Oct 30, 2024

Memoir Of A Snail” Posted the Second Highest Per-Theater Average at the Weekend Box Office

Adam Elliott's Memoir of a Snail got off to a great start in five theaters in Los Angeles and New York last weekend, posting the second highest per-theater average of any film currently in theaters.

The IFC Films production earned $64,816 at five theaters for a per-theater average of $12,963, second only to “Anora,” which averaged $26,730 at 34 theaters.

“Memoir of a Snail” will expand to other major markets this weekend, followed by a national expansion in November. The film premiered in Annecy last June, where it won the Crystal Award for Best Feature Film, the top prize at the BFI London Film Festival, and the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize at Animation is Film.

It is difficult to predict how Elliott's film will fare in the U.S., and the prediction is made even more difficult by the fact that “Memoirs” is (very oddly) rated R. The MPA did so based on “sexual content, nudity and some violent content.” rating, but I don't feel that the film deserves such a rating tonally--and I also feel that it would be wrong to rate body parts sculpted in lumpy, cartoon proportions out of clay with the same scrutiny as the live-action anatomy of a human actor.

Further complicating box office predictions is the almost complete absence of competition for adult-centric stop-motion films: $9.99, directed by Tatia Rosenthal; Bob Spit: We Do Not Like People, directed by Cesar Cabral, (The Wolf House, directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cochinha, among others). Elliott's own previous film, “Mary and Max,” was also not released theatrically in the U.S., so no clues are available.

Thus, there are only two examples of R-rated (or equivalent) adult stop-motion films that have been released theatrically.