PUNCHING UP

How No Other Land became an unlikely box office success

- MARC TRACY

No Other Land has racked up festival awards, critical acclaim and the Oscar for best documentary feature. Yet the film, a narrative expose about Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes directed by two Palestinian and two Israelis, has also been acquired by a traditional North American distributor.

This is partly a reflection of the collapse of studio interest in newsy documentaries and hesitance surrounding a movie that condemns Israeli policies.

But as the filmmakers rolled out the movie without the marketing muscle and prestige of a typical release, it has flourished. By the admittedly parched standards of post-pandemic theatrical releases of topical documentaries, it is a hit.

No Other Land has been a top 25 film each of the past three weeks since its Oscar win, according to film database Box Office Mojo, with ticket sales set to eclipse US$2 million (67.8 million baht) domestically by the end of next weekend. It was playing on 140 screens across the country last weekend, a small number when compared to the thousands of a studio blockbuster, but robust given the circumstances. (The film’s theatrical rights have been acquired in more than 20 other countries.)

"Documentaries are having a harder time theatrically these days," said Connie White, who has programmed No Other Land at a dozen theatres from Brookline, Massachusetts, and Pleasantville, New York, to Tucson, Arizona, and Omaha, Nebraska. "This is remarkable."