Ari Aster movie ‘Beau Is Afraid’ enjoys biggest indie box office opening of 2023
The new Ari Aster movie Beau Is Afraid, which stars Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role, has enjoyed the biggest independent Box Office opening of 2023 to date. The movie grossed $320,396 across four New York and Los Angeles screens. These sales translate to an impressive $80,099 per location, the biggest screen average of the year.
The A24 movie stars Phoenix in the lead role as an anxious middle-aged man who hits a rollercoaster of emotion as he faces his worst fears. The logline on IMDb reads: “Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.”
The movie’s opening box office success makes it the second-best per-screen average for A24 after the Safdie Brothers’ highly successful crime drama of 2019, Uncut Gems. The movie, starring Adam Sandler and Julia Fox, was a critical and commercial marvel.
In recent months, A24 has also found success with the Oscar-winning movies Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Whale, which saw huge box office returns. Meanwhile, Tár and Triangle of Sadness were critically favoured but struggled to gain traction with mainstream audiences.
Beau Is Afraid has been favoured by critics, but it has no doubt benefitted from Aster’s elevated status following his exemplary rise to popularity with his pioneering, disturbing yet highly accessible movies of 2018 and 2019, respectively, Midsommar and Hereditary.
Watch the trailer for Beau Is Afraid below.
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