Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s horror film The Rental tops weekend box office with $421K… as many theaters remain shut due to coronavirus
Dave Franco proved he has talents beyond his acting skills when his directorial debut The Rental topped the weekend box office.
The horror film earned nearly $420,871 as of Sunday morning from only 251 open theaters, according to Deadline.
Much of the remaining top ten was made up of older films in rerelease, as studios are loathe to release many new films with so few theaters open.
Box office champ: Dave Franco claimed the number one box office spot over the weekend with the horror flick The Rental
Franco, who’s best known for his comic acting, sat out The Rental, which is led by his wife Alison Brie and Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens.
The scary movie brought in an average of $1,677 dollars per theater and currently holds an impressive 72 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite the film’s modest budget and indie background, it became only the second new release to top the box office following the success of Trolls World Tour.
Part of the movie’s success came from drive-in theaters, though they only make up about one-third of all theaters currently open.
‘I have been truly fortunate to have a partner in IFC Films whose agility and creativity during this time has allowed us to have this incredible moment for our film,’ Franco wrote in a statement. ‘As a first time filmmaker, I’m beyond grateful to the audiences who supported us this weekend.’
Starting on top: The Rental is Franco’s directorial debut and stars his wife Alison Brie, whom he married in 2017 after dating for five years; pictured in 2018
Star power: Brie stars opposite Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens. The film was only the second new release to top the box office since Trolls World Tour’s success
IFC Films Executive Vice President of Film Acquisitions and Production Arianna Bocco weighed in on the movie’s path to theaters.
‘We acquired this movie when we already knew there was a shutdown, and when we pitched Dave, [producer] Teddy [Schwarzman] and everyone our plan, we weren’t going to let the virus control. We’re going to do the best that we can in a hybrid drive-in, PVOD model.
‘We treated the film as we would with any other title, booking talent on Fallon and doing press. We had the first pop-up premiere in LA, and we thought outside the box. The one goal was to get as many people to see the movie and the result was best case scenario, and we couldn’t be more thrilled,’ she wrote.
Franco and his lead actress Brie have been together since 2012, and they married in a private ceremony in 2017.
Earlier this month, the brother of James Franco revealed that he and his wife had written a romantic comedy in quarantine, which he planned to direct with her starring in it.
Idyllic: Brie and Stevens lead the film as Michelle and Charlie, a married couple who rent an oceanside property for a weekend getaway with Charlie’s brother and his girlfriend
Spooky: But the couples soon find evidence that someone sinister in the isolated seaside area is spying on them
Success: The film earned nearly $421K as of Sunday morning, an impressive amount for an indie film
Brie and Stevens lead the film as Michelle and Charlie, a married couple who rent an oceanside property for a weekend getaway with Charlie’s brother and his girlfriend.
But the couples soon find evidence that someone sinister in the isolated seaside area is spying on them.
In addition to directing, Franco co-wrote the screenplay with indie auteur Joe Swanberg, best known for directing Drinking Buddies and the Netflix series Easy.
Coming in behind The Rental were rereleases of The Karate Kid, The Goonies, Jurassic Park, the new release The Big Ugly and Zootopia.