Doing Time on the Per Theater Chart
August 10, 2010
Leading the way on the per theater chart this weekend was Cairo Time with a healthy average of $13,249 in five theaters. The only other film to top $10,000 on the per theater chart was Avatar. Yes, that Avatar. It played in just one theater over the weekend and earned $10,511.
The rest of the new limited releases ranged from excellent to abysmal. On the high end was Lebanon with an average of $8,573 in two theaters. An excellent start. The Sicilian Girl opened with $5,922 in one theater, which should be enough to convince other theaters to book the film. The same can be said of The Wildest Dream and its average of $5,654 in 12 theaters. Flipped opened with an average of $4,983 in 45 theaters. This is right on the border between success and failure. If the word-of-mouth is strong, then maybe it will last long enough to expand. But if it drops even 40% next weekend, it won't last till its scheduled wide release. The Disappearance of Alice Creed did well, for a thriller, with an average of $4,026 in ten theaters.
There were three other new limited releases, all of which missed the Mendoza Line. The Middle Men opened with an average of just $1,292, but because it played in more than 250 theaters, it has an excuse. Excuses aside, the odds of it expanding truly wide are roughly zero. The Oxford Murders doesn't even have that excuse, as it earned just $1,191 playing in one theater. Finally, Twelve took in just $110,000 in 231 theaters for an average of $477.
This past week also saw milestones reached for a few Per Theater Charts alumni:
- C.S.Strowbridge
Filed under: Flipped, Middle Men, The Oxford Murders, Avatar, Flickan som lekte med elden, Twelve, The Wildest Dream, The Kids Are All Right, Lebanon, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Cairo Time