Box Office: ‘NAZA,’ Documentary About Israel’s Attacks on Gaza That Was Too Hot for Distributors, Crosses $500,000 — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- NAZA crossed $500,000 at the domestic box office over two weeks of self-distributed release after prominent indie studios declined to carry the politically charged documentary, with Monday's total projected at $504,074.
- The film earned $125,000+ over its first eight days at New York's IFC Center, then expanded to 85 theaters across 30 North American cities, pulling in $298,240 over the three-day weekend and an estimated $378,200 over the four-day holiday.
- Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham — the "No Other Land" duo — built NAZA around anonymous IDF interviews detailing how AI and phone surveillance have been used to identify targets and cause mass civilian killings in Gaza.
- Venice Film Festival audiences gave NAZA a 25-minute ovation and awarded it the Special Jury Prize, with critics embracing it as a top Oscar documentary contender.
- Distribution is led by The Guardian and mk2, with free streaming on The Guardian's website beginning in November, extending reach beyond the theatrical run.
- Israeli officials mounted a backlash: IDF Chief Eyal Zamir pledged to use "every tool at our disposal" to halt the release, Netanyahu suggested stripping interviewees of citizenship, and the culture minister accused the filmmakers of "treason."
Why it matters: The $500K self-distributed haul, echoing the "No Other Land" Oscar-winning playbook, signals a viable arthouse path for politically toxic documentaries — while Netanyahu's threats of citizenship revocation against anonymous IDF whistleblowers mark an unprecedented escalation aimed at silencing future sources willing to speak about Gaza operations.
Ask SkimNews
