Per Theater Chart: New Releases are Strong

December 28, 2010

There was a real battle for top spot on the per theater chart with Country Strong just coming out on top with an average of $17,321 in 2 theaters. That's a pretty good start, but I'm not sure it will be enough to get a truly wide release. Somewhere was right behind with an average of $17,012 in 7 theaters. However, one could argue it had a better opening, since it was playing in more theaters and opened on Wednesday, thus diluting its weekend average. The final film to reach the $10,000 mark was The Illusionist with an average of $12,865 in 3 theaters, but that was over just two days.

The other two new limited releases we have numbers for did not make much of an impact at the box office. Both Summer Wars and Nenette missed the Mendoza Line at $1,412 and $1,176 respectively.

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

• The King's Speech expanded significantly for the first time, which helped it reach $5 million over the weekend. At this pace, it will have no trouble getting to $10 million by this weekend, and $15 million shortly afterward. Where it goes from there depends heavily on how many major awards it can pick up.
• Black Swan expanded semi-wide on Wednesday, which helped it hit $20 million before the weekend and $25 million during the weekend. Likewise, it will have little trouble reaching at least another couple major milestones, while its long range future depends heavily on the number of awards it wins.

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Theater Averages, Somewhere, L'illusionniste, Black Swan, The King’s Speech, Country Strong, Samâ uôzu, Nénette