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An addendum to Sergio’s box office post… The psychological thriller, Repentance (previously titled Vipaka), which stars Forest WhitakerAnthony MackieSanaa LathanNicole Ari Parker and Mike Epps, opened in a limited theatrical release over the weekend, and managed to earn a respectable $530,000, playing on 152 screens, for an average of $3,487 per screen. The per-screen average is typically more indicative of box office strength, especially for opening weekend, when per-screen averages are expected to be strongest. Expanding to even more theaters, as should be expected during the second week of release, will probably dilute earnings averages even more. 

The film’s budget isn’t public info yet (at least I coudn’t find any record of it), so one can’t say whether it’s on its way to profitability or not. But given that it’s an indie, I doubt that it was more than a few million – likely less than $5 million.

Jeff Clanagan’s CodeBlack Films, via Lionsgate, are the film’s distributors.

Repentance made its world premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, UT, last year, and was the opening night film at the Pan African Film Festival the following February. 

The film’s official synopsis reads:

Years after a drunken car crash that almost took his life, Thomas Carter (Anthony Mackie) has reinvented himself as a therapist/spiritual advisor who advocates a synthesis of world religions and positivity. He’s parlayed this vocation into a successful book release that one day draws the attention of Angel Sanchez (Forest Whitaker), a profoundly troubled man fixated on the “untimely” death of his mother. When Carter takes on Sanchez as a personal client in an effort to raise funds for his indebted brother Ben (Mike Epps), things quickly take a turn for the worse. Angel needs much more than a simple life coach. What may be simple to grasp for some is the idea that single actions in the past comprise tidal waves of reactions in the present.

French/Lebanese director Philippe Caland (Boxing Helena) directed the film.

The Juntobox Films production was scripted by Shintaro Shimosawa, producer by Nina Yang Bongiovi, Whitaker and Calland. 

Read our review of it HERE

If you supported it over the weekend, what did you think of it?