Per Theater Chart: Zero to $1 million in Nine Days

January 3, 2013

Zero Dark Thirty shot up to the top of the per theater chart with averages of $83,430 during its opening weekend and $63,283 during its sophomore stint. Expanding truly wide is virtually guaranteed. Amour was well back with an average of $20,005 over the past weekend and $22,755 during its opening weekend. The Impossible rose 27% to $12,172 in 15 theaters. This is a great sign and while its reviews are too low to be a major contender during Awards Season, it should still do well enough to expand significantly, but probably not truly wide. The final film in the $10,000 club was Django Unchained, which opened with an average of $10,008.

This week's new limited releases were not strong with Promised Land earning $190,000, but it was playing in 25 theaters, so its average was $6,957. That's good for a limited release playing in that many theaters; however, given the competition during Awards Season, it needed to be more than just good. West of Memphis was not as strong with an average of just $2,771 in five.

The previous week's new limited releases included On the Road. This film opened strongly with an average of $9,888 in four theaters. It might have grown to reach $10,000 this weekend, but IFC still have not released box office numbers. On the other hand, Not Fade Away will fade away. It opened with an average of $6,394 in three theaters, but when it expanded to 19 this past weekend, its average collapsed to $2,884.

There were a number of major milestones over the past two weeks, starting with...

  • Zero Dark Thirty has already reached the $1 million mark, and as you can probably tell from the headline, it took nine days to get there.
  • Hyde Park on the Hudson reached $1 million before the weekend and it has already reached $2 million. Its per theater average is strong enough to predict further significant expansion, but it won't expand truly wide.
  • It took a while, but Searching for Sugar Man made it to $3 million. That's as far as it will go, but this is a great run for a documentary.
  • Hitchcock topped $5 million since last time, but it is losing theaters at a fast pace, so it won't get much further.
  • Anna Karenina has reached the $10 million milestone, which is impressive. However, since it was obviously made to win awards, the studio was probably hoping for more.
  • Silver Linings Playbook was given a boost over the holidays and that helped it reach $25 million over the weekend, while it has likely already topped $30 million. At this point, it is hard to predict how far it will get, because a lot of that depends on how well it does during Awards Season. Even if it fizzles out, $40 million is very likely. If it turns into the big winner on Oscar night, it could double that.

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Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Theater Averages