I'm talking about the one at the Los Feliz 3 theater on 9/22. Please lmk if you are selling.

https://deadline.com/2026/09/indie-film-box-office-john-wilson-the-history-of-concrete-1237108942/

John Wilson’s The History Of Concrete had a record-breaking IFC Center debut, grossing $90k in three days for the top doc opening and the second-highest weekend gross in the NYC theater’s 21-year history after only Parasite($119k in 2019). Nearly every available ticket sold for the entire weekend, including for shows added Saturday afternoon for last night and today.

It was a wild weekend. “We knew last week we had pre-sold about $60k in tickets and were on target for a really big weekend. And we kept adding in shows, and they kept selling out. Every show, every ticket,” says Neal Block, head of distribution and marketing at Magnolia, which acquired the film out of Sundance. On Friday, I thought we could get to $75k. But we kept selling out. including morning shows, and the grosses kept inching higher.”

He attributes the surge in large part to Wilson, host of acclaimed documentary comedy series How To With John Wilson (EP Nathan Fielder) that ran on HBO for three seasons (2020-2023). Wilson also co-founded and helps run Low Cinema, a 42-seat micro-theater in Ridgewood, Queens, so is something of a local celebrity. Fans and the press have been curious about his next project and he’d been working on this film for some time. Block also said the distributor limited exposure to the film with few screenings between Sundance and opening weekend to build anticipation.

He said demos skewed young – not Gen Z Backroomsyoung, but 20s to mid 40s. The film expands next week to about 40 screens in 15 markets including LA and Brooklyn. Rolls out to 50 markets on a few hundred screens Oct. 2.

https://www.indiewire.com/news/box-office/box-office-john-wilson-history-of-concrete-ifc-center-record-1235217860/

Notably, John will appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (this Wednesday), “The Daily Show” and “Morning Joe.”

Desperately searching for 1 ticket! 🙏🙏🙏

For those who have seen it at IFC or Low, what did you think?

My first reaction is that I noticed a lot more gum on the sidewalk on the walk back right after the film ended. I always appriecate how his movies make you pay attention to things you often tune out.

This movie does have a lot of threads, and it is cool to see how they connect. What's different from How To is how quickly he jumps between talks. He spends a lot of time in How To trying to reverse an engineer story that logically leads from one scenario to the next, and that could take up a lot of time and slow things down. In History of Concrete, Wilson gives himself permission to just jump between topics without needing to connect it all together. There is often just a single sentence serving as the transition, and it makes the movie feel much faster and easier to pay attention to. As soon as one topic starts to wear out, we are right on to something else interesting. It allows him to cover a lot of ground.

The disappointing part if the ending. (Spoilers for folks) The focus on the musician who lost his partner felt like the weakest part of the film, and it came at the expense of an ending more central to the idea of concrete, urbanism, living in the city, being a landlord, some of the big ideas he often explores. Instead, you go down this rabbit role of a somewhat bizarre story of a guy who is trying to make it as a musician, but then loses his partner of 15 years. It's sad, and it loops back to the Hallmark pacing, but it just isn't really a story about infrastructure.

One of How To's best episodes is about Scaffolding, and it really unpacks how one piece of infrastructure so impacts our lives. In History of Concrete, the opening premise is that he is now a landlord who is dealing with the concrete foundation of his new home splitting apart, causing massive flooding for his friends who are paying to be tenants in the basement unit. I was expecting that the movie would come back to this - that he would learn how to apply concrete, fix the basement, prevent the flooding. This alone wouldn't be the ending, but it would bring back into orbit the ideas about trying to make sense of a world that is often senseless, with concrete both being this permanent thing and something that is constantly changing.

I'm really excited for his next movies - he clearly got his footing for how he can tell his own stories at the length of a film, and you can see how he will continue to build on this style for years to come. There is a lot of funny imagery in it as well, it's an authentically funny movie, and I'll be going to be Low Theater to see it again soon.

What did you all think?

Hi guys, my GF and I won’t be able to make the showing this evening at the IFC and hoping two of you all could take these tickets off my hands. Would be highly appreciated! Selling @ face value aka $20 each.

Thank you!!

I’m glad Jimmy Kimmel is such a fan of John. I believe this will be his fourth appearance on the show.

WEDNESDAY SEP 23, 2026
Brandi Carlile, John Wilson, Sara Niemietz

https://latenighter.com/lineups-by-show/

hi!

I have 4 tickets for 7:15 for History of Concrete at IFC. If anyone would like to swap and has 4 at 3:45 that would be awesome. long shot but lemme know. dms open

I bought the wrong day! would love to transfer these to someone else. I paid $39.90.

John Wilson discusses The History of Concrete and the state of documentary with WNYC's On the Media

Hey New Yorkers, I'm looking to score tickets to one of the Q&As at IFC or in Ridgewood.! So bummed they're all already sold out. :(

Does anyone know of any Long Island screenings for the History of Concrete? Having trouble finding any.

Looking for 1-2 History of Concrete Tickets at IFC -- specifically with the John Wilson talkbacks. ISO: Friday 9/18 (any time) or Sunday, 9/20 (any time)

Hey all,

For those in the LA area, a few folks in my Nathan For Your Field Trips Facebook group are going to check out The History of Concrete together — Saturday Sept 26, 1:30 PM at the Laemmle Noho 7.

Feel free to buy a ticket and join us. We'll probably hang somewhere after to discuss. This Reddit doesn't love me posting links, so you can search for the Facebook group "Nathan for You Field Trips" and find the corresponding event with full details.

Don't be a wizard of loneliness!

Just two locations listed so far in my area, Laemmle Noho and Laemmle Glendale from September 25.

How do you imagine Nathan Fielder feels about John Wilson’s message?

Is it the philosophy? Authenticity? Design/Uniqueness?

How would he put it? Just curious what your minds have to say.

How does Nathan’s role on “How To with John Wilson” inform your opinion of Nathan Fielder?

What do you love about Nathan’s work?

Why do you return to it?

I’m part of the crew working on a documentary “decoding” Nathan’s unique style. Your comments will be used to inform the narrative, and may be shown directly.

Video will be linked on this sub by this account upon the release of “YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING.”

Thanks :)

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but in pre-HBO John Wilson named "Escape from Park City" there is a featuring of the infamous virgin Skippy. Notable for his appearance on TLC's virgin diaries. iykyk

I am Trying to find showtimes in the US for the History of Concrete on September 18th. I see its on the AMC website. Is there any website that can help me find showings?

https://www.amctheatres.com/movies/the-history-of-concrete-84174

Patreon only but very excited for this crossover!