Director duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, can expect to be courted by the biggest studios in the industry after the record-breaking success of their difficult-to-describe second feature together, Everything Everywhere All at Once. In its ninth weekend of release, the martial arts fantasy will become indie outfit A24’s highest grossing domestic release, with over $50 million in the bank.
Everything Everywhere All at Once edged out director Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird ($48.9 million) on Friday to become A24’s second-biggest domestic grosser. It should overtake the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems ($50.02 million) to claim the top spot by Sunday. Ari Aster’s debut horror film Hereditary remains A24’s highest-grossing release worldwide ($80 million) but it tapped out domestically with $44 million.
Starring Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once tells a multiverse-hopping love story filled with visual energy and narrative ambition. It pays homage to martial arts movies, black comedies, animation and sci-fi/fantasy epics. The film is currently playing in over 1,500 domestic theaters, after a careful platform release that began over two months ago, kick-started after a headline-grabbing premiere at the SXSW Film Festival.
The film was released in 10 theaters in its opening weekend, where it broke the record for the best per-theater average of the year ($50k). Everything Everywhere All At Once subsequently crossed over from specialty cinemas and made it to nationwide chains, all on the strength of positive word-of-mouth, a smart marketing campaign, and some truly spectacular reviews.
Describing it as “one of the most ambitious and bonkers films in recent memory,” Collider’s own Ross Bonaime wrote in his review, “Everything Everywhere All At Once is a bombardment of hot dog fingers, googly-eyes, Wong Kar-Wai homages, fanny packs incredibly strong pinkie fingers, talking rocks, the Nine Days song ‘Absolutely (Story of a Girl),' raccoons, the guy who played Santa Claus in I Think You Should Leave, and butt plugs.”
Daniels broke out with their 2016 absurdist black comedy Swiss Army Man, starring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe. Scheinert followed it up solo with 2019’s The Death of Dick Long. Both films were released by A24, which is dominating the ongoing Cannes Film Festival with multiple titles playing in various categories.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is expected to finish its ninth weekend at the domestic box office at the number six spot, behind fellow A24 release Men, directed by Alex Garland. Up next, the distributor has Marcel the Shell with Shoes On on June 24 and Bodies Bodies Bodies, which is set for August. Earlier in 2022, A24 debuted Josephine Decker’s The Sky is Everywhere on Apple TV+, Kogonada’s After Yang in theaters and on Showtime, and Ti West’s X exclusively in theaters.