MTV Documentary Films executives are likely dancing the salsa — and perhaps dipping chips in it — over the early returns from their new documentary “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!”
“¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” opened last night with just one showing on a single screen at a single Alamo Drafthouse location in Denver, but combined with pre-sales, the film already has a per-theater-average (PTA) of $19,296, IndieWire can reveal exclusively. The pre-sales figure alone, which by Thursday reached $15,600, was itself enough to have the best PTA of 2024 for a documentary, surpassing “War Game” ($15,200 on one screen) and “Eno” ($14,446 on one screen).
If the numbers persist throughout the weekend, “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” could have the largest PTA for any documentary since COVID. Since 2020, the only film that comes close to the numbers “Casa Bonita” projects to hit is 2023’s “Anselm,” which had a PTA of $21,000 across two theaters.
“¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” follows “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone as they buy and remodel Denver’s iconic Mexican restaurant Casa Bonita before it potentially closed forever. The duo had previously immortalized the establishment in a classic episode of “South Park.”
MTV Documentary Films, which is distributing “Casa Bonita,” didn’t even announce release plans until last week when the film screened at Telluride. (It made its premiere at Tribeca and won the New York festival’s audience award), but fans got the word out quickly. “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” is opening this weekend, Sept. 6 in Denver only, and will be opposite the much, much wider “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” will then expand to eight different markets across the U.S. on Sept. 13 before it lands on Paramount+ at some point later this fall.
Once the distributor saw how well it played at Tribeca, the decision was made to give it a targeted theatrical run that could sell out theaters and match that same audience experience. Michael Tuckman, who is handling distribution for MTV Documentary Films, told IndieWire the film had a very deliberate plan in its rollout and that the goal was to be selective rather than open it widely or “willy nilly” in the biggest markets.
The distributor first chose Denver, which is home to the real-life Casa Bonita restaurant, to appeal to the local audience. The other locations — like San Antonio, St. Louis, Austin, and Nashville — were each selected because they over-index with “South Park” fans. “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” is screening primarily at other Alamo Drafthouse locations.
But even Tuckman has been impressed by what the film has done in pre-sales in such a short time. Initially the film had just two screenings per day with a limit of 300 seats at the Alamo in Denver, but after some of those quickly sold out on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, other matinee and late evening shows have been added each day. Tuckman said he’s already seeing strong pre-sale numbers for the other markets like New York, LA, and Chicago, and depending on how it does, it’s not out of the question that it would extend theatrically even once it opens on Paramount+.
“Where is this going to work? How is this going to work? Are we sure that it’s working? Or are we getting ahead of ourselves,” Tuckman said his team has asked of itself. “Those are the things so far in which everything has really delivered on that delicate, deliberate approach.”
IndieWire gave “Casa Bonita” a positive review out of Telluride, saying the documentary has a surprising earnestness and charm from two guys generally known for taking a cynical eye to everything they lampoon.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to fathom this level of altruism coming from the voice of Eric Cartman,” the review reads. “But when Parker chokes up talking about the joy that he receives from watching children run around Casa Bonita while forging their own childhood memories, it’s hard not to believe him.”
Casa Bonita opened in 1974 in an unassuming strip mall but came to be known the “Disneyland of Mexican restaurants” thanks to its indoor waterfall, cliff divers, and haunted caves. The restaurant was featured in a 2003 episode of “South Park,” in which Cartman goes to unspeakable lengths just to get Kyle to take him there. It was scheduled to be closed forever, but Parker and Stone made a push to save it and wound up sinking over $30 million of their own money into what turns into a nightmarish restoration process. The film is directed by Arthur Bradford.
Documentaries have been slow to recover at the box office, with many of the most high-profile films reserved for streaming. Something like Amazon/MGM’s “The Blue Angels” that opened on IMAX screens has been a bright spot, grossing $2.5 million worldwide — itself a bonita performance — but that movie opened widely compared to “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!”
