Dave Franco’s Movie ‘The Rental’ With Wife Alison Brie Tops Weekend Box Office

Dave Franco’s new film, “The Rental” starring his wife Alison Brie is the no. 1 movie at the weekend box office.

The horror film, which was shown in 251 theaters, made $420,871 over the weekend. On average, the film earned around $1,677 per theater, Deadline reports.

In 2019, the top movie during the last weekend of July was Disney’s “The Lion King.” Box Office Mojo reported that the film pulled in more than $76 million between July 26 to July 28.

Meanwhile, during the last weekend in February, before theaters closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic, “The Invisible Man” was no. 1 at the box office. From Feb. 8 to March 1, the movie reportedly pulled in over $28 million.

Following Franco’s directorial debut, the actor expressed his happiness over the film’s success. “I have been truly fortunate to have a partner in IFC Films whose agility and creativity during this time has allowed us to have this incredible moment for our film,” he said in a statement.

“As a first-time filmmaker, I’m beyond grateful to the audiences who supported us this weekend.”

Arianna Bocco, the IFC Films EVP of Film Acquisitions and Production, also admitted that she was grateful for drive-in movie theaters, which helped contribute to the movie’s success amid the rising COVID-19 cases.

“We acquired this movie when we already knew there was a shutdown, and when we pitched Dave [Franco], [producer] Teddy [Schwarzman] and every one our plan, we weren’t going to let the virus control. We’re going to do the best that we can in a hybrid drive-in, PVOD model,” she revealed.

“We treated the film as we would with any other title, booking talent on Fallon and doing press. We had the first pop-up premiere in LA, and we thought outside the box. The one goal was to get as many people to see the movie and the result was best-case scenario, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.”