Return To Dust, an arthouse hit in China last summer before being pulled from release, opens Stateside this weekend with Film Movement presenting on two screens – NYC’s BAM Rose Cinema and the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, expanding to LA and Seattle next Friday.
The distributor acquired the film directed by Li Ruijun after it premiered in Berlin in March, 2022 to glowing reviews, see Deadlines’s here. Hai Quing and Wu Renlin star as a middle-aged couple in a rural province encouraged to marry by their families, who see them as a burden. Love and respect slowly as they scratch out a living of extreme hardship working the land. A 95% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
First released last July in China, it played unusually well for an arthouse title there and appeared on streaming platforms in early September before disappearing later that month without explanation.
Regulators don’t often justify these decisions and can pull films to make room for new titles. But this story is not particularly sympathetic to China’s ruling class. As Deadline and others have reported, there was speculation that the subject matter may not have been considered suitable heading into the fall National Day holidays, celebrating the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Elsewhere, this is a weekend with few openings as most specialty distributors stayed clear of juggernauts Barbie and Oppenheimer. A notable expansion — Theater Camp, which Searchlight Pictures is moving to 51 screens after a buzzy debut last week on six in NY and LA (updated $50.3k per screen average open). The film by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman and starring Ben Platt adds include Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Toronto. It expands to another 35-40 new markets next week to hit 600-800 locations by August.
Theater Camp slipped in ahead what’s weirdly being called ‘Barbenheimer.’ That said, strong numbers, especially for the Christopher Nolan film about the creator of the atom bomb, are a good sign for the arthouse/indie space.
Other openings: In moderate release, Lionsgate’s horror-thriller Cobweb by Samuel Bodin, written by Chris Thomas Devlin and starring Lizzy Caplan, Woody Norman, Cleopatra Coleman, Antony Starr, on about 300 screens. Eight-year-old Peter is plagued by a mysterious, constant tap, tap from inside his bedroom wall, but his parents insist it’s his imagination. As Peter’s fear intensifies, he believes they might be hiding a terrible secret. For a child, what could be more frightening than that?
Limited: Apple’s The Beanie Bubble starring Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook, Zach Galifianakis. Directed by Kristin Gore, Damian Kulahs, Jr. A behind-the-scenes look at the defining 1990s trend. Deadline review here. On Apple TV+ July 28.
Dekanalog presents another Chinese arthouse film, Streetwise, for a weeklong engagement at Metrograh in NYC, expanding to LA in August. A gritty portrait of a group of outcasts in Zhenwu, one of many small, fading riverside towns in the Sichuan province, where the young people who remain are those who could not leave. Directed by Na Jiazuo. Starring Li Jiuxiao, Huang Miyi, Sha Baoliang, Yao Lu. Screened at Cannes 2021 in Un Certain Regard.
Quiver Distribution opens Neil LaBute’s home invasion thriller Fear the Night day-and-date in a handful of theaters. Eight women at bachelorette party at a remote farmhouse in the California hills are interrupted by masked intruders. Stars Maggie Q, Kat Foster, Travis Hammer, and Gia Crovatin.
Dark Sky Films opens horror-mystery Mother May I by Laurence Vannicelli in limited release. Starring Kyle Gallner and Holland Rodenand as a young man and his fiancée whose mushroom trip has eerie results.
Expansions: Sideshow/Janus Films expands Afire in NY and LA markets in week two. The Christian Petzold film, winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at Berlin this year, begins a regional expansion next weekend.
Abramorama extends Roddy Bogawa-directed music doc Have You Got It Yet? The Story Of Syd Barrett And Pink Floyd in New York, and opens in LA.
A new 4k restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt continues strong heading into its third week at the Film Forum in NYC.