This couldn’t have happened to a funnier film.
After a buzzy six-screen debut last weekend, Andrew DeYoung’s “Friendship” pulled in a spectacular $1.4M from just 60 theaters in its second frame — landing in the domestic top 10 with a jaw-dropping $23K per-theater average. That brings its North American haul to over $2M — and it’s just getting started. There is now a strategic nationwide rollout planned for Memorial Day weekend.
The offbeat, R-rated comedy stars Tim Robinson as Craig, a buttoned-up suburban dad whose mundane life gets thrown into chaos when Austin (Paul Rudd), a wildly eccentric local weatherman, moves in next door. What follows is a surreal, side-splitting bromance that plays like a gonzo riff on “I Love You, Man.”
After premiering at TIFF’s Midnight Madness last fall — where I named it one of the 10 best films I saw at the festival — A24 quickly scooped up “Friendship” in a deal reportedly worth seven figures. Since then, word of mouth has been growing, with an 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes and rapturous exit polling across the board.
In “Friendship,” the laughs are big, weird, and often totally unhinged — with surreal gags and awkward character beats that could only come from the twisted comedic brain behind “I Think You Should Leave.”
For Robinson, “Friendship” marks his first leading role in a feature, and it’s a triumphant one. He and Rudd are a killer combo, supported by a sharp supporting turn from Kate Mara and a script that leans into the absurd at every opportunity.
If you like your comedies weird, wild, and totally unfiltered — “Friendship” is one of the most gut-busting and original releases of the year. Here’s the trailer.