Per Theater Chart: Mother of God!

September 18, 2013

It was a busy week in terms of limited releases, not only with number of new releases, but the success of most of these releases. Mother of George was the top film with $22,456 in one theater. Final: The Rapture earned an average of $15,942 in two theaters, which is an impressive opening for a film with no reviews. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here. Wadjda opened in three theaters, earning an average of $13,751. This film has some Oscar buzz going for it, so it might last in theaters longer than most similar releases. Blue Caprice also has some Oscar buzz and its opening of $13,400 in one theater might help it thrive as well. The overall box office leader, Insidious Chapter 2, opened in fifth place on the per theater chart with an average of $13,208. GMO OMG earned $13,000 in its lone theater, but its reviews are only mixed, so it likely won't last long. Salinger fell 48% to $11,252, while still playing in four theaters. It is likely it won't be able to expand significantly given this decline.

There were a few other new limited releases, a couple of which did really well. The Investigator opened with an average of $8,517 while playing in 11 theaters. That's a strong average for that number of theaters. Herb and Dorothy 50X50, the follow-up to Herb and Dorothy, opened with $6,157 in one theaters. While those films did well, there were three that missed the Mendoza Line. Informant earned an average of $1,474 in two theaters. Jayne Mansfield's Car was well back with an average of $847 in 11 theaters. Finally, Plush was stuck at the bottom with an average of $284 in ten.

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

• The Ultimate Life opened below the Mendoza Line last week, but it was playing in enough theaters that it managed to get to $1 million this weekend. Its theater count will likely collapse this weekend; in fact, I was surprised it didn't collapse last weekend. This makes getting to more milestones unlikely.
• Austenland has held on a lot better than I anticipated given its reviews, so much so that in the past weekend, it reached $1 million. It might last long enough to get to $2 million, but given its per theater average, it will likely shed theaters too fast for that to happen.
• In a World... surpassed $2 million over the weekend and it might get to $3 million.
• The Grandmaster got to $5 million last Monday, but its per theater average has collapsed, so that's as far as it will go.
• The Spectacular Now reached $5 million just before the weekend, but that's as far as it will go.
• The Way Way Back just made it to $20 million over the weekend. It is now ahead of Broken City and closing in on The Big Wedding.

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Theater Averages, Jayne Mansfield's Car, Insidious Chapter 2, Wadjda, The Way Way Back, Yi dai zong shi, The Spectacular Now, Salinger, In a World..., Austenland, Mother of George, The Ultimate Life, Blue Caprice, Plush, Herb & Dorothy 50X50, The Investigator, GMO OMG, Informant, Final: The Rapture