Bow down to Marty Moser.
A24’s “Marty Supreme,” a sports drama starring Timothee Chalamet as fictional table tennis champion Marty Moser, cracked the top 10 domestically with $875,000 while playing on just six screens. This is the result of 92 sold-out screenings across four theaters in New York City and Los Angeles. (Incidentally, Disney’s political drama Ella McKay grossed much less over the weekend (about $480,000), even though its second film had a much stronger screen count of 2,500 screens.
“This first performance will definitely usher in continued success,” says Sean Robbins, director of film analysis at Fandango.
The studio said “Marty Supreme” had initial ticket sales of $145,933 per theater, the highest per-screen average (PSA) of the year, the largest PSA in A24 history, and the highest PSA for a platform release since the 2016 box office hit “La La Land.” PSA is a key indicator for independent films that play in a small number of theaters rather than a few thousand across the country. The goal is to build awareness and excitement before the film expands its theatrical reach. In that regard, the platform debut of “Marty Supreme” should bode very well ahead of the film’s nationwide expansion on Christmas Day. That’s encouraging, since “Marty Supreme” has a budget of roughly $70 million.
“History has shown us that when a film like this expands widely, a huge success in limited release doesn’t necessarily translate into a big box office hit,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at ComScore. “However, Timothée Chalamet’s star power and the interest in ‘Marty Supreme’ among Gen Z moviegoers should work in its favor.”
So far, Chalamet has taken a masterclass in getting the story out of the original film. That’s no small feat in 2025, when most indie films are no longer released theatrically. He’s captured the attention of the social media masses by gifting his famous friends with 1950s-style windbreakers, sending Nickelodeon Orange blimps around the country, advertising in the Sphere in Las Vegas, and turning the refrain “Marty Supreme. Christmas Day” into a mantra. Directed by Josh Safdie (“Uncut Gems”), “Marty Supreme” is a frenetic R-rated comedy of errors about young Marty Moser pursuing his dream of becoming a table tennis champion.
“Timothée Chalamet is the ‘it guy’ right now, there’s no denying that,” says exhibitor relations analyst Jeff Bock. “The promotional work he’s done on this film is high-level genius. He knows it’s all about social consciousness. That’s what creates viral moments, and A24 is a way to get publicity without a big budget.”
Over the weekend, Chalamet made a surprise stop at a screening of “Marty Supreme” in New York City and revealed plans for more drop-ins next week. “For your information, we’ll be doing this at every screening for the next four days,” he told an audience member on Friday. “Then he played 128 games in 96 hours.”
For many moviegoers in Manhattan, the chance to see the one-of-a-kind Chalamet live is worth the price of admission. The question now is what kind of enthusiasm for “Marty Supreme” will there be outside of New York City?
