After a decided lack of limited releases that were able to expand and earn some mainstream success through most of the year, we've finally seen a number of such films that have come out recently. The latest was Milk which opened with a three-day per theater average of $40,385 while it has nearly $2 million after five days. Slumdog Millionaire again held extremely well, even taking into account the holiday, dipping just 7% to $27,470. There is little doubt it will expand greatly over the coming weeks, especially if it starts earning some Awards Season buzz. My Name is Bruce returned to the $10,000 club with $13,284 in one theater.

The best of the rest of the new releases was The Secret, but it struggled, earning an average of $2,791 in seven theaters. However, both Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! at $942 and Rome and Jewel at $470 missed the Mendoza Line by considerable margins.

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

• Dostana reached $1 million, but that's as far as it will go.
• Milk opened with more than $1 million, so it obviously made it to its first milestone already.
• Synecdoche, New York topped $2 million over the weekend, and it has an excellent shot at $3 million before too long.
• Slumdog Millionaire hit $2 million midweek and $3 million over the weekend.
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas continues to grow at the box office, hitting $5 million after just four weeks of release.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2008-12-02