RuPaul's 'Stop That Train' Tops Weekend Specialty Slate
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- Bleecker Street's "Stop! That! Train!" opens on 1,161 screens with RuPaul as President Gagwell; the campy comedy from director Adam Shankman about train stewardesses (Ginger Minj, Jujubee) saving a derailing express holds an 86% Rotten Tomatoes score from 34 critic reviews.
- Film Movement debuts "Promised Sky" by French-Tunisian director Erige Sehiri at Film Forum in NYC, following its Cannes premiere and selection as opening film of the 33rd New York African Film Festival; the film follows an Ivorian pastor who opens her Tunisian home to three generations of migrant women.
- Variance Films' "O Horizon" starring Maria Bakalova and David Strathairn opens at the Quad Cinema in NYC; Madeleine Rotzler directs the magical-realist tale of a neuroscientist whose new technology lets her speak with her recently deceased father.
- Karla Murthy's documentary "The Gas Station Attendant" opens at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema in NYC, weaving recorded phone calls and home movies to trace her father's journey from India to working nights at an American gas station; it won Sheffield DocFest's Grand Jury Special Mention plus Best Documentary at the Nashville and San Diego Asian Film Festivals.
- Mubi, Rialto Pictures, Janus Films, Kino Lorber, and Altered Innocence each open Pride Month restorations: Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Amores Perros," "The Third Man," "I Shot Andy Warhol," "The Devil Queen," and "By Hook Or By Crook."
- The BTS World Tour 'Arirang' in Busan live viewing from Trafalgar beams to screens across North America and worldwide on Saturday.
Why it matters: The slate exposes the specialty market's split screen: Bleecker Street's 1,161-screen bet on RuPaul's camp comedy sits opposite single-screen NYC runs for Cannes-selected 'Promised Sky,' 'O Horizon' and 'The Gas Station Attendant' — roughly a 1,000-screen distribution gap within one weekend that captures how wider specialty comedies and prestige indie debuts are now operating on entirely different release strategies.
