Dark comedy Buddy from Roadside Attractions and Saban Entertainment blew past expectations to set a few records for Roadside Attractions as its top opening since Covid and second-best ever after I Can Only Imagine (2018, $17 million).
From the producers of Weapons, the feature directorial debut of Casper Kelly scared up a no. 6 spot at the domestic box office with $5.36 million on 1,258 screens after tracking had it at about $2.5 million. Roadside said its first major horror film also marks the highest opening weekend of 2026 for films released on under 1,800 screens.
The R-rated parody is set in a surreal ’90s kids’ television series whose giant, orange unicorn host Buddy, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, turns bad. It world premiered at the Sundance Midnight Section to an underwhelming response and no buyers.
“We expected the film to sell immediately to a major studio at Sundance, so when it didn’t it presented an amazing opportunity for Roadside and Saban to pick it up,” said Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff of Roadside, and Jonathan Saba and Shanan Becker of Saban. They found it “an unusual mixture of horror, comedy and emotion taking place in different realities that was both delightfully unique and marketable.”
“With our partners at producers BoulderLight Pictures and Low Spark Films, we devised an online campaign that was unprecedented for us. It helps to have a naughty orange unicorn named Buddy who is destined to be a major star,” they said. It’s connecting with young audiences, which are skewing 83% under 35. It’s over-indexing with Hispanic audiences at 37%.
Marketing included a Buddy persona who responded on text and social creating a bond with fans and now has over 450k followers and over 150 million views. The Buddy Fan Club quickly amassed 25k members signing up via text. The campaign included three viral teasers but no full trailer. He was seen dancing at San Diego Comic Con, getting arrested in Times Square, giving out free hugs on the Santa Monica Pier, and tussling with an AMC employee over a bag of popcorn.
Raphael Margules and J.D. Lifshitz of Boulder Light Pictures, the buzzy genre focused production label behind Weapons and Barbarian, were recently tapped to run a new genre label at Paramount. Buddy was shot over 25 days in Cleveland last summer for a modest budget.
Also notable: A24’s Anothony Bourdain biopic Tony by Matt Johnson starring Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas rounds out the top 10 on 1,907 screens in week 4 with $2.2 million, crossing an $11 million cume as word of mouth continues to build. And the distributor’s breakout The Invite by Olivia Wilde, still sticking around in theaters and one of the summer’s bona fide hits, added another $112k at 92 locations for a domestic gross of $26 million.
Mubi’s Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma grossed $708k in week 4 on 579 screens for a cume to date of $5.4 million for the Jane Schoenbrun edgy horror starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder. It’s passed the total domestic gross of Schoenbrun’s popular 2024 film I Saw The TV Glow
IFC Film Group is reporting a $700k opening for comedy Idiots at 1,110 locations, as well as a $15k debut at one theater for The Sun Never Sets as it starts a platform release.
Finding Emily from Focus Features grossed $680k in its opening weekend from 678 theaters in North America. The comedy notched an A- CinemaScore and is 87% RT Certified Will its limited theatrical run over the coming weeks.
A cool double play from Well Go Entertainment USA saw Colony, the zombie thriller by Train To Busan director Yeon Sang-ho, open to $658k on 411 screens. The distributor’s event film Legend of the White Dragon is eyeing $529k from limited screenings at 596 theaters.
Solid limited openings include Kino Lorber’s $25k debut of Sundance award-winning Filipiñana at Film Forum in NYC. The film has sold out seven shows and counting at including several with no Q&As, attracting a mix of young cinephile and Filipino-American audiences. The darkly comic class satire by director Rafael Manuel expands to 20+ additional screens next week, including five sold-out Q&As shows in L.A. and San Francisco.
Kino Lorber documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, which debuted earlier this summer, crossed $715k, making it a top grossing platform doc release of the year.
Variance Films began its platform release of The Cycle Of Love by Oscar-winner Orlando von Einsiedel (The White Helmets, Virunga) and executive producer Priyanka Chopra-Jonas at the Angelika in NYC to $17k, with full houses both morning and evening. The documentary is the true story of PK, a 23-year-old Delhi street artist from an ‘untouchable’ family, who, in 1977 set off on a 6000-mile cross-continent mission on a second hand bicycle to find Lotta, a tourist who had captured his heart. Expands to LA’s Laemmle’s Royal next week with 50+ more markets set in September and October.
Holdovers: In its second weekend of release, Black Bear’s Spa Weekend by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore grossed $1.18 million from 1,619 domestic locations for an estimated cume of $5.64 million. Stars Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Michelle Buteau and Anna Faris. Matthew McConaughey-starring The Rivals Of Amziah King grossed $65k in week 3 at 103 theaters for a $2 million cume.
Neon’s It Ends is driving to a $724k weekend on 340 screens for a cume of $814k in week 2.
American Doctor from Watermelon Pictures grossed $110k on 22 screens in a week 3 rollout for a cume to date of $197k. Theaters are reporting sell-outs in Chicago, Houston and San Francisco, and the distributor said its Sunday numbers for the doc are tracking higher than Saturday.
is eyeing $63.7k on 49 screens in week 2 for an $80k cume.
Lunette Films’ Dreams in Nightmares expanded to 10 cinemas in week 2 for$11.2k and a cume of $24k.
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