Half Nelson was able to remain on top of the per theatre charts, barely, with an average of $18,755 in three theatres. That was less than $1,000 ahead of the second place film, The Illusionist and its $18,195 average; that figure is made even more impressive by the film's 51 theatre count, which is very high for a limited release and usually causes serious problems because the distributor can't do national advertising, but local advertising in lots of markets becomes very expensive.

For the third weekend in a row, The Wedding Curse's average topped $10,000 as it earned just over $50,000 in 3 theatres for an average of $17,271. Another holdover rounded out the list of $10,000 films as Viva Pedro saw its box office dip less than 24% to $10,227 in its lone theatre.

Just missing the $10,000 club was newcomer Factotum with nearly $60,000 in 6 theatres for an average of $9,869. Trust the Man was well back with an average of $4,744; this was a result of too many theatres and too few positive reviews. Vajra Sky Over Tibet was close behind with $4,471 in one theatre while 10th and Wolf earned an average of $3,462 in 6. The final new release of the week was The Pusher Trilogy, but it struggled with just $1,792 in its one theatre.

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

• Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna saw the typical drop-off of a niche market film, but it still pulled in enough to make it past $2 million over the weekend and should still have enough left in it to reach $3 million before the end of its run.
• Bon Cop, Bad Cop's weekend haul dipped below $1 million this weekend, but it still managed to hit $4 million during its theatrical run in Canada becoming one of the biggest local hits in that country in a long, long time. Will this be enough to get a release date in the States? In a word, no. The movie is half English and half French and deals with far too much Canadian cultural politics to be picked up south of the Border.
• A Scanner Darkly is shedding theatres, and has been for a while now, but that didn't stop it from reaching $5 million midweek. This will be the last milestone the film reaches and that is exactly what was predicted back at the beginning of July.
• Little Miss Sunshine again had its best weekend of its run, earning $5 million during the weekend alone. This pushed the film well past the $10 million milestone and it currently sits more than halfway to $15 million.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2006-08-22