Independent cinemas are seeing their busiest opening weekend in weeks, led by the filmed stage production Hadestown: The Musical and the revenge thriller Motor City. The releases signal a varied summer market for specialist distributors, spanning event cinema, crime drama and festival-backed genre films as awards season approaches.

Bleecker Street is showing Hadestown on 1,948 screens after strong demand expanded its originally limited five-night run; Thursday previews earned $1.5 million, and the distributor expects one of the biggest openings for a Broadway capture. Motor City opens on 1,600 screens, starring Alan Ritchson and Shailene Woodley in a 1970s Detroit revenge story, while Neon releases Nicolas Winding Refn’s Cannes-premiered psychological thriller Her Private Hell in 670 locations.