Director Denis Villeneuve’s cerebral sci-fi pic Arrival has crossed the $100M mark at the worldwide box office. With $65.78M in North America and $35.13M internationally through Thursday, the current gross is $100.9M. The lyrical twist on the genre kicked off at the Venice Film Festival in September and has continued to find favor with audiences and awards bodies.
Paramount acquired the film for North America in a then-record $20M deal at the start of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. That splashy bet on the project — when it was titled Story Of Your Life, based on the 1998 short story by Ted Chiang — is paying off.
FilmNation Entertainment is the international sales agent for all offshore territories. Markets yet to open include France, Italy and Japan.
Starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, the film received 10 nominations on Thursday from the Critics Choice Awards, including for Best Picture, Director, Actress and Adapted Screenplay. It was also recently named to the National Board of Review’s Top Films of 2016. Adams received the National Board of Review’s Best Actress award and was honored by the 2016 Gotham Independent Film Awards with a career achievement honor.
Adams plays Louise Banks, an expert linguist who is recruited by the military after a dozen mysterious spacecraft referred to as “shells” begin to hover over Earth. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks must communicate with the aliens (or heptapods, or inkspots) to ascertain what they want and where they are from — but mostly if they are friend or foe.
The pensive and allegorical Arrival is currently in its 3rd week of domestic release at more than 2,400 locations. Entering the 4th week out in the UK via distributor eOne, the movie has grossed £7.73M ($9.6M) as of Thursday. It is now Villeneuve’s biggest title there, surpassing Prisoners and Sicario.
In Spain, where Arrival is released by Sony, it’s at $2.54M, similarly becoming a Villeneuve high-point. Same goes for Australia ($4.4M/Roadshow).
Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg and Mark O’Brien also star in the film from Paramount in association with FilmNation, Lava Bear Films and 21 Laps Entertainment. It’s produced by Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder and David Linde. Eric Heisserer wrote the screenplay.
