Specialty Box Office: 'kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck' Primes Hbo Pump, Russell Crowe's 'water Diviner' Is Spotty

The weekend's standout by far is music biodoc "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck," which is using theaters successfully to promote its near-term HBO debut. Whatever the strategic play involved, its strong numbers suggests that taking advantage of a mixture of top theaters and early home availability is one future course for high-profile wider-interest specialized films. Also notable is the strong initial response to another rock-based documentary, "Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock 'n' Roll" (Argot), which is off to a great start at New York's Film Forum. Among expanders, A24 continues its winning streak as "Ex Machina" takes sixth place with $5.4 million and "While We're Young" adds another $1 million. Opening "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck" (HBO) - Criticwire: A-; Metacritic: 82; Festivals include: Sundance, Berlin, Miami, Hot Docs 2015 $(est.) 150,000 in 3 theaters; PSA (per...