EXCLUSIVE: A24 has dated two recent festival faves for theatrical release this summer: the Jenny Slate animated comedy Marcel the Shell With Shoes On on June 24 and the horror comedy feature Bodies Bodies Bodies on Aug. 5.
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On made its world premiere at Telluride last fall and recently played SXSW. The Dean Fleisher-Camp directed and co-written movie is the feature take of the animated short film, which centers around an interview with a mollusk named Marcel. Slate voices Marcel, and the pic also stars Isabella Rossellini, Thomas Mann, Rosa Salazar and Lesley Stahl. The pic off nine reviews is currently 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Other movies debuting on June 24 include Warner Bros.’ Elvis and Universal/Blumhouse’s The Black Phone.
Bodies Bodies Bodies follows a group of rich twentysomethings who plan a hurricane party at a remote family mansion. However, a party game goes awry in this fresh and funny look at backstabbing, fake friends. Halina Reijn directs, and Chace Sui Wonders, Amandla Stenberg, Rachel Sennott, Maria Bakalova, Lee Pace and Pete Davidson star. Twenty reviews out of the pic’s SXSW world premiere are at 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
On its August date, Bodies Bodies will share the marquee with rival comedies, Paramount’s Secret Headquarters and Universal’s Easter Sunday.
A24 has recently put the specialty box office back on the rails after the sector was in a funk during the pandemic: Their Daniels’ directed zany martial arts fantasy, Everything Everywhere All at Once, had a great hold Saturday into Sunday, -4%, with $348K for a second weekend of $1.078M at 38 theaters for a robust $28,3K theater average. The movie, which received a rapturous reception at its SXSW world premiere, counts $1.8M through ten days and expands to 1,200 theaters this weekend.
A24’s other SXSW treat, the horror movie X, counts a running domestic box office total of $10.4M through its third weekend.