Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” opened in just five theaters this weekend but ended up getting the second best per-theater-average of the year. Reitman’s film debuted at $265K, a great $53K per theater, that’s the second-best limited opening of the year, right behind June’s “Kinds Of Kindness” which also opened in 5 theaters (to a $75K PTA).
This is good news for Reitman’s film which, despite getting rousing audience reactions at Telluride and TIFF, has been struggling a bit with critics (61 on Metacritic). Is it still an Oscar contender? Many pundits still have it in their top 10, and given the fairly weak year, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up getting a best picture nomination.
Taking place in “real time,” 90 minutes before the first Saturday Night Live episode aired on October 11, 1975, Reitman’s film tackles the young comedians and writers who attempted to launch the skit-based show. It stars Cooper Hoffman, Gabriel LaBelle, Nicholas Braun, Willem Dafoe, JK Simmons and many more.
This is basically Reitman’s riff on Inarritu’s “Birdman” — lots of long takes that exude constant comic tension. “Saturday Night” is a also a very humorous film, and the one-liners keep coming at a feverish pace. There’s not much depth to the whole thing, but it’s an entertaining film.