‘Honey Boy’ Finds Sweet Success at Indie Box Office

Jeremy Fuster

Amazon Studios kept the indie box office hot streak running this weekend with the Los Angeles/New York release of “Honey Boy,” Shia LaBoeuf’s semi-autobiographical drama that earned critical acclaim at this year’s Sundance for both the former “Transformers” star and director Alma Har’el.

Released on four screens, the film earned $288,824 for a strong per-screen average of $72,206. It’s Amazon’s strongest screen average since the studio began distributing films on it’s own in 2017, topping the $61,576 average earned by “Late Night” this past summer. The last Amazon release with an average this high was “The Big Sick,” co-distributed with Lionsgate, which earned $84,315 per screen.

“Honey Boy” currently stands as one of the top 5 average of the year alongside releases like “Parasite” and “Avengers: Endgame,” with Amazon reporting sold out screenings at The Landmark Los Angeles, AMC Lincoln Square and Arclight Hollywood. In the case of the latter, Arclight made a decision during the weekend to move screenings of the film into the famed Cinerama Dome to meet audience demand.

Also Read: 'Honey Boy' Film Review: Shia LaBeouf Pours Himself into Autobiographical Coming-of-Age Tale

LaBoeuf wrote “Honey Boy” during his time in rehab and stars in the film as James Lort, a character based on his abusive father who hovered over him during his time as a Disney Channel child star. Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges play Otis Lort, a troubled young actor that represents LaBoeuf at different stages in his life. The film has a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes and will expand into the top 15 markets over the next two weekends before a wide release timed to the announcement of Golden Globe nominations.

Among holdovers, Fox Searchlight expanded “Jojo Rabbit” to 802 screens, grossing just under $4 million this weekend to bring its total to $9.1 million. NEON’s “Parasite” earned $2.5 million from 603 screens for a total of $11.2 million after five weekends, and A24’s “The Lighthouse” added $865,000 from 683 screens for a total of $8.8 million after four weekends.

Read original story ‘Honey Boy’ Finds Sweet Success at Indie Box Office At TheWrap