‘Flow’ Makes a Splash in the U.S. Specialty Box Office

In the wake of a wave of successful festival screenings around the world and buoyed by positive critical reviews, indie animator Gints Zilbalodis’ (Away) new dialog-free, post-apocalyptic animal adventure Flow has arrived in two theaters (in New York and Los Angeles) on a strong specialty box office current. Sold-out screenings largely attracting family audiences earned $50.8K combines from the Angelika (N.Y.C.) and AMC Burbank, setting distributor Sideshow and Janus Film’s highest per-screen average ($25.4K).

Flow, which is eligible for consideration for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award as well as being Latvia’s entry for Best International Feature, was the top grossing film of the weekend at the Angelika and the third-highest earner at AMC Burbank, behind multiple screenings of powerhouse Hollywood releases Gladiator II and Wicked.

The limited run was strong enough to place Flow in the domestic Top 20,  landing at No. 17.

Sideshow and Janus Films will expand the film’s release nationwide across several hundred theaters on December 6.

Elsewhere on the animation charts, DreamWorks/Universals’ The Wild Robot came in at No. 8 in North America with an estimated $2 million take (-53.6%) from 2,110 theaters (-784) in its ninth weekend, bringing the acclaimed Chris Sanders pic to a domestic cume of $140.7M. The Peter Brown book adaptation, which passed the $300M global milestone last week, now stands at $317.4M worldwide.

[Sources: Deadline, Box Office Mojo]