SPELLBOUND BOX OFFICE BREAKS INTO TOP TEN

Documentary Becomes 7th Highest Grossing Documentary of All Time

July 8, 2003 -- New York, NY –

SPELLBOUND, the Academy Award-nominated documentary released by specialty distributor THINKFilm has become the 7th top grossing documentary film of all time. For the period ending July 6, 2003, the film has grossed $3,142,829. in limited release.

SPELLBOUND remains one of the top performing films at art houses all over the country, having held this position since its opening weekend in markets such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas and Detroit.

THINKFilm President and CEO Jeff Sackman says, “We are thrilled that SPELLBOUND has already cracked the top ten and we owe a lot to this incredibly inspiring film which enabled us to get an Oscar nomination our first year out. Its impossible to predict how far SPELLBOUND will go.”

Directed by Jeffrey Blitz and Produced by Sean Welch, both first-time filmmakers, SPELLBOUND was acquired by THINKFilm at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. The film, which chronicles the experiences of eight teenagers who compete in the annual National Spelling Bee Championship in Washington, D.C., has gone on to win numerous audience and jury prizes at regional festivals around the country. SPELLBOUND took in $334,626 over the holiday weekend for a per screen average of $3,066 placing the gross box office take at $3,166,900.

This places the film ahead of such documentary hits as “Crumb” (*$3.04 million), “Unzipped” (*$2.84) and “When We Were Kings” (*$2.78). *according to 2003 Nielsen EDI, Top-Grossing Feature-Length Documentaries (excludes concert and large-screen format films).

THINKFilm also has Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s THE HEART OF ME starring Helena Bonham Carter and Paul Bettany in current release. Recent THINKFilm releases include the Matt Damon, Casey Affleck starrer GERRY directed by Gus Van Sant and Gabriele Muccino’s Italian drama THE LAST KISS which won the World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance.

THINKFilm has three films set to bow in the Fall. They are: Thom Fitzgerald’s THE EVENT, starring Olympia Dukakis and Parker Posey; Jose Padilha’s BUS 174, a gripping documentary which focuses on a tragic bus hijacking in Rio De Janeiro, and Danish helmer Lone Scherfig’s (“Italian for Beginners”) bittersweet romance titled WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF. In addition to the Oscar nomination for SPELLBOUND, THINKFilm earned five IFP Independent Spirit Award nominations and one win for Peter Care, the director of THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS which was produced by Jodie Foster. Other past THINKFilm releases include TIME OUT, WORLD TRAVELER and THE MYSTIC MASSEUR.

THINKFilm is a privately held independent film distributor with offices in Toronto and New York City.

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