'The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry', 'Polite Society'

Source: David Gennard/eOne, Sundance Film Festival

‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry’, ‘Polite Society’

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry is the widest release across the UK’s three-day bank holiday weekend, walking into 643 locations for eOne, with no franchise new releases in the mix.

Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton star in Hettie Macdonald’s feature, about a seemingly unremarkable man in his 60s who embarks on a 450-mile mission to see his friend who is dying in a hospice.

Broadbent recently demonstrated his ongoing box office appeal in Roger Michell’s The Duke, which brought in £941,975 in its first weekend for Pathé in February 2022, playing in 659 locations for a respectable average of £1,429.

Sony is hoping to pack a punch with Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story Of The Once And Future Heavyweight Champion Of The World, which will enter 456 locations. The biopic is directed by George Tillman Jr and sees Khris Davis as US boxer Foreman, with Forest Whitaker also starring.

Universal has Polite Society at 454 locations. The Sundance premiere, which was also the closing night film for Glasgow Film Festival, is the feature debut of Nida Manzoor, the creator of Channel 4 and Peacock series We Are Lady Parts. Polite Society is an action comedy about an aspiring stuntwoman who tries to wreck her older sister’s wedding day in the name of freedom and sisterhood. Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya lead the cast.

Trafalgar Releasing has an ‘as live’ showing of Terence Blanchard’s boxing opera Champion, from New York’s Met Opera. The story is based on the life of former world welterweight champion Emile Griffith. It will play at 124 cinemas, with Trafalgar releasing in the UK only. Most showings are on Saturday (April 29), with a few encores on Sunday. 

Motocross drama and Cannes 2022 premiere Rodeo is being unleashed in 30 sites for Curzon. The Cannes 2022 title is directed by French filmmaker Lola Quivoron.

My Everest is out for Bohemia Media at 17 locations. The documentary is the feature debut of Carl Woods, and follows a physically disabled man who sets out to trek to Mount Everest base camp on horseback.

Dogwoof has Sundance title Little Richard: I Am Everything at 16 sites. Lisa Cortes’s documentary pays tribute to the rock’n’roll trailblazer Little Richard, featuring interviews with Mick Jagger, Tom Jones, Billy Porter and Nile Rodgers.

Tull Stories’ Berg opens at 11 spots. Dutch director Joke Olthaar’s documentary, set in the Slovenian mountains, premiered at Rotterdam in 2021.

Verve Pictures has documentary Leaving To Remain at three sites. It follows three Roma living in the UK, with close ties to central Europe, as their lives are transformed by the combination of Brexit and Covid.

BFI Distribution has a re-release of 1986 title The Passion Of Remembrance – a groundbreaking look at the black British experience in the 1980s – and 1991 thriller and queer romance Young Soul Rebels at two sites apiece.

French filmmaker Emmanuelle Nicot’s debut feature Love According To Dalva is out this weekend for 606 Distribution, following its world premiere last year at Cannes. It follows a young girl as she is removed from her father and put into foster care.  

Key holdovers include The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Universal); Evil Dead Rise (Studiocanal); Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (eOne); John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate); and Air (Warner Bros).