“Capone,” a loosely factual film from Vertical Entertainment starring Tom Hardy as the notorious mobster late in his life, earned a company-record $2.5 million in gross on-demand sales its first 10 days of digital release.
Josh Trank’s film hit the top spot on iTunes, Amazon and cable on-demand in its first three days of release last Tuesday. After the release of the Warner Bros. animated film “Scoob!,” it held strong and remained the No. 1 indie film on iTunes and second place overall. It was also the No. 4 film on FandangoNOW last week, the on-demand streaming service from Fandango.
For comparison, TheWrap reported that Kino Lorber saw the equivalent of a six-figure run for its Brazilian thriller “Bacurau” that was released through a revenue-sharing, virtual cinema model, while Oscilloscope’s release of “Saint Frances” saw approximately 10,000 virtual rentals.
Warner Bros. did not report virtual box office figures this weekend for the release of “Scoob!,” but Universal Pictures said that the virtual release of “Trolls World Tour” took in over $100 million in revenue and similarly broke VOD and streaming rental records.
“Capone” is directed and written by Josh Trank. It was originally titled “Fonzo” and was meant to be released theatrically but hit streaming early on May 12 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are incredibly impressed with the attention and interest surrounding ‘Capone.’ Although we wish the film could have been premiered in theaters as originally intended, we could not be more thrilled with the success of the VOD home premiere release. Thanks to the hard work of everyone involved, including our partners at BRON Studios and Redbox Entertainment and the incredible support from our cable partners, this opening has surpassed all of our expectations and we look forward to seeing ‘Capone’ continue to find its audience during these uncertain times,” the Vertical Entertainment partners said in a statement.
“Capone” shows Hardy as Capone in his late 40s after spending 10 years in prison, when he’s developed dementia and is haunted by his violent past. But he’s still the target of investigations, with one agent suspecting he may still be hiding something. “Capone” also co-stars Linda Cardellini, Matt Dillon, Kyle MacLachlan, Noel Fisher, Jack Lowden and Neal Brennan.
The film is produced by Russell Ackerman, Lawrence Bender, Aaron L. Gilbert and John Schoenfelder and is a production of BRON Studios.