Little Miss Sunshine looks to shine a little brighter

This past weekend, Fox Searchlight's promising indie upstart Little Miss Sunshine managed to nearly crack the top ten at the domestic U.S. box office, despite only showing on 153 screens. With just over $2.6 million, Sunshine will be expanded to over 600 screens this coming weekend and more than 1,500 by Friday, August 25th.

Little Miss Sunshine has enjoyed nearly across-the-board positive reviews (the Online Film Critics Society, of which I'm a member, has given the film a 96% approval), in the wake of its acquisition at Sundance 2006. It's already tracking financially better than other breakthrough indie hits like Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite, and Brokeback Mountain.

In addition to its financial and critical success, awards talk looms as well. David Poland has pegged Steve Carrell, Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin as all having legitimate shots at garnering Oscar nominations next year, as well as Little Miss Sunshine being the likely Independent Spirit powerhouse. Critics group awards will be important for the film, as will a continued success at the box office.

Look for an essay review and possibly a feature article in The Film Journal in the near future.