The indie box office got its biggest jolt in quite some time this weekend, as three releases from Toronto had limited rollouts. Leading the way was Focus Features’ “Victoria and Abdul,” which made $152,000 from four screens for the top per screen average of the weekend with $37,933.
The period piece stars Judi Dench and Ali Fazal as Queen Victoria and Indian clerk Abdul Karim and explores the pair’s unlikely friendship during the later years of the British monarch’s rule. Stephen Frears directed from a script by Lee Hall, with Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Beeban Kidron and Tracey Seaward producing. The film has a 65 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.