{"id":895774,"date":"2026-09-17T21:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/895774\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T21:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:32:13","slug":"john-wilsons-the-history-of-concrete-breaks-ifc-center-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/895774\/","title":{"rendered":"John Wilson’s ‘The History of Concrete’ Breaks IFC Center Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the premiere of Magnolia\u2019s \u201cThe History of Concrete,\u201d<\/a> filmmaker John Wilson<\/a> gamely posed inside a cement truck that idled outside the IFC Center and later donned a hard hat to take photographs. For good measure, an 125-pound poster made entirely from concrete was installed in the theater\u2019s lobby, an offbeat touch that perfectly matched the film<\/a>\u2018s idiosyncratic tone.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s promotional stunts have paid off. \u201cThe History of Concrete,\u201d which finds Wilson trying to tell the story of the construction material using a commercial Hallmark movie script formula<\/a>, has pre-sold more than $60,000 worth of tickets before the film even officially opens on September 18. That means \u201cThe History of Concrete<\/a>\u201d has scored the biggest opening weekend for a documentary in the history of the IFC Center.<\/p>\n

\"TORONTO,<\/a> \"The<\/a> <\/p>\n

The previous record-holder was Werner Herzog\u2019s \u201cCave of Forgotten Dreams,\u201d which earned $50,380 in 2011. For further context, other hit documentaries at the theater include \u201cSteal This Story, Please,\u201d which opened with $31,485 in April and \u201cWeiner,\u201d which did $38,550 worth of business during its opening weekend in 2016. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe History of Concrete\u201d is currently the 5th biggest opening weekend for any film ever at IFC Center, which is a testament to Wilson\u2019s popularity. The filmmaker has developed an intense following<\/a>, thanks to the comedy docuseries \u201cHow To with John Wilson,\u201d which wrapped up its three-season run in 2023. Magnolia acquired \u201cThe History of Concrete\u201d out of the Sundance Film Festival, where it was embraced by critics.<\/p>\n

The opening follows Magnolia\u2019s record-breaking summer release of John Early\u2019s \u201cMaddie\u2019s Secret,\u201d <\/a>which recently ended its theatrical run and is IFC Center\u2019s seventh biggest opener of all time. \u201cThe History of Concrete\u201d will expand to 20 markets including Los Angeles on September 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the premiere of Magnolia\u2019s \u201cThe History of Concrete,\u201d filmmaker John Wilson gamely posed inside a cement truck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,5604,134,1689,225512,344,225513],"class_list":["post-895774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-box-office","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-john-wilson","tag-movies","tag-the-history-of-concrete"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}