Little Miss Sunshine earned $370,000 over the weekend and nearly $500,000 since its Wednesday debut, all in just 7 theatres for an outstanding per theatre average of $52,969. Another Gay Movie overcame terrible reviews to finish in second place with an average of $16,658 in two theatres. Both 13 Tzameti and Wondrous Oblivion finished within $100 of each other with $10,805 and $10,740 respectively, both in 1 theatre.

Three other new releases earned reasonable starts with America: Freedom to Fascism being the best of the rest earning an average of $6,120 in 10 theatres. Scoop was the biggest limited release of the week earning 14th place with just over $3 million and an average of $5,663; its ability to expand will be limited, but with a $4 million production budget, it's almost guaranteed to earn a profit at this point. Finally there was I Like Killing Flies with $5,487 in its lone theatre. That film is too local to expand far regardless of its per theatre average.

This past week also saw milestones reached for a few Per Theatre Charts alumni:

• As mentioned, Scoop opened with $3 million over the weekend and therefore topped its first three milestones along the way.
• A Scanner Darkly has held on better than expected, reaching $4 million over the weekend and should have little trouble hitting $5 million before long.
• An Inconvenient Truth became only the fifth non-IMAX documentary to reach $20 million at the box office, but the fourth released within the past four years to do so.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2006-08-01