Per Theater Chart: Birdman has the Skies to Himself

November 5, 2014

Birdman poster

For the third weekend in a row, Birdman led the per theater chart. In fact, this week it was the only one in the $10,000 club earning an average of $10,348 in 231 screens. At this point, the film has already earned some measure of mainstream success, while it still has room to grow.

Many of the rest of the new limited releases were, well, were so bad that it almost seems mean talking about them. Leading the way were two documentaries, Showrunners and Revenge of the Mekons, which earned averages of $3,100 and $2,354 respectively. One could argue that Revenge had the better opening, because it debuted on Wednesday and earned $4,550 over five days. The rest of the new releases all missed the Mendoza Line, some by large margins. Plot for Peace earned an average of $1,277 in two theaters. Horns opened in more than 100 theaters, which turned out to be way too many, as its per theater average was an anemic $1,024. Up next was The Great Invisible with $783 in three theaters over the weekend, while it earned an average of $1,683 from Wednesday through Sunday. The ABCs of Death 2 opened in 17 theaters, but only managed an average of $237, while Missionary was right behind with an average of $212 in ten.

This past week also saw milestones reached for a few Per Theater Chart alumni:

  • Whiplash reached the $1 million milestone and it should be able to reach $2 million without too much difficulty.
  • Dear White People topped $2 million before the weekend and will likely get to $3 million before this coming weekend.
  • The Skeleton Twins hit $5 million over the weekend. That's as far as it will go, but this is a great run.
  • Birdman continues to expand and that helped it get all the way to $5 million over the weekend. This is more than the vast majority of limited releases end with and it should still see its theater count grow over the coming weeks.


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Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Theater Averages, The Skeleton Twins, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Whiplash, The ABC’s of Death 2, Dear White People, Horns, Revenge of the Mekons, The Great Invisible, Missionary, Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show, Plot for Peace