John Wilson’s The History Of Concrete turned the IFC Center into the weekend’s specialty-box-office hot spot, opening to $90,000 over three days and setting a documentary benchmark at the New York theater.
The Magnolia release delivered the second-highest weekend gross in IFC Center’s 21-year history, trailing only Parasite, which posted $119,000 in 2019. Demand was strong enough that nearly every available ticket was sold across the weekend, including additional shows added Saturday afternoon for that night and Sunday.
Neal Block, Magnolia’s head of distribution and marketing, said the distributor already knew a breakout was possible before the weekend began. “We knew last week we had pre-sold about $60k in tickets and were on target for a really big weekend,” Block said. “And we kept adding in shows, and they kept selling out. Every show, every ticket.” He said he initially thought the film might reach $75,000 by Friday, but sellouts continued, including morning shows.
Magnolia acquired The History Of Concrete out of Sundance. Block credited the rush in part to Wilson’s profile with New York audiences. Wilson hosted the documentary comedy series How To With John Wilson, executive produced by Nathan Fielder, which ran on HBO for three seasons from 2020 to 2023. He also co-founded and helps run Low Cinema, a 42-seat micro-theater in Ridgewood, Queens.
The distributor also kept the film’s exposure limited between Sundance and opening weekend, with few screenings in the interim, a strategy Block said helped build anticipation. Audiences skewed young, landing in the 20s to mid-40s range. The History Of Concrete expands next week to about 40 screens in 15 markets, including Los Angeles and Brooklyn, before rolling out to 50 markets on a few hundred screens on Oct. 2.
The weekend also added to a busy run for Magnolia. Kent Jones’ Late Fame, starring Willem Dafoe, crossed $500,000 this weekend on 30 screens, reaching an estimated $523,000 cumulative total after opening Aug. 7 and continuing to play with an older arthouse audience. Maddie’s Secret, written by and starring John Early, opened in June and topped out at $1.2 million.
Faith-based releases share the top 10
Two films from faith-based distributors also landed side by side in the domestic top 10. Angel Studios’ Runner ranked No. 6 in its second week with $3.18 million from 2,472 screens, bringing its cumulative total to nearly $12 million.
Just behind it, EKKL Entertainment’s Daniel And The Fiery Furnace opened at No. 7 with $3.14 million from 1,520 screens. The PG-rated origin story of the Prophet Daniel stars Elijah Alexander and Mena Massoud and was directed by Daniel and Matthew Kooman.
The faith-based market on display this weekend ranged from scripture-based storytelling to inspirational and values-driven releases, as well as Angel’s Runner, described as a more mainstream action-comedy thriller built around a help-save-a-young-girl’s-life premise and starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson.
Daniel And The Fiery Furnace is among the first releases from Michael Scott’s new EKKL label, described as a rebrand of his Pinnacle Peak Pictures. Scott also co-founded the Pure Flix streaming service, which Sony acquired in 2020. He described faith-based film as a genre, like horror, with an enthusiastic audience that sees the movies as “good and clean” cinema and can bring multiple generations to theaters together.
While women 35 and older are typically key drivers for faith-based titles, Daniel skewed more male, with lions and fiery-furnace action. The film was shot in northern India near the Pakistan border and is intended as the first in a series from the Book of Daniel. EKKL also has a sister streaming service featuring audiobooks, podcasts, film content, and prayer and devotion.
Other specialty and wide-release results
Vertical’s The Weight cracked the No. 9 slot in its opening weekend. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe and marks Padraic McKinley’s feature directorial debut, launching on 1,504 screens. Vertical cited strong play at major chains nationwide, led by New York locations including AMC Lincoln Square, AMC 34th Street and Alamo Brooklyn, and Los Angeles locations including AMC Century City and AMC Burbank. The film also sold well in San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Nashville, West Palm Beach, Minneapolis and St. Louis, with outdoors-oriented markets overperforming in places including Twin Falls, Idaho; Traverse City, Michigan; Rapid City, South Dakota; and Billings, Montana.
Set in 1933 Oregon, The Weight is a survival epic featuring forests and wilderness captured by McKinley on hand-held digital equipment.
Among moderate and limited releases, If I Go Will They Miss Me posted an estimated $352,000 at 251 theaters in its second week, lifting its cumulative total above $400,000. The Rich Spirit release debuted last week with $40,000 exclusively at AMC Century City. The Sundance-premiering film stars Danielle Brooks and J Alphonse Nicholson, was directed by Walter Thompson-Hernandez, and is drawing awards attention for Brooks. It continues its theatrical run into October.
Greenwich Entertainment’s documentary You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (In a Canadian Kind of Way) opened to $20,000 in an exclusive run at New York’s Film Forum, selling out multiple shows and ranking among the theater’s biggest 2026 documentary openings. The TIFF-premiering film covers the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell, whose cast included Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner and Dave Thomas, with Victor Garber as Jesus and Paul Shaffer as musical director. It expands to about 100 theaters next week.
On the wider-release side, Roadside Attraction’s Buddy added $1.93 million on 1,532 screens in week four, reaching $24.8 million and becoming the company’s third-highest-grossing film. Neon’s Hope is eyeing an estimated $997,000 in week two from 1,400 locations, with an estimated domestic cume of $7.3 million through Sunday.
Gkids’ Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, a StudioCanal and Aardman production, opened to $1.9 million on 2,183 screens. The PG-rated animated film features the voices of John Sparkes and Justin Fletcher and is directed by Matthew Walker and Steve Cox. Focus Features and Blumhouse’s The Uprising grossed an estimated $1.2 million from 2,069 North American theaters in week two, bringing its estimated cume to $5.78 million. The medieval historical epic stars Andrew Garfield and was written and directed by Paul Greengrass.