<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a bruiser of a weekend for specialty releases. Mubi\u2019s Die My Love<\/em><\/a>, Lynne Ramsay\u2019s psychological thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, stumbled out of the gate with an estimated $2.61 million on 1,983 screens \u2014 the company\u2019s widest push since The Substance<\/em>. Black Bear\u2019s Christy<\/em>, with Sydney Sweeney as women\u2019s boxing legend Christy Martin<\/a>, managed just about $1.31 million across roughly 2,000 theaters.<\/p>\n Sweeney took to Instagram on Monday<\/a> to say she was \u201cdeeply proud\u201d of the movie, noting \u201cwe don\u2019t always make art for the numbers, we make it for impact.\u201d<\/p>\n More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweeney might be impact-oriented, but it\u2019s fair to assume Black Bear, which used the film to launch its new U.S. theatrical arm, is also in it for the money.<\/p>\n What the Christy<\/em> and Die My Love<\/em> numbers do point to is a broader realignment in U.S. indie distribution. The traditional safety net \u2014 the \u201cpay-one\u201d window, the first pay-TV\/streaming license after theatrical \u2014 has frayed as streamers scale back third-party buys. Some legacy players still have output pacts (A24\u2019s films go to Max; IFC\u2019s land on AMC+; Neon has long used Hulu for the post-theatrical home), but for most newcomers, the days of pre-sold pay-one economics are over. (Mubi, uniquely, can route to its own platform.)<\/p>\n That pullback is one reason so many festival titles are sitting on the shelf. \u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of unsold inventory,\u201d says Upgrade Productions\u2019 Matt Brodlie, pointing to Sundance, Tribeca and Toronto titles that would have found homes a few years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many films that used to get a theatrical release that aren\u2019t getting theatrical releases anymore,\u201d agrees David Garrett of Mister Smith Entertainment. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot out there looking for a home.\u201d<\/p>\n With fewer pay-one deals out there, Garrett argues, the field has \u201ckind of leveled,\u201d enabling newcomers to \u201cpick up a lot of high-profile or buzzy movies for little or no MG (minimum guarantee), then give it a limited theatrical release [and] put it on the digital platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n What is clear is that there are a new cohort of disruptors on the indie distribution scene, new players, large and small, trying to figure out what models can make the numbers work.<\/p>\n Row K Entertainment, launched this year by Media Capital Technologies and led by former Paramount\/Imax executive Megan Colligan, is one of the few trying to play in the wide-release space. The company planted a flag with an eight-figure U.S. deal for Jaume Collet-Serra\u2019s reimagining of 1990s actioner Cliffhanger<\/em>, starring Lily James and Pierce Brosnan.<\/p>\n Another is Black Bear, owned by billionaire Teddy Schwarzman, which has added an ambitious U.S. theatrical arm to its operations, which already span production, international sales and releasing divisions in U.K. and Canada. The company hired longtime Lionsgate distribution chief David Spitz to run domestic releasing and has signaled plans to handle up to a dozen films a year, ranging from specialty to 3,000-screen wide bows. Christy<\/em>\u2019s soft launch shows how tough that space can be, but Black Bear will be back at bat with Jason Statham\u2019s Shelter<\/em>, dated for Jan. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n The bigger established indies are still in the game, but both A24 and Neon are shifting strategy. A24 is leaning further into in-house production, taking bigger auteur and genre swings, testing the mid-budget waters, while Neon is doubling down on horror, led by its star director Osgood Perkins (Longlegs<\/em>, The Monkey<\/em>). This year\u2019s results have been mixed. A24\u2019s MMA drama The Smashing Machine<\/a>,<\/em> directed by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson, underperformed, but there is major box office, and Oscar buzz, around brother Josh\u2019s ping pong sports dramedy Marty Supreme<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> The Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet starrer hits U.S. theaters on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n Further down the food chain, a cohort of specialty \u201cpick-up artists\u201d is scouring festivals for gems the old system left behind. These are lean teams built for agility over overhead, which buy selectively and spend surgically, mainly on social media, targeting the younger cine-savvy audience, the Letterboxd generation, and monetize across windows without a guaranteed pay-one.<\/p>\n Jason Hellerstein\u2019s 1-2 Special fits the mold, launching with Urchin<\/em><\/a>, the directorial debut of Babygirl<\/em> actor Harris Dickinson (still in release, it has grossed around $200,000 to date) and with several festival titles \u2014 Ildik\u00f3 Enyedi\u2019s Venice competition entry Silent Friend<\/em>, Rade Jude\u2019s Dracula<\/em> and Kontinental \u201925<\/em> \u2014 on its upcoming slate.<\/p>\n Smaller micro-distributors are focusing on a specific market niche. Elizabeth Woodward\u2019s Willa, which has acquired Alonso Ruizpalacios\u2019 migrant worker drama La Cocina<\/em> and Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s Gaza-set Oscar contender The Voice of Hind Rajab<\/em>, specializes in titles with \u201csocial and cultural importance.\u201d Cartuna x Dweck is leaning into the weird, midnight-madness film crowd, with the acquisition of Grace Glowicki\u2019s low-budget horror comedy Dead Lover<\/em> out of SXSW. Chicago-based Watermelon Pictures<\/a>, run by brothers Badie and Hamza Ali, has carved out a space in Palestinian cinema with From Ground Zero<\/em> (2024), The Encampments <\/em>(2025) and Cherien Dabis\u2019 All That\u2019s Left of Yo<\/em>u, which the group will co-release with Dabis\u2019 new distribution company Visibility Films.<\/p>\n Faith-based distributor Angel Studios has shown the profit that can be found in underserved audiences. The Utah-based group\u2019s animated feature, The King of Kings<\/em>, grossed $60 million at the domestic box office, making it the most successful indie release of 2025 to date<\/p>\n The abundance of new domestic buyers means there are more homes for more movies.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are definitely more opportunities to place all of these different types of projects in the U.S. market now,\u201d says Charades co-founder Carole Baraton, who sold Urchin<\/em> to 1-2 Special and Julia Ducournau\u2019s Titane<\/em> follow-up Alpha<\/em> to Neon.<\/p>\n But at the top of the market, the performance of Die My Love, Christy<\/em> and The Smashing Machine<\/em> suggests taking indie titles wide is still a challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real issue is, if you\u2019re budget\u2019s too high, these [wide-release] models just don\u2019t work,\u201d notes one veteran producer\/sales agent. \u201cIf your film costs $25 million, what\u2019s the release plan that gets you\u2019re financiers paid back? The real challenge is less distribution than how to get, and keep, those budgets down.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s been a bruiser of a weekend for specialty releases. Mubi\u2019s Die My Love, Lynne Ramsay\u2019s psychological thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, stumbled out of the gate with an estimated $2.61 million on 1,983 screens \u2014 the company\u2019s widest push since The Substance. Black Bear\u2019s Christy, with Sydney Sweeney as women\u2019s boxing legend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2151819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[345291,363602,345266,411720,345290,411719,330682,39188,309386,31190],"class_list":["post-2151818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-black-bear","tag-christy","tag-christy-martin","tag-david-garrett","tag-david-spitz","tag-indie-distribution","tag-psychological-thriller","tag-robert-pattinson","tag-sydney-sweeney","tag-the-hollywood-reporter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/\u2018Christy-\u2018Die-My-Love-Stumbles-Highlight-Indie-Market-Reset.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2151818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2151820,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151818\/revisions\/2151820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2151819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2151818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2151818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2151818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}