The Hurt Locker did something most films about the Iraq War have not been able to do: succeed at the box office. During its opening weekend it earned close to $150,000 in just four theaters for an average of $36,338. The overall number one film, Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen, managed second place with an average of $25,736, and nearly double that since Wednesday. Meanwhile, last week's number one film on the per theater average, Whatever Works, landed in third with $10,280.

New releases included a couple of other films that did well on the per theater chart, despite high theater counts. This includes New York with an average of $7,795 in 60 theaters, while Cheri managed an average of $5,338 in 76. Meanwhile, The Stoning of Soraya M. was relatively close behind with $4,261 in 27 theaters. Afghan Star opened with $3,671 in one theater, while Quiet Chaos earned $3,190, also in one theater. Surveillance just beat the Mendoza line with an average of $2,295 in two theaters, but the genre and its previous VOD premiere explains that performance. Gooby opened with $706 in five theaters over the weekend for an average of just $141, but it has $3,234 in total.

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

• Is Anybody There? reached $2 million, but that's as far as it will go.
• Easy Virtue also reached $2 million, and it has a shot as $3 million.
• The Brothers Bloom managed to get to $3 million since last week, but that is likely as far as it will go. That said, $3 million isn't bad for a limited release.
• Finally, Away We Go now has $4 million, and while further significant expansion at this point seems unlikely, reaching $5 million is not.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2009-06-30