A week after winning three Oscars, Moonlight has had its biggest weekend yet. Buoyed by its Best Picture win and the requisite post-Oscar-win expansion in theaters, Barry Jenkins’s drama has now grossed over $25 million total. Though Moonlight is the second-lowest-grossing Best Picture winner in Academy history (behind The Hurt Locker), its success is impressive: Its post-Oscars influx (it grossed $2.3 million over the weekend) is more than last year’s winner Spotlight, and it’s had greater box-office returns than other independent features with black casts. Moonlight’s success is also substantial for A24, the young studio building credibility with other unconventional indies (20th Century Women, Ex Machina, Swiss Army Man). You could say Moonlight’s on its way to being a classic, man.
