Mafioso narrowly topped the Per Theater Chart this weekend in second weekend of re-release with an average of $11,118. Salaam-e-Ishq - A Tribute to Love was right behind it, with just under $1 million in 86 theaters for an average of $11,035. Early reports actually had Salaam-e-Ishq topping the chart, but its total gross to date includes $60,000 earned on Thursday. Without that money, it wasn't quite able to hold on to top spot. The only other film to top $10,000 was Breaking and Entering with an average of $10,580 in two theaters.

Other new releases this week were well back, including Seraphim Falls and Sacco and Vanzetti at $2,992 and $2,778 retrospectively. Nether of those results were worth celebrating, but they were miles ahead of Funney Money and the $460 it earned in its lone theater.

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

• Fast Food Nation finally hit $1 million midweek, but that is as far as it will go.
• Salaam-e-Ishq - A Tribute to Love, as already noted, passed the $1 million mark by the end of its first weekend in release.
• Little Children reached $4 million over the weekend and should have enough left in it to reach $5 million.
• Letters from Iwo Jima made it to $5 million over the weekend and isn't done yet. However, it will have difficulty expanding much past this point unless it wins some Oscars.
• Pan's Labyrinth hit $10 million midweek, $15 million during the weekend, and is a dead lock to reach $20 million by this time next week.
• The Queen has topped $40 million at the box office, but with a theater count of more than 1,800, it has no officially graduated from this list.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2007-01-30