. It is also the second-highest weekend gross in the venue's 21-year history, behind only Parasite with US$119,000 in 2019.
About US$60,000 in tickets were pre-sold before the doors opened. Magnolia, which acquired the film out of Sundance, planned to build from that base.
Wilson is best known for How To With John Wilson, which ran on HBO for three seasons from 2020 to 2023. The History Of Concrete is his feature-length debut and follows his search for a new project after that series ended. He also co-founded and helps run Low Cinema, a 42-seat micro-theatre in Ridgewood, Queens.
Magnolia was set to expand the film to about 40 screens in 15 markets including Los Angeles and Brooklyn, then to about 50 markets on a few hundred screens on 2 October. Neal Block, the company's head of distribution and marketing, is steering the rollout.
Elsewhere in specialty release, Late Fame, directed by Kent Jones and starring Willem Dafoe, reached an estimated running total — the cume — of US$523,000 on 30 screens in domestic release, the United States and Canada. Maddie's Secret, made by and starring John Early, opened in June and topped out at US$1.2 million. Vertical's The Weight cracked the domestic top 10 at No. 9 in its opening weekend, according to the same Deadline roundup.
Two faith-driven titles held national spots. Angel Studios' Runner ranked No. 6 on 2,472 domestic screens, with a second-week gross of US$3.18 million and a cume near US$12 million. Daniel And The Fiery Furnace opened at No. 7 with US$3.14 million on 1,520 screens.
That film stars Elijah Alexander and Mena Massoud and was directed by Daniel and Matthew Kooman. It was shot in northern India near the Pakistan border and is intended as the first in a series drawn from the Book of Daniel.
The wider domestic market was led by Sony's Resident Evil, which opened with US$60 million from 3,684 screens for a per-screen average of US$16,287, a franchise record reported by Box Office Pro. Domestic ticket sales for the year stood at US$7.6 billion at that point.
What makes this stand out is the scale. One New York auditorium delivered numbers usually linked to awards-season platform releases, while the national chart moved on horror, family and faith titles. For fans outside New York, this means a short wait before Concrete reaches more cities in October.
