The 50 Highest Grossing Indies of 2014
Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel” tops the below list of 2014’s fifty biggest indies, box office wise (and is Anderson’s highest grossing film ever), with nearly $60 million. It has been 2014’s top specialty title since back in the Spring, and in a rare feat ended up keeping it at year’s end.
Five other films managed to cross the $20 million mark in 2014 so far, with comedies “St. Vincent” and “Chef” and Oscar favorites “Boyhood,” “Birdman” and “The Theory of Everything” all doing so. Comparatively, this year the same amount of $20 million grossers as 2013, though notably “The Imitation Game” and “Wild” both ended the year within a few $100,000 of that mark. If 2014 had just one more day with those films, it’s likely it would have have eight $20 million grossers. The year did narrowly beat 2013 in terms of $10 million grossers (13 vs. 12), but fell behind compared to $5 million
grossers (20 vs. 23).
The highest grossing documentary was Dinesh D’Souza and John Sullivan’s right wing political film “America” at $14.4 million, followed by another conservative doc, “Meet The Mormons” ($5.9 milion) and Oscar frontrunner “Citizenfour” ($2.1 million). As for foreign language films, Indian import “PK” — the highest grossing film of all time in India — had grossed $7.9 million in North America by the end of the year, edging out Mexico’s “Cantinflas” ($6.3 million), India’s “The Lunchbox” ($4.2 million) and Poland’s “Ida” (3.7 million).
Note that the below list only includes North American grosses for specialty films — indie,
foreign and/or documentary — that opened in limited release
(initially under 500 screens) in 2014 and were released by an
independent distributor or a studio specialty division. It also includes
films that
screened only as an Academy-qualifier in 2013 (“Gloria,” etc). Grosses include all reported grosses up to December 31, 2014.
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox Searchlight) – $59,076,019
2. St. Vincent (The Weinstein Company) – $43,040,733
3. Chef (Open Road) – $31,424,003
4. Boyhood (IFC Films) – $24,214,829
5. Birdman (Fox Searchlight) – $24,084,829
6. The Theory of Everything (Focus) – $22,922,614
7. The Imitation Game (The Weinstein Company) – $19,919,000
8. Wild (Fox Searchlight) – $19,739,000
9. A Most Wanted Man (Roadside) – $17,237,244
10. Begin Again (The Weinstein Company) – $16,170,632
11. America (Lionsgate) – $14,444,502
12. Belle (Fox Searchlight) – $10,726,630
13. Magic In The Moonlight (Sony Pictures Classics) – $10,539,326
14. P.K. (UTV) – $7,866,268
15. Bad Words (Focus) – $7,779,614
16. Cantinflas (Pantelion/Lionsgate) – $6,382,924
17. Foxcatcher (Sony Pictures Classics) – $6,147,000
18. Meet The Mormons (Purdie) – $5,883,132
19. Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics) – $5,457,900
20. The Skeleton Twins (Roadside/Lionsgate) – $5,284,309
21. Snowpiercer (RADiUS-TWC) – $4,563,650
22. The Railway Man (Weinstein Company) – $4,438,438
23. Dear White People (Roadside Attractions) – $4,369,605
24. The Lunchbox (Sony Pictures Classics) – $4,235,151
25. My Old Lady (Cohen Media) – $3,990,794
26. Fading Gigolo (Millennium) – $3,769,873
27. Ida (Music Box) – $3,702,612
28. Calvary (Fox Searchlight) – $3,600,006
29. Wish I Was Here (Focus) – $3,591,299
30. What If (CBS Films) – $3,493,000
31. The Grand Seduction (eOne) – $3,430,018
32. Obvious Child (A24) – $3,123,963
33. Rosewater (Open Road) – $3,123,377
34. The Trip To Italy (IFC Films) – $2,873,758
35. The Fluffy Movie (Open Road) – $2,827,393
36. Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas (Samuel Goldwyn) – $2,778,297
37. The Raid 2 (Sony Pictures Classics) – $2,627,209
38. Under The Skin (A24) – $2,614,251
39. Bang Bang (FIP) – $2,546,172
40. Kick (UTV) – $2,472,695
41. Kill The Messenger (Focus) – $2,450,846
42. Oscar Nominated Short Films (Shorts HD) – 2,358,468
43. Love is Strange (Sony Pictures Classics) – $2,262,223
44. 2 States (UTV) – $2,238,174
45. Le Week-end (Music Box) – $2,225,098
46. Words and Pictures (Roadside Attractions) – $2,171,257
47. The Homesman (Saban/Roadside Attractions) – $2,158,069
48. Citizenfour (RADiUS-TWC) – $2,143,567
49. Gloria (Roadside Attractions) – $2,107,925
50. The Immigrant (The Weinstein Company) – $2,025,328
