The Future of the Per Theater Chart

August 3, 2011

Miranda July's second film, The Future, opened about as well as her first film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, did. It earned $27,137 in its lone theater, which was enough for top spot on the per theater chart and suggests a strong potential for expansion. The Devil's Double and The Guard were in a virtual tie with averages of $19,283 and $19,209 respectively. Attack the Block was one of the wider limited releases of the week, and it had the biggest opening in terms of raw dollars. Furthermore, its average of $17,198 suggest potential to expand. El Bulli: Cooking in Progress opened in one theater earning $12,756 over the weekend and $20,699 since Wednesday. Sarah's Key expanded from 5 theaters to 33, but still managed a very strong per theater average of $11,112. The final film to cross the $10,000 per theater average was The Smurfs at $10,489.

The next best new limited release was Point Blank with an average of $6,839 in six theaters. Life in a Day earned $45,202 in 11 theaters for an average of $4,109; however, it made almost as much as that during the midweek, so that is a mitigating factor. Finally, Good Neighbors opened poorly with an average of just $984 in three theaters.

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

• Buck continues to have better legs than expected and it reached $3 million over the weekend. At this pace, you can't rule out $4 million, but it will be tough.
• Beginners got all the way to $5 million over the weekend, but that's as far as it will go.
• Born to be Wild 3D surpassed $10 million just before the weekend, making it one of the biggest limited release hits of the year, and the second biggest documentary of the year.

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Theater Averages, The Smurfs, Beginners, The Guard, Elle s'appelait Sarah, Born to be Wild 3D, Attack the Block, Life in a Day, Buck, The Future, The Devil's Double, Good Neighbors, A bout portant, El Bulli: Cooking in Progress