Kinds Of Kindness Seeks To Become Poor Things 2.0 At The Box Office

Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone have emerged as quite the duo in recent years. The director and actress managed to turn both "The Favourite" and "Poor Things" into rare, original box office hits that also went on to garner some major awards season love. Now, they're back together again with another dark comedy in the form of "Kinds of Kindness," which is rolling out in select theaters next weekend before expanding nationwide in the coming weeks. The question is, can Lanthimos and Stone pull off a hat trick and go three for three?

Disney's Searchlight Pictures is making a couple of wise decisions regarding "Kinds of Kindness." For one, it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to build some buzz, with Jesse Plemons winning Best Actor for his work in the film. That has teed up the ball for a limited release next weekend, with Lanthimos' latest work playing in a few key markets to help build even more buzz before rolling out across the country. This platform release used to be far more common before the pandemic. It's the same strategy that helped make "Poor Things" an unexpected hit last year, with the film taking in $117 million worldwide. It actually made a tiny bit more than Disney's high-profile "Haunted Mansion" remake, which is truly surprising.

The key thing here is that it's going to be a marathon, not a sprint, assuming things go well. "Poor Things" never topped $3 million on a single weekend, yet it legged out to $34.5 million domestically. That's precisely what Searchlight is hoping to accomplish with "Kinds of Kindness." We're not going to see a big number on any given weekend, but if it plays out like the studio hopes, the slow and steady ticket sales will add up in the end. 

Billed as a triptych fable, "Kinds of Kindness" follows several different narrative threads, including a man trying to take control of his own life, a cop whose wife has returned after going missing at sea, and a woman searching for a specific someone with a special ability. The star-studded cast also includes Willem Dafoe ("Asteroid City"), Margaret Qualley ("Drive-Away Dolls"), Hong Chau ("The Menu"), Mamoudou Athie ("Elemental"), and Hunter Schafer ("Euphoria").

Even though we're in the middle of summer, this movie is benefiting from a lack of serious competition. Jeff Nichols' long-delayed "The Bikeriders" and Russell Crowe's "The Exorcism" — not to be confused with "The Pope's Exorcist" – are hitting theaters next weekend as well. There's no risk of immediately getting steamrolled by a blockbuster, save for "Inside Out 2" in its second weekend, though that one does figure to be a big hit. In the coming weeks, the duo of Lanthimos and Stone will have to contend with "A Quiet Place: Day One," "Horizon: An American Saga," "Despicable Me 4," and "Twisters," among others.

This is why the platform strategy makes sense. Searchlight isn't banking on a single weekend, but is playing the long game here. Frankly, given Disney's commitment to dumping would-be Fox films straight to Hulu, it's nice that this one is getting a theatrical release at all.

Working in the film's favor is critical reception. "Kinds of Kindness" currently boasts an 81% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Whether audiences agree with critics on this one remains a big question, but Stone is coming off of a Best Actress win for "Poor Things," which will undoubtedly help matters. Lanthimos made a couple of surprisingly audience-friendly yet unique films with "The Favourite" and "Poor Things." If his latest is cut from a similar cloth, "Kinds of Kindness" could be a sneaky summer hit. If it's closer to "The Lobster" or "Killing of a Sacred Deer," its commercial prospects are likely to be more limited.

"Kinds of Kindness" hits theaters on June 21, 2024.