‘Eighth Grade’ Will Screen for Free on Wednesday Night

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – A24 has set a night of free screenings for its critically acclaimed comedy-drama “Eighth Grade” on Wednesday at a total of 48 locations nationwide.

The distributor has also declared that there will no rating enforced for the showings of “,” which carries an R rating. The move comes with many students due to return to school from summer vacation in the coming weeks.

The film centers on an eighth-grader, played by Elsie Fisher, who deals with an array of struggles during her last week of classes before starting high school. “Eighth Grade” is written and directed by Bo Burnham in his feature-film directorial debut. Burnham has complained that the R-rating makes it impossible for eighth graders to see the film.

“Eighth Grade” has generated $6.5 million in four weeks in North America and finished in 12th place last weekend with $2.9 million at 1,084 locations — up from 158 on the previous weekend. It currently has a 98% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes with critics praising Burnham’s script and the performances by Fisher and Josh Hamilton, who plays her father,

The film premiered as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Peter Debruge of Variety wrote in his Sundance review , “Fisher has the unique challenge of making an average girl seem exceptional, tapping into that universally identifiable sense of vulnerability that shows plain as acne at that age.”