With the release of the highly anticipated Wicked: For Good, early projections suggested it would dominate the box office, which it did with flying colors, earning a staggering $226 million collectively (via Box Office Mojo). But at the same time, indie releases like Rental Family, Nuremberg, and Sentimental Value have also managed to make a name for themselves.
According to recent box office reports, Rental Family, starring Oscar-winning Brendan Fraser, managed to amass a total of $3.3 million in its opening weekend. At the same time, Rami Malek‘s starrer Nuremberg managed to surpass the $12.1 million mark this weekend collectively, and Sentimental Value managed a total of $8.58 million at the box office.
Wicked: For Good Box Office vs. The Indie Releases, Explained
Despite the record-setting opening day of Wicked: For Good taking the spotlight on the global movie stage, these aforementioned indie films share one thing in common: their critical reception by fans and audiences.
Starting things with Rental Family, this Hikari-directed comedy/drama film starring Brendan Fraser was received extremely well. The theme of finding oneself and blurring the lines between transactional and real human connections is what attracted many families towards it on Thanksgiving.
When compared to the box office juggernaut that’s Wicked, the numbers look minuscule, but at the same time, looking at the film’s budget and the relative obscurity, it still is one of the biggest releases in the industry. The same holds for Nuremberg, which was also an indie historical/drama release back on November 7 and is now on its third weekend.
In comparison to the other two, this film managed to accumulate a total of $12.1 million at the box office, but still lags behind the Ariana Grande starrer’s opening weekend by a huge margin. Here, too, the historical and political nature of the film, mixed in with the heavy subject of the Nuremberg Trials, kept the mainstream audiences away, yet it became relatively successful.
And lastly, Sentimental Value’s box office release was also a hit as per the indie release box office, but not in an absolute sense like the sequel to the musical film. With its release on November 7 (US), the limited release venues were one of the big reasons why it lagged, but even then, it is going strong at the box office.
Why Indie Films Will Become the Industry’s Poster Child Soon
While Wicked: For Good is proving to be a smashing financial success, it’s not the norm, but an exception to the trend that the majority of the Hollywood industry is currently following.
As we see major studios and production companies relying more heavily on legacy media through remakes and re-adaptations, the creative pool in films seems to be heading in a downward spiral. With the single biggest driving factor being bigger box office numbers, the bottleneck for these media franchises to continue will come sooner rather than later.
And with the indie space being the experimental grounds for creative liberties and new stories to be told, the space will only continue to grow because of the ability to not rely heavily on box office numbers, but on providing quality.
Here’s more information on the aforementioned film releases.
Have you watched any of these films? Tell us in the comments below.
