The pandemic and Hollywood strikes battered box office for independent cinema is turning a corner, distribution execs told a panel at the Zurich Summit industry conflab on Saturday.
“We’ve been in a trench trying to get out,” said Rebecca Kearey, Head of International at Searchlight Pictures, which enjoyed box office success with Poor Things late last year and into 2024.
“Last fall was the beginning of our business coming back with some of those phenomenal award season movies that really delivered for audiences. I feel we’re coming out of this trench, internationally and domestically, in the U.S.”
Kearey was joined on stage by Neon CEO Tom Quinn, Film4 Head of Distribution & Sales Stefanie Fahrion and Nathanaël Karmitz, chairman of French independent film powerhouse MK2.
Agreeing with Kearey, Quinn pointed to the fact that the average gross per film had hit $15M at the U.S. box office in 2023.
“The highest mark in the last 24 years was 19, but the rest of those years were basically in the 16s and 17s. The total the highest year was 2018 which did about $11.8 billion across 993 movies. Last year, 2023, did $8.9 billion with only 591 movies, with 41% less movies, it’s only 25% less total box office,” he said.
He also pointed to a raft of indie titles that had delivered strong grosses over the summer such as Wicked Little Letters for Sony Picture Classics, Thelma for Magnolia and Late Night With The Devil for IFC Films.
“We had our biggest film ever, $74 million, with Longlegs, we also another great success with Immaculate with $15 million, so I feel like there’s room for companies my size that are doing a whole variety of films,” he said.
Karmitz, whose company mk2 is also an exhibitor in France and Spain, was more cautious but acknowledged audiences were returning and suggested that one cause for optimism was that young generations were also present.
He highlighted the recent success of 22-year-old French YouTuber Inès Benazzouz’s film Kaizen about his preparations to scale Everest.
MK2 released the film for a single day in French-speaking territories in mid-September ahead of it being made available for free on Benazzouz’s Inoxtag YouTube channel. The feature drew more than 350,000 spectators and has since been watched by 34 million spectators online.
“That’s nearly five million euros at the box office and it was free the next day, and just because all those kids wanted to share something with their friends, with their parents,” he said. “It was a joy for them to go to see the movie in the theater.”
Kearey revealed that Searchlight was trying to engage younger audiences via TikTok as well as sites like Letterboxd and Film Updates.
“It’s about meeting them where they live…the movie community on Tiktok is very, very active, and is a great way of engaging with that younger audience,” she said, revealing they now regularly create content around films for the platform.
“It’s just trying to constantly build that habit and that engagement with them. And obviously certain movies are going to work better for that younger audience than than others.”
Kearey and Film4’s Stefanie Fahrion discussed the box office success of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, which grossed $117.6M worldwide, including $34M in North America, making it the director’s most successful film to date.
Fahrion said Film4’s support of the film was the fruit of its long-time relationship with Lanthimos rather than any expectation of a stellar box performance.
“Our work starts with the belief in the filmmaker. We had worked with Yorgos Lanthimos on all his English language films. It was a continuation of working with him and trusting him… we’re not backing individual projects in that sense, but rather backing a filmmaker, supporting their career over a lifetime,” she said.
Kearey said Searchlight Pictures’ decision to board the film was based on its long-time relationship with Film4, positive past experience on Lanthimos’s The Favourite, which grossed $95.6M worldwide, and the script.
“We thought it was wild, crazy, but funny as hell and could test an audience on so many different levels, including that initial act where you’re waiting for things to kick in,” said Kearey.
“We had total belief that Yorgos was going to pull this off… He shot in Budapest and built these incredible sets, and we started seeing the world come together. We knew it could get there, but didn’t know how far we were going to be able to take it… it was a great arthouse breakout.”
Organized by Zurich Film Festival, the Zurich Summit is gathering more than 100 top film professionals from North American and Europe to discuss key issues in the independent film world.