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.
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.