Per Theater Chart: Zero to $1 million in Nine Days

January 3, 2013

Zero Dark Thirty shot up to the top of the per theater chart with averages of $83,430 during its opening weekend and $63,283 during its sophomore stint. Expanding truly wide is virtually guaranteed. Amour was well back with an average of $20,005 over the past weekend and $22,755 during its opening weekend. The Impossible rose 27% to $12,172 in 15 theaters. This is a great sign and while its reviews are too low to be a major contender during Awards Season, it should still do well enough to expand significantly, but probably not truly wide. The final film in the $10,000 club was Django Unchained, which opened with an average of $10,008.

This week's new limited releases were not strong with Promised Land earning $190,000, but it was playing in 25 theaters, so its average was $6,957. That's good for a limited release playing in that many theaters; however, given the competition during Awards Season, it needed to be more than just good. West of Memphis was not as strong with an average of just $2,771 in five.

The previous week's new limited releases included On the Road. This film opened strongly with an average of $9,888 in four theaters. It might have grown to reach $10,000 this weekend, but IFC still have not released box office numbers. On the other hand, Not Fade Away will fade away. It opened with an average of $6,394 in three theaters, but when it expanded to 19 this past weekend, its average collapsed to $2,884.

There were a number of major milestones over the past two weeks, starting with...

  • Zero Dark Thirty has already reached the $1 million mark, and as you can probably tell from the headline, it took nine days to get there.
  • Hyde Park on the Hudson reached $1 million before the weekend and it has already reached $2 million. Its per theater average is strong enough to predict further significant expansion, but it won't expand truly wide.
  • It took a while, but Searching for Sugar Man made it to $3 million. That's as far as it will go, but this is a great run for a documentary.
  • Hitchcock topped $5 million since last time, but it is losing theaters at a fast pace, so it won't get much further.
  • Anna Karenina has reached the $10 million milestone, which is impressive. However, since it was obviously made to win awards, the studio was probably hoping for more.
  • Silver Linings Playbook was given a boost over the holidays and that helped it reach $25 million over the weekend, while it has likely already topped $30 million. At this point, it is hard to predict how far it will get, because a lot of that depends on how well it does during Awards Season. Even if it fizzles out, $40 million is very likely. If it turns into the big winner on Oscar night, it could double that.

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Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Theater Averages, Hitchcock, On the Road, Promised Land, The Impossible, Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained, Anna Karenina, Not Fade Away, Silver Linings Playbook, Hyde Park on Hudson, Searching for Sugar Man, West of Memphis, Amour