Marathon box office run puts City Island with Andy Garcia in the black

Good things come to those who wait … and also to those who have an eighteen week run at the box office. City Island starring Andy Garcia and Alan Arkin was a little known independent film that had a modest $32,000 opening on its first weekend in March 2010. With a $6 million cost to produce, it was cheap by studio standards, but expensive considering it was never really destined to have a wide release.

Director Raymond de Felitta can now breathe a sigh of relief. Domestic gross receipts are $6.5 million and total receipts are $7.5 million including foreign markets. Instrumental to its performance is a healthy eighteen week run. Excluding Imax theaters and including movies grossing over $1 million, only Avatar is currently having a longer run. City Island is now playing in 49 theaters.

City Island topped out at 269 theaters, respectable for a smaller independent film, but again, potentially deadly if the budget rises above $5 million. When fledgling distributor Anchor Bay Films is factored in, its performance becomes something of a minor miracle. Low budget studios such as Fox Seachlight, Newline Cinema and Lionsgate are offshoots of major studios and have the clout to manage distribution and marketing of a film, hopefully letting it perform to its maximum potential.

Of course the bottom line of any film is whether or not it’s any good. That portion of City Island’s performance is not a mystery. A Tribecca audience winner, it has the always solid performances of Andy Garcia and Alan Arkin and a quirky character driven story that has garnered strong reviews. Andy Garcia plays the father of a working class family whose members speak the truth when they shouldn’t and lie to stay out of trouble. It uses City Island New York as its location. City Island is an enclave of the Bronx known for its small town feel and seafood restaurants.

City Island the movie is Anchor Bay Films best performing film to date. Their next highest performer, Solitary Man starring Michael Douglas, brought in $4 million on a budget of $15 million. All other Anchor Bay Films have had grosses of $300,000 or less.