Matt Johnson's Tony opened on August 7 in six theaters in New York and Los Angeles, earning $349,000. Three weeks later, it sits at number 7 on the domestic chart.
A24's film expanded to 1,652 screens this weekend, earning $5 million and bringing its cumulative domestic total to $6.6 million, according to Deadline. A production source pegged the budget at under $15 million. The film holds a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes across 198 reviews and a 75 on Metacritic.
Tony imagines the summer that made Anthony Bourdain. Dominic Sessa plays a 19-year-old Bourdain who, after failing to secure a writing fellowship, ends up washing dishes at a Provincetown, Massachusetts seafood restaurant. Antonio Banderas plays Chef José Vatel. The screenplay by Todd Bartels and Lou Howe was a 2024 Black List selection, drawn from Bourdain's 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential.
For Johnson, a Canadian filmmaker best known for the TV series Nirvanna the Band the Show, Tony is his first American feature and the first film he hasn't starred in himself. The Wall Street Journal called it “The unshowy dedication to craft is a marvel, and so is much else in this crystalline little film.”
A24 is having one of its stronger summers. Backrooms earned $396.6 million globally; The Invite crossed $25.5 million domestically. Tony is a different kind of win. Under $15 million. Six theaters to start. Now on 1,652 screens.