‘Buddy’ Busts Out, Scares Up No. 6 Spot, Sets Record For Roadside Attractions, Saban – Specialty Box Office
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- Buddy, a dark comedy from Roadside Attractions and Saban Films, debuted at #6 at the domestic box office with $5.36M on 1,258 screens, more than doubling its $2.5M tracking estimate
- The film marks Roadside Attractions' largest opening since Covid and its second-largest ever, behind only I Can Only Imagine ($17M, 2018), and is Saban Films' top opening in the distributor's 12-year history
- It's Roadside's first major horror release and the highest 2026 opening weekend for any film released on under 1,800 screens
- Casper Kelly's feature directorial debut is an R-rated parody of a surreal '90s kids' show, with a giant orange unicorn host voiced by Keegan-Michael Key who turns bad; it world-premiered at Sundance's Midnight section to underwhelming response with no buyers
- Producers Raphael Margules and J.D. Lifshitz of BoulderLight Pictures (behind Weapons and Barbarian) shot the film over 25 days in Cleveland on a modest budget; the producers have since been tapped to run a new genre label at Paramount
- Roadside's social-first campaign — a Buddy persona with 450k followers and 150M views, 25k Fan Club text members, three viral teasers (no full trailer), and stunts at Comic-Con and Times Square — connected with audiences skewing 83% under 35 and 37% Hispanic
Why it matters: Roadside and Saban picked up 'Buddy' at Sundance after every major buyer passed, and its tracking-doubling debut gives both distributors their biggest result in years — Roadside's largest opening since Covid and Saban's top opening in its 12-year history. The film's audience breakdown (83% under 35, 37% Hispanic) and social-media-first marketing — built around a Buddy persona that generated 150M views without a traditional trailer — shows a viable specialty-release playbook distinct from the mainstream tentpole coverage dominating this weekend's headlines.
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