‘Flow’ Ranks Only Behind ‘Wicked’ In Per-Theater Average At The Box Office
Everyone is talking about Wicked’s hot box office debut last weekend, but let’s talk for a minute about the film with the second-highest per-theater average at the weekend box office: Gints Zilbalodis’ feline survival tale Flow.
This past weekend, the Belgium/France/Latvia animated feature launched theatrically in two U.S. theaters via Janus Films, and managed a surprisingly powerful $25,405 per theater, for a $50,811 total. The two theaters were the AMC Burbank 16 and the Angelika Film Center in Manhattan.
But here’s the big news: Janus is planning a national expansion to hundreds of theaters on Friday, December 6, with a “mix of upscale commercial chain theaters and key art house runs,” per a report in Deadline. The distributor hopes to get a boost by trailering in front of screenings of Moana 2 this upcoming holiday weekend.
Flow has emerged as this season’s Robot Dreams, a low-budget, dialogue-free animated film that punches above its weight in terms of both craft and storytelling. It’s the type of smart animated film that deserves the community’s support, but also sadly the type of animated film that is often ignored by animation fans who like to chatter on social media that they want more distinctive non-commercial animated options.
It would be a shame to see Flow follow the path of Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, which had a similarly promising start a few weeks ago, but quickly crashed upon expanding to hundreds of theaters. So I’m here to say, don’t sleep on Flow. Go out and support this film on December 6, and convince distributors that there is a market for all kinds of animated storytelling.
Flow, in addition to having emerged as a strong contender in the animated feature category of the Academy Awards, has been submitted by Latvia as the country’s official entry for the international feature film category of the Oscars.
It premiered in the Un Certain Regard sidebar of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, and was a big hit at Annecy in June, picking up more awards than any other title in competition this year: the feature film jury award, audience award, Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, and best original music for a feature film. It is currently nominated in the animated feature category of the European Film Awards.
The animation was produced by Sacrebleu Productions (France) and Take Five (Belgium), while Zilbalodis produced through his own Latvian studio, Dream Well Studio.
