Casper Kelly’s horror comedy Buddy pulled off one of the rarest tricks in theatrical distribution over Labor Day weekend, selling more tickets in its second weekend than it did in its first. Deadline’s Sunday estimates put the film at 5.7 million dollars across the traditional three day frame, an increase of roughly 6 percent over its opening, with 7.2 million dollars across the full four day holiday window and a running domestic total of 15.7 million dollars by the end of Labor Day Monday. Second weekend increases are uncommon for any wide release, and they are rarer still in horror, a genre built to draw its audience up front.
Part of the explanation is footprint. Roadside Attractions and Saban Films widened the release to 1,771 locations for the holiday, an addition of 513 theaters, after TDN reported earlier this week that the film was picking up screens and showtimes heading into the long weekend. The rest of the explanation is word of mouth. Friday landed at 1.52 million dollars, down 31 percent from opening Friday, and then Saturday and Sunday both climbed above 2 million dollars, the shape of a movie audiences are actively recommending to one another rather than one coasting on an opening night crowd.
For its distributors, this is turning into a landmark release. When the film opened at number six domestically with 5.46 million dollars from 1,277 theaters on August 28, it already stood as the best opening for Roadside Attractions since the pandemic and the second best in the company’s 23 year history, along with the biggest opening ever for Saban Films. Deadline now projects Buddy could finish as the second or third highest grossing release in Roadside’s entire catalog, behind I Can Only Imagine at 83.4 million dollars domestic and ahead of either Judy at 24.3 million dollars or The Peanut Butter Falcon at 20.4 million dollars. The trade also reports the marketing spend behind the Sundance acquisition came in under 5 million dollars, which makes this one of the most efficient theatrical plays of the year.
Reviews have continued to climb alongside the grosses. Buddy now sits at 89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 123 critics, up from the mid eighties where it started, with a critics consensus praising how the film turns the conventions of children’s television into something inventive and unsettling. The young ensemble has drawn steady praise since the first wave of reviews landed on opening day, with Delaney Quinn’s work as Freddy a recurring point of appreciation among critics. Exit polling continues to show a young audience, with moviegoers under 25 making up 44 percent of the crowd and the 18 to 34 bracket driving 73 percent of business, and 55 percent of attendees saying they would definitely recommend it.
The campaign has stayed just as committed as the film. Roadside and Saban have run the entire rollout in character, letting the orange unicorn speak for himself across social accounts, text messages and public appearances, and that approach has kept producing stories of its own. Buddy was turned away from Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights in a stunt that Deadline itself flagged in its weekend report, and last week one of Barney’s longtime voice actors shared his honest reaction to the movie after initially joking that he had no intention of seeing it.
Kelly’s feature directorial debut, which TDN previewed ahead of its release, premiered in the Midnight section at Sundance in January without a buyer attached. Roughly seven months later it is holding its own against studio tentpoles in a record setting summer, on a fraction of their screen count and a fraction of their marketing budget. Buddy is still playing nationwide, and with a third weekend ahead and no drop off yet in sight, the little orange unicorn appears to have plenty of run left.