Per Theater Chart: Grand Still the Grandest of Them All

March 19, 2014

Despite expanding from 4 to 66 theaters, The Grand Budapest Hotel held on well enough to lead the per theater chart with ease. In fact, its average of $55,122 was the second best per theater average for the year, behind only its opening weekend. Bad Words came in second place with an average of $18,884 in six theaters. This is a good opening, but not one that suggests it could naturally expand wide. Fortunately, the film already has a wide release scheduled and as the ad campaign for the wide release ramps up, it should at least become a midlevel hit when compared to its production budget. Enemy was right behind with an estimated $18,000 in its lone theater. Le Week-End was the final film in the $10,000 club as it earned an average of $14,536 in three theaters during its opening weekend of release.

There were quite a few other new limited releases on this week's chart, several of which earned a strong opening weekend, others did not so well. Teenage opened with $8,000 in its lone theater. Another documentary, Big Men, was right behind with $7,539, again in one theater. Meanwhile, The Retrival was also only playing in one theater and it earned $7,232. Veronica Mars was the widest limited release of the week and it earned just under $2 million in 291 theaters for an average of $6,833. On the other hand, the rest were middling, at best. The Word opened with $3,648 in one theater, which isn't terrible. Better Living Through Chemistry's opening really was terrible with an average of $761 in 61 theaters. The Art of the Steal was next with an average of $661 in 60 theaters. It had opened in Canada a while ago and was playing on Video on Demand, so a lot of people who wanted to see it had a long chance to see it, but this is still a bad start. The Right Kind of Wrong was the final limited release of the week, as it only managed $593 in one theater.

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

• Repentance reached $1 million over the weekend, but it is already collapsing, so that's as far as it will go.
• Tim's Vermeer just reached $1 million over the weekend, but it is doing well enough that $2 million is likely. That's an amazing run for a documentary.
• Veronica Mars earned more than $1 million during its opening weekend and reached $2 million on Monday.
• The Grand Budapest Hotel reached $1 million on Thursday and by the end of the weekend was over $4 million.
• The Wind Rises got to $4 million over the weekend and $5 million isn't out of the question.
• Her hit $20 million just before the weekend and it might get to $25 million in the end, but it will need to win an Oscar or two.
• 12 Years a Slave has reached $55 million, which is more than the Evil Dead remake made and it is nearly as much as Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunter earned in total.

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Theater Averages, Better Living Through Chemistry, 12 Years a Slave, Bad Words, Her, Teenage, Le Week-End, The Art of the Steal, The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ), The Grand Budapest Hotel, Repentance, Veronica Mars, Tim's Vermeer, The Retrieval, Enemy, The Right Kind of Wrong, Big Men, The Word