"Beasts" brings in audiences.
And now, the weekend at the art house box office!
After winning as much as it could on the festival circuit, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” finally hit theaters and did well in extremely limited release. Fox Searchlight wants those of you who are keeping track to know that Beasts director Benh Zeitlin places 6th in the all-time limited release hierarchy for a first-time feature filmmaker. It expands to 19 theaters next week. The other new big opening (big being a relative term) was Sarah Polley’s “Take This Waltz,” which opened in 2 New York theaters and 28 in Polley’s native Canada. Deadline notes that although the $5000 per location looks modest, the numbers for the 2 New York theaters are actually very good, $26000 each.
“To Rome with Love” expanded to 29 theaters and held reasonably well. So much for my dire predictions of poor word of mouth killing that one.
Here are the numbers, courtesy of Deadline.
NEW
1. Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight) New [4 Theaters] Weekend $169K Average $42,309
2. Take This Waltz (Magnolia Pictures) New [30 Theaters] Weekend $150K Average $5K
3. Unforgivable (Strand Releasing) New [5 Theaters] Weekend $29,886 Average $5,977
4. Neal Young Journeys (Magnolia Pictures) New [3 Theaters] Weekend $13,280 Average $4,427
Returning / 2nd Weekend
1. To Rome With Love (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 2 [29 Theaters] Weekend $750K Average $25,874, Cume $1.291M
Holdovers / 3RD+ Weekends
1. Moonrise Kingdom (Focus Features) Week 6 [854 Theaters] Weekend $4.87M, Average $5,706 Cume $18.4M
2. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox Searchlight) Week 9 [534 Theaters] Weekend $1.065M, Average $1,994, Cume $40.385M
3. Safety Not Guaranteed (FilmDistrict) Week 4 [164 Theaters] Weekend $380K, Average $2,317, Cume $1.684M
