‘The Worse Person in the World’ Revives Art House Box-Office
For much of the pandemic, specialty distributors had to abandon the usual New York-Los Angeles platform launch, but the practice is returning
Norway’s The Worst Person in the World has crossed the $2.7 million mark at the U.S. box-office, ahead of the 94th Oscar Awards ceremony on March 27, where it will compete for best international feature.
While that may not seem like an eye-popping gross, it is a major win for the revival of the art house box office.
It’s the most commercially successful of the five films competing for the international feature Oscar have earned to date in the U.S. (or globally).
U.S. specialty distributors — who don’t have access to the many millions needed for a nationwide release — launched their movies first in New York and Los Angeles. This allowed them to use word-of-mouth to build an audience and then slowly expand to other markets without having to pay a veritable fortune on advertising.
