The Casa Bonita Movie Is a Huge Hit in the One Theater Where It’s Playing

South Park fans and multimillion dollar novelty eatery enthusiasts are no doubt eagerly awaiting ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, the new documentary chronicling Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s efforts to restore the beloved Colorado restaurant to its former glory. 

Instead of being unceremoniously dumped onto streaming services like so many other documentaries these days, ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! is actually getting a theatrical release. In fact, it’s out right now — but only in one theater in Colorado.  

While the movie is coming to select cities on September 13th, it opened this past weekend at the Alamo Drafthouse in Denver, which isn’t far from the actual Casa Bonita. The hometown release was a huge hit even before it began, with booming presales prompting the theater to adjust its screening schedule from two showings a day to “4-5 shows, possibly with more to be added.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice occupied the Alamo’s largest auditorium, while ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! was relegated to the more modest 115-seat theater. But as reported by Deadline, it reportedly sold out every single screening, with the exception of “a dozen or so tickets over Saturday and Sunday morning shows.” 

This meant that ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! grossed $21,750, which is almost the maximum possible amount it could make given the size of the theater. To put that in perspective, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which made $110 million this weekend, boasted a per-screen average of $24,043, or not that much more. 

Of course, it was playing in many huge theaters, not one single tiny theater. And while this weekend’s box office was no doubt a success for the Arthur Bradford-directed documentary, the residents of Denver are also likely a tad more invested in the story of Casa Bonita than the average American moviegoer. Come to think of it, a lot of people may have gone to see the movie because it was way easier than actually trying to get dinner reservations at Casa Bonita. 

So just because it sold out the entire weekend in one Colorado theater doesn’t mean that ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! is going to be raking in Avatar-like dough once it’s released in more cities. That said, there are obviously a lot of South Park devotees who are anxious to see the film, especially because Bradford previously helmed 6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park, another documentary about Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s unnecessarily stress-filled work life. 

And as IndieWire pointed out, ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! won the audience award at the Tribeca Film Festival, so presumably it will have “wider appeal.” Plus, ticket prices are lower in the Denver area than in Los Angeles and New York, where it’s set to open this week.

Sadly, it doesn’t seem like any of the upcoming screenings are in 4DX theaters, which could have fully immersed audiences in the world of Casa Bonita by emitting the scent of fresh enchiladas and/or spraying the theater with asbestos.

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